The Book Drug War Facts by Common sense of drug policy talks about facts and claims that were made for the so called "Drug War". To put things in better perspective, Statistics given by the book shows how the majority of people using drugs are in fact not Colored and Hispanics but White people. From 9.9million Whites(72%), 2.0million for Blacks(15%) and 1.4million for Hispanics(10%). People have done the research and these are the numbers of people using drugs in America. The book makes another very important claim and it is; That in 2001 statistics shows that the chance of a person of Hispanic and Black decent were more likely to be imprisoned, but it was the lowest for the White person(32.2% Blacks,17.2% Hispanics, 5.9% White). Don't you think we should rethink our ways in the system? isn't it important for us to know these facts instead of feeding us the wrong idea. Why is it that stop and frisks happen a lot more for people of color? But this shows that White people use a lot more illegal drugs than those of color. This is important to know but why don't we really hear about this? Are we pushing the idea of a stereotype a little too much, to the point that we are color blind.
They did another study for people using and dying from illegal and prescribed drugs. It is quite amazing how the book talks about these information. I would never have thought about these things by my self. The book shows an over all estimate of 17,00 deaths in the year 2000 for people dieing from using illegal drugs. but whats surprising is that, also the book points out that approximately 32,00 hospitalized patients dying from adverse reaction to the prescribed drug, possible 106,000 for the whole USA. This means that because of the harsh medication or allergic reaction the body is unable to coup up with the pressure it just shuts down and kills the person. Its important to note that although drug use kills alot of people from over dosing them selves, why is it that there is no law towards prescribed drugs that can be lethal towards a person health. Even though it is prescribed by a doctor, id be left with a question; Am i putting my life or a loved one in the hands of doctors that can kill with harsh medications. What would happen then if that would happen?
finally there is one last remaining fact that the book talks about. It shows that 4 out of 10 convicted murders that are in jail or state penitentiary, half of that who were convicted or in probation had alcohol in their system. alcohol played a big factor towards these crimes. its as if they were not drunk they would not have committed those crimes.
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