So Many People in Jail for Using Drugs…
What If We Decriminalized It?

It’s no secret that there are more people in jail in the US than in any other country. In recent years, it’s been about 1.8 million and 1.9 million. China is next with about 1.6 million of its population behind bars… and their total population is more than four times larger than ours.

Looked at from a percentage-of-population perspective, the countries with the highest percentage of their people behind bars are El Salvador, Cuba, Rwanda, Turkmenistan, and American Samoa. The US is next, followed by about 16 or 17 countries with underdeveloped economies (such as Panama and Guam) before you get to another country with a developed economy (Russia).

Any way you want to look at it, the US is top of the list when it comes to incarcerating its citizens.

Why?

One reason often given is the growth of private prisons in recent years.

There are many undeniable benefits to the private management of jails and prison – more order, less trouble, and a better cost-per-prisoner ratio. But there’s also a downside. If private enterprise can make jails and prisons profitable, why wouldn’t they do whatever is in their power to grow the prison population, even if it means putting people in jail who should not be there?

I’ve done a little research into this. And while it persuaded me that the privatization of prisons is, in theory, a major factor in the growth of the jailed population, I found no data to support it. (One factual example: In 2000, about 80,000 people were held in private prisons. That number rose to about 140,000 in 2010. But by 2020, it had dropped to about 90,000.)

However, there is one factor that is considerably and demonstrably significant: the illegal drug trade.

In 2019, according to Pew Research, 1.6 million people in the US were arrested for drug-related offenses, compared to about 1.0 million arrested for property crimes, simple assault, and DUI. Among the +/- 1.8 million people locked up at that time, about 20% of them (360,000) were there for drug-related crimes, according to the Prison Policy Institute. Today, the total incarcerated population is about 2.4 million, of which 456,000 are serving time for drug-related offenses, according to The Center for American Progress.

In 1971, President Nixon declared illegal drug use to be “Public Enemy Number One.” Soon thereafter, Congress approved “the war on drugs” – a get-tough policy that has cost American taxpayers more than $1 trillion.

Unfortunately, this acceleration in arresting and convicting people for drug offenses has not deterred substance misuse rates. In fact, they have gone up. If that’s not bad enough, all these extra prosecutions have significantly increased the likelihood that, after being released from prison, ex-prisoners are 13 times more likely to die than the general population.

These facts have led many, including yours truly, to believe that America should end its costly and useless war on drugs by decriminalizing the use of drugs, and spend some of that saved money on deterrence and treatment.

This was the notion that the state of Oregon embraced in 2020, when they decriminalized drug use. I remember being happy about the prospect of so many fewer people being incarcerated for taking drugs, and hopeful that the number of violent drug-related crimes would be reduced because the market for selling drugs would become more relaxed and laissez faire, and less dangerous and competitive.

That’s not exactly what happened.

Decriminalizing drug use, obviously, drastically reduced the number of drug addicts in Oregon’s prisons. Unfortunately, it increased the number of drug users in the state and had no positive effect on treatment.

The 2020 ballot measure (which was supported by 58% of Oregon’s voters) simply dumped tens of thousands of people that would have been in prison onto the city’s streets. That, of course, hurt retail businesses and increased the cost of maintaining some semblance of cleanliness and safety.

As a result, earlier this month, the state reversed its three-year experiment in leniency and reinstituted jail time for drug use.

In retrospect, this shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Why? Because – like I’ve been telling you for months now – when it comes to bad habits, any kind of bad habits, people almost never change. They may try to change if you ask (or pressure) them to. But they usually only get worse.

So, if decriminalizing drug use only makes things worse, is there anything that can be done to minimize the enormous damage that is done every year because of drugs?

I have an idea that I’ll explain next week. It’s radical. But I think it could work. Stay tuned!