Why Should There Be Mandatory Sentences For Crimes Without Victims, As Our Drug Laws Require?

{Editor’s Note: This is the 9th installment of a series of articles attempting to address the 32 questions posed by Ron Paul in his recent farewell speech given in front of Congress. Check out the previous installment, Why Is The TSA Permitted To Abuse The Rights Of Any American Traveling By Air? }If you are reading this article and you live in the United States, then it is probable that you know someone who has been incarcerated by the local, state, or federal government for a crime that did not cause harm to another individual or to another individual’s property.  In these unfortunate instances, there is no victim that the prosecution is defending as they make their case for incarceration in front of a judge and jury.  In the United States, drug related crimes are the most common victim-less crimes.Many people claim that that the drug war is a failure and needs to be stopped immediately.  The drug war is not failing; rather it is achieving the purposes intended by those in the ruling class and that is why it needs to be stopped.  The intent of the war on drugs is not to reduce drug use, addiction, or trafficking.  The objectives defined by those in power are much more sinister.According to drugwarfacts.org, the United States has the highest prison population rate in the world (756 per 100,000) and the fee to cover the average cost of incarceration for Federal inmates in 2009 was $25,252 per inmate.  The following quotation, which can also be found at drugwarfacts.org and was sourced directly from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, is equally disturbing.

The total number of State and Federal inmates grew from 403,000 in 1982 to over 1.4 million in 2003. The number of local jail inmates more than tripled from approximately 207,000 in 1982 to over 691,000 in 2003. Adults on probation increased from over 1.4 million to about 4.1 million persons. Overall, corrections employment more than doubled from nearly 300,000 to over 748,000 during this same period.

The chart below, from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) highlights the drastic increase in the amount of incarcerations in relation to population growth, violent crime, and property crime.

This chart illustrates the drastic increase in the number of incarcerations as the number of violent crimes and property crime actually decreases in relation to population growth.  This tells us that the increase in incarcerations can be attributed to an increase in the amount of inmates being held for committing crimes without victims.  The majority of those incarcerated for these victim-less crimes, are mostly peaceful people who fall into different categories.  Some of these “criminals” saw demand for a product and due to the product's prohibition the sale presented a greater monetary gain, and they calculated that the risk of arrest was worth the treasure of the sale.  Other individuals cultivated plants for their own personal enjoyment or to meet medical needs, never allowing the plant deemed illicit by the state to leave their property.  There are also those that had the unfortunate fate of being caught by the police while having a small amount of an illicit drug in their possession.Over the past couple years I have witnessed lives turned completely upside down due to mandatory sentences associated with selling a plant under prohibition by the federal government.  Undercover police officers prey on unsuspecting young people in an effort to meet quotas of drug arrests and by achieving their goals they gain a larger share of funding from the State.  The arresting officers, judges, and even juries remain unaccountable for their damaging actions, which negatively impact lives and steal an individual’s freedom.  There is no shortage of leeches that profit from the existence of the bloated United States prison system.  The participants and beneficiaries of these ridiculous drug laws and mandatory sentences are unapologetic for participating in a system that drags the name of peaceful people through the mud and locks them in a cages like animals.  In fact, most of these deranged human beings enjoy their position of authority and are not likely to favor losing the unwarranted power they have been granted.Why should there be mandatory sentences – even up to life for crimes without victims – as our drug laws require?Far too many people make their living and feed their families as a result of the current prohibition of illicit drugs and the harsh mandatory sentences associated with them.  The budget the prison system consumes could be easily cut in half at the local, State, and Federal level if we stopped imprisoning peaceful people.The prison industrial complex is not the only beneficiary of the drug war.  Additionally, as mentioned above, the State and local police receive additional funding based on the amount of drug convictions they make.  Another industry that reaps the benefits of mandatory sentencing and the drug war are pharmaceutical companies.  Without laws in place that restrict competition by criminalizing  inexpensive, natural medicines and treatments, the pharmaceutical industry would not enjoy complete dominance of the legal drug industry.  An article of mine from last week, which answered why industrialized hemp remains illegal, unveils some of the more sinister forces behind the war on drugs.Most ordinary Americans have been programmed by the media to associate hemp with marijuana.  The difference between the two is discussed in my article.  If marijuana is legalized, then hemp would have to follow.  This is due to the fact that those in power use marijuana to misrepresent hemp and scare the public from learning the many benefits the plant offers.  Simply put, the oil, energy, agriculture, clothing, and construction industries would see a significant loss in market share and profits to the more versatile and affordable hemp plant.During this week’s installment of a Lions of Liberty weekly staple, Mondays with Murray, Rothbard discusses the insanity of the drug war.  He refers to the war as going exactly as planned, “a war they can never win – it’s perfect!”  Many people make the mistake of assuming that the government will make marijuana or other drugs legal to tax them in order to create additional revenue.  These critics fail to understand that the current system of drug prohibition is the ideal situation for the State.  The drug war is the method that the State is able to extract the most money from the taxpayer, while keeping their friends in the pharmaceutical, oil, energy, agriculture, police, judicial, and prison industry fat and happy.Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!