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- Share link: compare. This article was written by Timeshifter. See many drug war charts and maps. And: Drug war causes high U.S. incarceration rate. And: The U.S. Drug War. Republicans lead. And: Drug War, mandatory minimum sentencing, handguns. And: The number of people incarcerated in the USA peaked in 2008.
Charts and maps
See: List of countries and U.S. states by incarceration rate.
See list of incarceration rates by country (b c). Compare the rates. Due to the Drug War the USA has the highest incarceration rate in the world (except for the tiny country of the Seychelles). See cost of U.S. drug war: 1.5 trillion dollars! |
Prisoners per 100,000 population. Gray in the map means no data. See the Commons image page for sources and more info. See List of countries by incarceration rate. See template. Article: Compare incarceration rates. |
The majority of people incarcerated in prisons and jails in the USA are in due to drug-related offenses, crimes to get money for drugs, or drug-related parole or probation violations. Wikipedia: Drug-related crime. The number of inmates in the USA has increased almost 5 times over since 1980. The USA has the highest incarceration rate of any nation b c (except for the tiny country of the Seychelles). Compare incarceration rates worldwide. The cost of the U.S. drug war is at least 1.5 trillion dollars. Cannabis is safer! Share link. |
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USA: Peak of 7.3 million people in 2007 under adult correctional supervision: On probation or parole, or incarcerated in jail or prison. About 3.2% of the U.S. adult population, or 1 in every 31 adults. More info here. See template.
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Timeline of U.S. incarceration in prisons and jails as a percentage of Americans of all ages. Peaked in 2008. See template. Image source and data.
USA. Adult and juvenile inmate stats. Share link.
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Source: Correctional Populations in the United States, 2013. See Appendix Table 2 in PDF. From U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Incarceration rate is per 100,000. See template. See juvenile detention numbers.
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Easy Access to Juvenile Populations [19] [20]. See template.
Obama helping turn around Reagan-Bush War on Pot, mandatory minimums, mass incarceration:

Source: Correctional Populations in the United States, 2013. See Appendix Table 5 in PDF.
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Obama helped turn around the Reagan-Bush War on Pot, mandatory minimums, mass incarceration. See: US incarceration peaked in 2008.
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Incarceration rates for adult males in U.S. jails and prisons by race and ethnicity. At midyear 2009, an estimated 4.7% of black non-Hispanic men were in prison or jail, compared to 1.8% of Hispanic men of any race, and 0.7% of white non-Hispanic men. Sources. More info: Race, ethnicity, and the drug war. See template.
Cannabis is safer
Return to top. See article: Cannabis is safer.
2018 Global Marijuana March and 420 events
See: Reagan's war on cannabis. And: Holy War on Drugs, Republican-led mass incarceration.
Ronald Reagan, 1980 campaign speech 1: "Leading medical researchers are coming to the conclusion that marijuana, pot, grass, whatever you want to call it, is probably the most dangerous drug in the United States, and we haven't begun to find out all of the ill effects, but they are permanent ill effects. The loss of memory for example." |
- See Reagan say it at 1 minute 7 seconds into this video clip narrated by Woody Harrelson.
- Obama correctly said that cannabis is safer than alcohol. See: Cannabis is safer. He also said marijuana should be treated more as a public health issue than a criminal one. And: Obama signals support for legalizing medical marijuana. [183]. See video.
- USA. 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults are alcohol-related (disease, overdose, car crashes, falls, violence, etc). 87,798 per year, 2006 to 2010. [184][185][186][187][188].
See longer article: Cannabis is safer.
- Imagine if Mitt Romney had been elected President in 2012 instead of Obama.
- Obama on marijuana legalization. [189]. "My suspicion is that you’re gonna see other states start looking at this". The Washington Post. Jan. 22, 2015.
Above quote is from Sanjay Gupta interview of Obama on April 15, 2015. Interview aired on CNN on April 19, 2015. [190][191][192].
- Obama administration asks Supreme Court to reject lawsuit filed by Republican governments in Oklahoma and Nebraska to stop legal marijuana in Colorado [193]. December 2015.
![]() Obama helped turn around the Reagan-Bush War on Pot, mandatory minimums, mass incarceration. See: US incarceration peaked in 2008. |
Presidents alone can not reschedule it
- See main article: Presidents alone can not reschedule marijuana.
Neither the president nor the Attorney General can reschedule marijuana by themselves. [196] [197][198]. The two of them together also can not do so. See Wikipedia: Removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. See "Process" section.
Since HHS (Health and Human Services) and the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) have again declined to reschedule or deschedule cannabis, then only Congress can do so. But Congress removed help for veterans: Republicans in Congress Won’t Let Veterans Access Medical Marijuana After All. [199][200]. And Congressional Republican committee leaders refuse hearings on CARERS bill to reschedule cannabis. See: Medical Marijuana Advocates Rally to Loosen Restrictions. By Alicia Ault. 23 Mar 2016. Medscape.
- Wikipedia: Drug Enforcement Administration. See "Criticism" section.
- DEA Removes Marijuana Misinformation From Website After Months of Pressure. By Steve Elliott. Feb 13, 2017.
- DEA Pulls Back From Calling Marijuana One Of The 'Most Dangerous Drugs'. By Cody Fenwick. August 16, 2016. Patch Media
- The Science behind the DEA's Long War on Marijuana. 19 April 2016. Scientific American. Unless Congress acts, the DEA has final say on rescheduling or descheduling marijuana.
- Pot Matters: For Legalization, Set Your Sights on the Senate. 23 Mar 2016. By Jon Gettman. "it will be helpful, and indeed crucial, for advancing legalization for Democrats to take control of the Senate." Maybe in 2018?
- FDA Weighs in on Rescheduling Cannabis. By Ben Adlin. 28 Dec 2015. Leafly.
USA. Republican-led war on cannabis

Jeff Sessions and Granny [21].
The Cannabis War is over and the U.S. Republican Party has lost. They may not know it yet, so keep marching, lobbying, and voting! Please register and vote! See: Reagan's War on Cannabis. And: Drug war, control, and Republican-led income inequality. And: Alternatives to Republican-led mass incarceration.
Virginia Senate Republicans kill bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. Jan. 29, 2018. And: Maine's Republican governor vetoes voter-approved bill to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana. [201] Nov. 3, 2017. And: New Mexico's Republican governor vetoes a bill that would have allowed medical marijuana for opioid addiction. April 7, 2017. And: New Mexico's Republican governor vetoes the 911 Good Samaritan Overdose Prevention Bill. April 7, 2017. And: Idaho's Republican governor vetoes a broadly-supported asset forfeiture reform bill. April 7, 2017.
Jeff Sessions once wanted to execute pot dealers. Jan. 29, 2017.
Jeff Sessions running after cannabis users:
Drug war, mass incarceration, control
See: Drug war, control, and Republican-led income inequality. And: Drug war causes high U.S. incarceration rate. And: Drug War, mandatory minimum sentencing, handguns. And: US incarceration peaked in 2008. And: Number of marijuana prisoners in the USA. And: List of countries and U.S. states by incarceration rate.
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The majority of people incarcerated in prisons and jails in the USA are in due to drug-related offenses, crimes to get money for drugs, or drug-related parole or probation violations. Wikipedia: Drug-related crime. The number of inmates in the USA has increased almost 5 times over since 1980. The USA has the highest incarceration rate of any nation b c (except for the tiny country of the Seychelles). Compare incarceration rates worldwide. The cost of the U.S. drug war is at least 1.5 trillion dollars. Cannabis is safer! Share link. |
Jail, jail deaths (2), jail healthcare, and bail. A Lot Of People Are Dying At This Understaffed Texas Jail. And: How the Money Bail System Perpetuates America’s Mass Incarceration Problem. 2.3. Dumbass Republican lock-em-up types can't do math. Jail costs a lot more than unpaid fines. Use community service instead, and save tax money on jail and janitorial work. And: Justice Department blasts ‘unconstitutional’ fixed bail schedules. Many innocent people in jail. And: Many marijuana users in jail without bail money. And: Senator Kamela Harris push for bail reform. |
The mentally ill. Rundle Won't Charge Prison Guards Who Allegedly Boiled Schizophrenic Black Man to Death for 2 Hours in Shower. Death Ruled An Accident. Documents Show They Omitted Key Details. Florida inmate in for cocaine possession. 2.3.4.5.. Due to lack of single-payer universal healthcare the mentally ill end up incarcerated and untreated. Prison costs far more than caring for them to begin with. For their non-violent offenses three-quarters of Americans favor ‘rehabilitation’ over jail time, survey finds. Poor health care in general in prisons and jails. Inmates Pay A Small Fortune To See A Doctor. 2.3. |
Felon disenfranchisement & gerrymandering
Return to top. See: Register and vote for cannabis.
Federal judge: Florida’s felon voting restoration flawed. And: Floridians will vote this fall (2018) on restoring voting rights to 1.5 million felons.
27 percent of all the disfranchised felons in the U.S. live in Florida.

In 2014: 8 of the 10 most gerrymandered districts in the USA were drawn by Republicans.
Republican-led big spending on drug war
Return to top. See: Cost of Republican-led U.S. drug war.
Trillion-dollar Cost of Republican-led U.S. drug war. And: Its racist application. [202][203].

"After a 40 year trillion dollar war against a plant, The Plant Is Winning". Trenton, New Jersey.
GOP-led spending on endless ground wars
Return to top. See: Wars and drug wars on demand.
"$5.6 trillion" for endless Mideast wars that started with Bush and CIA WMD lies about Iraq. [204][205]. Interstate Highway System cost $526 billion in 2016 dollars. And: Landing a human on the moon cost $206 billion in 2016 dollars. And: Military veterans defy Jeff Sessions, fight for medical marijuana to kick opioid addiction. Of all the veterans returning from the Middle East, about 60 percent experience chronic pain.
U.S. Republican Party: Greed, Ground Wars, Drug Wars, and Mass Incarceration.
U.S. infrastructure badly needs this money
- America's infrastructure is falling apart — here's a look at how bad things have gotten By Cadie Thompson. Feb. 12, 2018. Business Insider.
- More than 50,000 American bridges are falling apart. Jan. 29, 2018, by Conor Ferguson. NBC News.
U.S. household debt at all time high
Return to top. See: Drug war, control, and Republican-led income inequality.
U.S. household debt at all time high. Chart below from page 3 of PDF.
2003 to 2017 (4th quarter). Total Household Debt by Type:

Click to enlarge. Timeline is by quarters.
Black upward-pointing line is student debt. Cumulative percent increase over time:

See source.
U.S. middle class wealth has collapsed
Return to top. See: Drug war, control, and Republican-led income inequality.
- Income Inequality Is At The Highest Level In American History. By Bryce Covert. July 1, 2016. ThinkProgress. "Incomes for the 99 percent have only recovered about 60 percent of what they lost. But the rich are doing great. ... They captured more than half of all the income growth in the country."

U.S. middle class wealth has collapsed. [22]. And: Just 8 men own same wealth as half the world. See Wikipedia: Wealth in the United States.
Canadian middle class has surpassed USA
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Canada passes US in median income and wealth.
The American Middle Class Is No Longer the World’s Richest. [206].
Median after-tax income in Canada is higher than in the USA. By David Leonhardt and Kevin Quealy. April 22, 2014. New York Times. Why? One reason is that Canadians pay so much less for far better healthcare.
Also, Canada has a higher minimum wage than the USA.
Many nations surpassed US middle class
Return to top. See: Drug war, control, and Republican-led income inequality.
US middle-class wealth has collapsed. [207].
See median wealth chart to the right.
Median wealth is exactly in the middle. 50% of adults have more, and 50% of adults have less. Wealth is all assets (money, stocks, property, etc.) minus all debts.
Tables - Credit Suisse. Scroll down to XLS links. Download the Complete Wealth per Adult Data by Country for 2016 and 2017 (XLS). This was used to create the table to the right. This is only part of the table. See also: Commons:Convert tables and charts to wiki code or image files. Note that USA is number 24 in median wealth per adult in the table to the right. Canada is number 13.
USA. Richest 10% Own 84% of All Stocks
Return to top. See: Drug war, control, and Republican-led income inequality.
- The Richest 10% of Americans Now Own 84% of All Stocks. Dec. 19, 2017. Time (magazine). "The top 10% of American households, as defined by total wealth, now own 84% of all stocks in 2016, according to a recent paper by NYU economist Edward N. Wolff."
- Oxfam: 42 Billionaires Hold As Much Wealth As World’s Poorest 3.7 Billion. By Mary Papenfuss. Jan. 22, 2108. HuffPost.
Republicans refuse to raise minimum wage
Democrats, following Bernie Sanders lead, propose bill to raise minimum wage to $15 by 2024. Republicans oppose raising federal minimum wage. May 26, 2017. [208] [209].
Republicans in several states are lowering the minimum wage — yes, you read that right. By Matthew Sheffield. July 9, 2017. Salon. And: Missouri's Republican governor signs state law lowering St. Louis minimum wage. [210]. July 3, 2017. And: Iowa's Republican governor signs law overturning local minimum wage increases. March 30, 2017.
Chart below is from a Washington Post article on Dec. 29, 2017:
"The U.S. has one of the stingiest minimum wage policies of any wealthy nation."

Why isn't National Public Radio covering this? Why aren't All Things Considered?
Green love
2018 Global Marijuana March and 420 events
The Global Marijuana March is the first Saturday in May. The first Saturday in May is also World Naked Gardening Day. Your marijuana garden needs love too . (see Google search for it). But, be safe!
Colorado’s Effort Against Teenage Pregnancies Is a Startling Success. Free birth control.
Republicans think they can spend an infinite amount of money (many trillions of dollars) on private-health-insurance-company-based healthcare, and have an infinite number of babies, to feed their appetite for endless ground wars, and for more inmates for more prisons for more drug war. |
Wikipedia: Population milestone babies. |
As with cannabis legalization Colorado led the way.. More info. 2.3.. |
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Canada has universal healthcare
Canada has single payer healthcare
Canadian healthcare costs much less
Half the cost of Obama-Trumpcare
USA could save $1.6 trillion YEARLY
Canada has better health outcomes
- See: Canadian single-payer universal healthcare versus US healthcare. And: End drug war with universal healthcare. And: Canadian single-payer healthcare and Portuguese drug decriminalization.
Average per capita (per person) healthcare cost in chart below includes all costs public and private. See Wikipedia: List of countries by total health expenditure per capita.
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Country | Life expectancy. 2015 | Under-5 mortality rate per 1000 live births. 2016. | Maternal mortality rate per 100,000 live births. 2015 | Healthcare cost per person. (2). US dollars PPP | Murder rate per 100,000. 2016 | |
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Canada | 82.2 years. (2) | 4.9 | 7.3 | $4,753 in 2016 | 1.7 | |
USA | 79.3 years. (2) | 6.5 | 26.4 | $9,892 in 2016 | 5.3 | |
Charts. Murder rate in Canada is lower due to far less handgun ownership. Why does National Public Radio, like most media, censor most of these international comparisons? Videos. Republican myths about Canadian healthcare: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65. Nations with better and healthier quality of life: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 |
Canadian Single Payer: Show health card, get health care paid for by taxes. No deductibles on basic Canadian health care, and co-pays are extremely low or non-existent. And: No bankruptcies and personal medical debt in single-payer countries.
The American Middle Class Is No Longer the World’s Richest. Median after-tax income in Canada is higher than in the USA. [211]. One reason why is that Canadians pay so much less for far better healthcare. So they have more money in their pocket after paying for healthcare taxes and premiums.
Per capita (per person) healthcare costs by country in chart below: [212].

US healthcare spending per person is more than double the average of other developed countries.


This massive wasteful healthcare spending in the USA (compared to other rich nations) accelerated in 1980 (see chart below). How? It happened because non-profit health insurance was taken over by for-profit health insurance companies. They get a cut of all wasteful healthcare spending. The more wasteful, the more profits. Such as exorbitant drug pricing, expensive medical devices, overuse of emergency rooms. It is similar to how for-profit prison companies have an incentive to fill more beds, rather than rehabilitate prisoners.
Non-profit health insurance, and single payer healthcare, do not have these perverse incentives. So they tend to use more early preventive care that requires far fewer expensive drugs, devices, and visits to the emergency room and urgent care. Healthcare, like roads, should be publicly financed, and privately built. Private health insurance, like private toll road companies, are a kind of middleman mafia that skims profits, and shuffles papers, but don't actually do any real work.
Chart below shows the percentage of the GDP (national economy) spent on all healthcare costs (public and private) by year for some countries. Note that around 1980 US healthcare costs skyrocketed compared to other rich countries (all of which have universal healthcare, unlike the USA).
Source for above chart: Are any conservatives in the US for a single payer and a universal health care system, or can they not coexist? Chart is from comment around March 11, 2017 by Dan Munro, "author of Casino Healthcare, and Forbes contributor".
Each 10 million US uninsured equals
10,000 more deaths yearly. Also:
Bernie Sanders' projection of 'thousands' of deaths from lost health coverage is well-supported. By Louis Jacobson. June 27, 2017. Politifact. See article sidebar for many sources. [213][214][215][216][217].
10,000 die waiting for disability yearly
10,000 people died waiting for a disability decision in the past year. Will he be next? By Terrence McCoy. Nov. 20, 2017. Washington Post. "10,000 people died in the past year while stuck in a backlog of judges’ disability cases. ... they can’t work while they wait if they want to be approved."
With Single-Payer Universal Healthcare people get healthcare no matter how much they work or not. And it doesn't matter if they lose their job, or change employers. People don't have to show they are totally disabled to get adequate healthcare. People can try to work now and then as much as their disability allows them, and not lose their healthcare. And they get drug treatment on demand if their pill use gets out of hand.
Portugal has universal healthcare
Portugal decriminalized all drugs
Portugal has drug treatment for all
- See: Canadian single-payer healthcare and Portuguese drug decriminalization. And: End drug war with universal healthcare. And: Canadian healthcare versus US healthcare.
Portugal's drug decriminalization. 2.3.4.5. It is based on single-payer, universal healthcare. 2. Data Shows More U.S. Imprisonment Does Not Reduce Drug Problems. And: 39% of U.S. Prisoners Should Not Be in Prison.
In Portugal few die of overdoses
- City of Vancouver calls for decriminalization of drug possession. "The city says drastic action is needed as its overdose death total continues to climb". CBC News. Mar 09, 2018. [218].
- Norway to decriminalize all drugs, likely following Portugal's model. Dec. 19, 2017.
Portugal decriminalized possession of all drugs in 2001. Like Canada it has universal healthcare. See: Portugal. Cannabis-related links. See: Wikipedia: Drug policy of Portugal and Wikipedia: Health in Portugal. Nearly all of the European Union (EU) has universal healthcare. [219][220]. See: List of countries with universal health care.
Portugal decriminalised drugs 14 years ago – and now hardly anyone dies from overdosing. 2015 article by Chris Ingraham. Chart below is from the article. As is the quote below:
"The country has 3 overdose deaths per million citizens, compared to the EU average of 17.3."
In 2014 the USA had 147 overdose deaths per million people. [221] [222] [223] [224]

Overdose Deaths Involving Opioids, United States, 2000-2015. Deaths per 100,000. Multiply by 10 to get deaths per million people. Source.
In 2016 the USA had 185 overdose deaths per million people. <~~ See chart in article, and a similar chart below.

Sources: [30][31] "Goulao says 90 per cent of public money spent fighting drugs in Portugal is channeled toward those health-care goals — just 10 per cent is spent on police enforcement." [32][33][34][35].

Map source: Drug Overdose Death Data. CDC Injury Center.

Map colors and rates. Multiply by 10 to get deaths per million population.

Yearly number of overdose deaths by drug. Sources: [36][37][38].
- Overdose stats for the rest of the world.
- Wikipedia charts: Drug-related death statistics. See the upload page.
US charts:
- Overdose Death Rates. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Charts.
- These Are the Drugs That Cause the Most Overdose Deaths. Chart.
- Our nation’s drug overdose problem, in five bleak charts.
- How the opioid epidemic became America’s worst drug crisis ever, in 15 maps and charts.
Ibogaine cure:
- Wikipedia: Ibogaine.
- Facebook: Ibogaine Universe!!!!
- Ibogaine is a healer.
Remove Republicans in 2018 vote
Return to top.
Will 2018 midterm elections remove Republicans? 2018 ballot issues: marijuana & minimum wage.
- See also: Republican-led Drug War. And: Drug war causes high U.S. incarceration rate. And: Alternatives to Republican-led mass incarceration. And: Cost of Republican-led U.S. drug war. And: Reagan's war on cannabis.And: Drug war, control, and Republican-led income inequality.
- CNN Poll: Trump approval slides to 35%, matches lowest point of presidency. Feb. 26, 2018.
- Trump approval rating hits new low (35%) in CNN poll. 32% in Associated Press–NORC poll. Lowest in history for a first-year President. Dec. 19, 2017 article.
When Active-Duty Service Members Struggle To Feed Their Families. April 19, 2017. NPR.
Chart below from: A Tax Plan to Turbocharge Inequality, in 3 Charts. Dec. 17, 2017. New York Times.

Why isn't National Public Radio covering this? Why aren't All Things Considered?
Will 2018 midterm elections remove Republicans? 2018 ballot issues: marijuana & minimum wage. | |
Republican tax bill hurts the poor more than originally thought, Congressional Budget Office finds. | "By 2019, Americans earning less than $30,000 a year would be worse off under the Senate bill, CBO found. By 2021, Americans earning $40,000 or less would be net losers, and by 2027, most people earning less than $75,000 a year would be worse off. On the flip side, millionaires and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 would be big beneficiaries". |
2 polls: Only 29% of Americans approve of Republican tax plan. 2. |
A or F? How Congress scores on marijuana. 2. By Danielle Keane, NORML political director. 2016. "Of the 233 Democrats in Congress, 208 members (89.3 percent) received a passing grade of a 'C' or higher. Of the 302 Republicans in Congress, 102 members (33.8 percent) received a passing grade of a 'C' or higher." For your state see: Congressional Scorecard. NORML. Grading was based upon members' voting records. |
Independents greatly outnumber Democrats or Republicans in the USA. If anti-cannabis Republicans are to be voted out of power, then all Democrat primaries need to be opened to independents. See Wikipedia: Open primaries in the United States. And: Wikipedia: Blanket primary. And: Wikipedia: Nonpartisan blanket primary.
Will 2018 midterm elections remove Republicans? 2018 ballot issues: marijuana & minimum wage.