ISSUE 1 2013
ESTABLISHED IN AMSTERDAM, 1985
18+ For adults only. Soft Secrets is published six times a year by Discover Publishers USA, Inc.
Incarceration Nation
In This Issue:
Higher States of Consciousness
›› 6
BREAKING THE TABOO: This compelling documentary reveals how we have all been caught in the crossfire of the global War on Drugs – at tremendous human and financial cost. ›› 8
Depression and Cannabis
›› 14
SEND IN THE MINIONS: Bugs in your garden do not have to be a bad thing. We explain how predatory insects are used as organic pest control. ›› 15
Outdoor Growing ›› 21
Numbers are flying across the airwaves as of late, and while firearm statistics currently dominate the headlines, Cannabis arrests are also, thankfully, becoming a topic of mainstream conversation. The human cost of the War on Drugs in America has reached epidemic proportions, with families experiencing devastating separation, lost wages, frozen assets and ruined reputations due to Cannabis convictions. With recreational pot legal in two states, how is this still happening? Why does such a disparity between the almost nonchalant attitude towards pot in some states, and the harsh sentences imposed in others, remain? The Marijuana Policy Project (www.mpp.org) points out that while Americans account for about 5% of the planet’s population, our inmates constitute nearly 25% of the world’s prisoners. In a recent ‘webisode’ of American Savage (‘42 Seconds: Pot Legalization and Marijuana Reform’; www.takepart.com), Dan Savage reminded viewers that the United States government forgoes $40 $100 billion in annual tax revenue by continuing the drug war – not to mention the tens of billions spent per year on the arrest, booking/processing, incarceration, trying and punishment/rehabilitation of non-violent Cannabis offenders. According to FBI statistics, simple possession charges accounted for roughly 49.5% of all drug arrests in America in 2011, with 757,969 arrested just for having weed on them. What follows are perhaps the most striking revelations of the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program for 2011, the most recent year with accurate statistics available (UCR; www.fbi.gov): t The highest number of arrests were for drug abuse violations (estimated at
1,531,251 arrests), larceny-theft (estimated at 1,264,986) and driving under the influence (estimated at 1,215,077). The estimated arrest rate for the United States in 2011 was 3,991.1 arrests per 100,000 inhabitants. This means that in America someone is arrested for drugs every twenty-one seconds, and for Cannabis every forty-two seconds. (In total, nearly 12.5 million people were arrested across the country in 2011.) According to the Times, “Almost one in five inmates in state prisons and half of those i n federal prisons are serving time for drug offenses[.]” Esquire notes that “Federal and state prisons hold 1.6 million prisoners at an average cost of $25,000 a year per prisoner. That’s $40 billion.” The magazine goes on to quote numbers
that are now familiar to the true activists in the pro-pot movement, supplied by Harvard drug economist Jeffrey Miron. “Legalizing drugs would save roughly $41.3 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition. Of these savings, $25.7 billion would accrue to state and local governments, while $15.6 billion would accrue to the federal government. Approximately $8.7 billion of the savings would result from legalization of marijuana and $32.6 billion from legalization of other drugs.” If this all sounds unfamiliar to you, be assured that these worrying totals are nothing new. That’s the point – how can we, the hard working and tax-paying American public, continue to fund this war against our own people? The solution is simple: stop arresting folks for pot possession – save money; legalize weed and collect taxes – make money.