During the 1980s, then President Ronald Reagan often chastised the then Communist government of the Soviet Union for having such a high number of prison inmates in proportion to their general population. Now that the Soviet “yoke” has been removed, Russia has greatly reduced its ratio of prisoners per capita. Although they still rank second world-wide, I applaud their efforts at reforming their penal system and laws.

The United States, in the meantime has caught up and surpassed the old Soviet Union for ratio of prisoners to general population. The USA, the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave now houses more prisoner per capita than any other nation on earth – at 715 per 100,000 the US holds more than the old USSR (NationMaster.com) and almost twice as many as second ranked Russia.

And why is this? Because during the Reagan/Bush years, the US passed several laws concerning dangerous drugs such as Marijuana, Cocaine, and Heroin. These laws inflicted upon our citizenry mandatory prison sentences – even for first “offenses.” Until very recently, a conviction for selling marijuana could land you in jail for life without parole in some States – while in those same States, murderers were sometimes released after just 7 years “with good behavior” – a few of whom returned after murdering again.

“The vast majority of people incarcerated [in the US] are nonviolent drug offenders,” says Daniel Kruger, research professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and lead researcher in a recently published study on the negative health effects of such incarceration on the general public. “We should shift oversight of substance use and abuse to the health care sector.”

I’m not for or against legalization of any currently unlawful drug. I’m just suggesting – maybe demanding – that our legislators lift the draconian imposition of mandatory sentences for non-violent crimes – particularly those of unlawful drug use and possession.It’s time to return judicial discretion (and mercy) to the Bench.

I think perhaps it’s time to look to the French and others who are leading the way in providing effective treatment for drug users – rather than locking them away in prisons. A person addicted to some substance should not be labeled a criminal. They need instead, medical and psychological assistance – compassion! Instead, our [US] system deals out “justice” – of the harsh variety reminiscent of dark ages Europe or Communist USSR.

It’s time we scientifically INVESTIGATE substances that have been labeled unlawful and dangerous. Let’s put some science behind our laws – instead of puffy rhetoric and emotional storytelling – not to mention greed and avarice. We owe it to our children to keep them out of jail for illusory and often sensationalized “offenses” that harm no one – where incarceration harms them, their families, and their communities.

Have you visited a prison lately? If your state prisons are like those here in Oregon, you’d have to call them “schools” for criminal behavior. Unfortunately, many of those convicted of nonviolent crimes “graduate” from our prison systems with new “skills” and “education” – to the detriment of everyone.

I hope we are not literally slitting our own throats in the USA by jailing nonviolent drug “offenders” along side violent psychopaths in a prison system intended to “rehabilitate” but which in actuality may be creating more determined and more violent behaviors in people who otherwise would be contributing members of our society.

I wonder what would happen in the US if getting “stoned” were considered no more a crime than getting drunk – and if physicians were free to prescribe what would work rather than what would make the most money for certain people/corporations/industries. I wonder…

Maybe it’s time to “release the [nonviolent] prisoners” as President Reagan admonished President Gorbechev in the 1980s. It’s time we return the USA to the Land of the Free rather than continue making it the Land of the Incarcerated. It’s time to stop making criminals out of decent people who have harmed no one and have and can yet make significant contributions to our society.