From sea to shining sea: America busted II
From the last 7 days, a few casualty reports in the war on drugs:
- Grandmother charged in drug bust
- WABC, Bay Shore, NY, December 30
- Senior housing tenants face eviction after drug bust
- The Enterprise, Boston, MA, December 30
- Drug bust is biggest ever for Willoughby
- News-Hearld, Willoughby, OH, December 30
- Local man charged in Miss. drug bust
- Associated Press, Pass Christian, MS, December 29
- Drug bust operation nets 18 Winslow residents, 40 total in Navajo County
- Winslow Mail, Winslow, AR, December 28
- Two arrested in Idun Township drug bust
- Mille Lacs Messenger, Idun Township, MN, December 29
- Man arrested in Washington County drug bust
- Bennington Banner, Bennington, VT, December 28
- Robbins drug bust nets 18 people
- NBC5, Robbins, IL, December 23
- Three arrested in Attleboro drug bust
- Pawtucket Times, Attleboro, RI, December 24
- Cannabis drug bust leads to arrests
- Pasadena Star-News, Pasadena, CA, December 23
- Sheriff's investigators make drug bust
- Bedford Bulletin, Bedford, VA, December 23
Meanwhile, from Drug Policy News:
New numbers from Oklahoma show that most of those sentenced to prison for the first time on felony charges were convicted of drug offenses. In addition, 80 percent of the state's inmates had a measurable amount of drugs in their system at the time of arrest.
Oklahoma's prison costs have soared 193 percent, or $253 million, in the past 16 years, according to figures from the Oklahoma Criminal Justice Resource Center. During this period the state's prison population has more than doubled.
As in many other states where the number of prisoners is skyrocketing while dollars are scarce, lawmakers are beginning to question the wisdom of locking up people for simple possession and other nonviolent drug offenses.
"We need to incarcerate the people we're afraid of, not that we're mad at," State Rep. Lucky Lamons (D-Tulsa) told the Associated Press. Lamons is a former police officer.
Oklahoma ranks fourth in the nation in overall incarcerations per 100,000 residents. Only Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas send more of their populations to prison.