Outspoken entrepreneur Richard Branson, is calling this election "A watershed moment for drug reform in the U.S." He calls drug reform a non-partisan issue that should be addressed by both parties especially now that a majority of public opinion supports some form of drug law reform. Branson has become a leading voice with a lot of business clout on the issue of Marijuana and drug reform.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-branson/to-win-the-drug-war-follow-the-states_b_1852870.htmlif we can get U.S. political leaders to understand the opportunity and take action, we have a very real chance to turn the tide on the war on drugs and end needless suffering.
A large portion of the money spent on the war on drugs goes toward criminalization. I recently had the privilege of spending time with Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative. I was shocked when he pointed out that back in the 1970s there were only 300,000 people in prison in the U.S.! Forty years later, the number of people incarcerated -- 2.3 million -- is greater than the population of Houston, Texas. He attributes much of the increase to American drug policy, with minorities taking the hardest hit. Stevenson shared that 1 in 3 black men in the U.S. will be incarcerated between the ages of 18 and 30. (Michelle Alexander has written a book, The New Jim Crow, which illustrates how the war on drugs has in fact created this system of mass incarceration.)
A focus on criminalization also undercuts future economic development. A recent Pew study revealed that incarceration reduces former inmates' earnings by 40 percent -- further devastating their families and their communities.
This type of blanket incarceration dismisses root causes, disenfranchises millions and most likely results in repeat offenses rather than cleaning up the problem. We need new approaches that treat drug use as a health issue and not a criminal one.