Thanks for being frank about biases--as I said the ones who claim to be "purely neutral writers" scare me to death (we all are the product of our past and our choices and many factors that influence diversity).

You have said that you believe in one God and that Christians are idolators for believing in the Trinity. I am not sure whether you are Jewish or Muslim (those are the only two totally monotheistic faiths, right?), but both of those faiths have good homeschooling groups, even in Tidewater, if I am not mistaken. Some do want to combine religious instruction with the way they teach history, science, etc. I am all for that, even for Wiccans. In fact, the Christian Homeschool Legal Defense Association has defended the rights of non-Christian homeschooler groups in court, just because it makes sense (and legal precedent) to keep the right for all. Cheers, MGM

Two things:

1) We do know as the public record is available. The "drug war" has been waged for decades and drugs are easy to find. In facct they are easier and cheaper to find than 20 years ago. Billions are spent, youths imprisoned, and good cops killed. Therse are facts. If you dispute this it cannot be termed as bias but more of the head in the sand approach.

2) Your correct. I am biased against home schooling. I will call it what it is. Raising kids at home shelters them from the real world in which we are preparing them for. It's for the parents more than the kids. Biased? Ok.

Two parts to your question. I am not convinced we are losing the war on drugs. Remember, by definition, we don't know how many secret drug busts *don't* result in the officer getting shot. Officer Phillips' death was a great tragedy, but one he was willing to risk. Wish we could interview him now to see whether he would do it all again, if he were given the chance.
Also, our homeschooler circle is probably not as sheltered as you think. We associate with probably 500 other homeschooling families, as that is a very popular lifestyle in Hampton Roads. We get together for activities every week and go on field trips every month, more than most public schools can do nowadays.
We all reflect our biases in our posts. Your automatic impression of isolated homeschoolers probably reflects yours. Only those who claim to be neutral scare me! Cheers, MGM

What do you suggest be done about enforcing the current drug laws? I understand you are anti-mowee wowee. How would you suggest the country deal w/ this so called "problem?" It is obvious the current approach does not work. I did some research and it seems that even with all of the enforcement that the cost of drugs has actually declined when adding in inflation.

It seems to me that al lof your posts are linked to your personal bias, especially your religion. So now tell all of us what your plan would be. You cannot FLAG those who disagree w/ you and change the world. Do you suggest that the rest of the world start reading your bible and think as you do? Home school their children so they can pretend the outside world does not exist? Tell us.

Marijuana Facts:*

60,000 individuals are behind bars for marijuana offenses at a cost to taxpayers of $1.2 billion per year.
REFERENCE: Marijuana Arrests and Incarceration in the United States. 1999. The Federation of American Scientists' Drug Policy Analysis Bulletin.

Taxpayers annually spend between $7.5 billion and $10 billion arresting and prosecuting individuals for marijuana violations. Almost 90 percent of these arrests are for marijuana possession only.
REFERENCE: NORML. 1997.

The state of California saved nearly $1 billion dollars from 1976 to 1985 by decriminalizing the personal possession of one ounce of marijuana, according to a study of the state justice department budget.
REFERENCE: M. Aldrich and T. Mikuriya. 1988.

New Mexico's 2001 state-commissioned Drug Policy Advisory Group determined that marijuana decriminalization "will result in greater ava

I used a shotgun when a target pistol would have been more appropriate. Thanks for clarifying my point.

I understand your logic, but it's only your opinion that China couldn't imprison more than x percent of criminals. It's not a numerical impossibility. Their GDP is about $11 Trillion (versus $13 trillion in the U.S.) and their jails might lack the amenities we provide. But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you are right.

It doesn’t negate what I thought was George’s point. (He can be confusing, though. Is he insulting me or you below?)

I did a quick check, and countries larger and smaller than the U.S. have a lower percentage of people in prison. You can easily make the argument that we are extremely aggressive about putting people away, which surprised me a bit. You can also argue there are lots of variables that make the comparison difficult.

But you can’t just dismiss George’s observation. So I plan to investigate further. I think that's a better approach than insulting each other.

Okay, maybe I didn't say it straight out.
If a country had ten million people in jail/prison, their entire GDP would go to maintaining their prison industry. It would be an untenable economy, even with the growth China has encountered lately.
We, on the other hand, have 1% of our people in jail at any given time (I think the number of prisoners, former prisoners, and people on probation does total over a million here). It is not a good thing, but we can sustain that economically (at least for right now).
Percentages *would* work if it were ever possible for China to imprison 1% of their population, but it would not be. So I suggested using another country where it would actually be economically possible to imprison 1% of the people. Cheers, Mary (the math works, but the practical aspects do not)

Were you in the military?

The best way to compare two countries of dissimilar size would be percentages.

You can't compare the absolute number of prisoners in each country because, as you point out, one percent in the U.S. would be much smaller than one percent in China, which has a much larger population.

Looking at the percent of total population imprisoned in each country is a much better way to determine how likely it is that you will go to jail. I don't need countries that are the same size for this sort of analysis.

Am I missing something?

There are certainly better ways to analyze this data, and we all know there are lies, darn lies and statistics, but I don't understand your point.

That "pot smokers" are a fairly docile pop'n and not really prison stock. Let's NOT criminalize partiers... If you are desperate to jail people--stick with violent offenders...

Higher percentage, less (you mean "lower") population are still unrelated concepts, at least in the point you are trying to make.
You're right about fuzzy math, but it wasn't on my part.
That's one thing about math--it doesn't have subjective parts or parts that can be changed according to your opinion! Find a country with a population similar to ours and tell me what percentage of *that* population is in jail. Then the statistics will mean something. But leave out India and China--they are too big (a billion each) to compete in any meaningful way in what you are trying to say.
And leave off the personal attacks already, okay? They are against the posting guidelines. You give the impression you've never met a rule you didn't want to break! Cheers, MGM

Mary, your ramblings do nothing to change the facts:

"US have a larger percent of our population in prison than any other country including China."

The fact that we have a higher percentage and less population makes it even worse. As Kerry Dog would say, Geesh!

Pls say, with mathematical example, what your point is.

I took college math through calculus, I understand percentages (which is what the original poster said) as I was a student assistant in the statistical research class for two semesters, and I understand ratios, too, by the way, although I am not sure why you brought them up.

Using decimals, percentages, fractions, *or* ratios, you cannot compare the U.S. to China. About 1% of our population is in jail/prison, right? Just use that as a figure to work with if I am not completely current. One percent of the Chinese population is more than 10 million people. So is .01, or 1/100, or 1:100, which do you prefer? Cheers, MGM, who does think before I post, but really needs you to clarify why you think you need to post a personal insult to me!

Do you understand ratio? Please think before you post.

I know of someone waiting trial because someone else did not like them and decided to tell the police that he was dealing drugs. Well, the police broke down his door and searched the entire apartment, which he just moved into. The police found one stem about a half inch long on top of the fridge that had not been dusted for months and had obviously been left there by a previous renter and hauled him off to jail. I have had a stereo and a bike stolen before and the police acted like I was wasting thier time, in fact, the cop told me that is what I get for having a nice stereo. This is not a matter of what is wrong or right, it is a matter of priorities.

Comparing our prison system to "percentage of Chinese imprisoned" is meaningless. They have over a billion people. If only 1% of them were imprisoned, it would be 10 million people. That doesn't compute in relation to our much smaller population. Cheers, MGM

The so-called war on drugs has resulted in the US have a larger percent of our population in prison than any other country including China. It has not resulted in a significant drop in drug use. It's time to decriminalize drug use, fund addiction treatment and focus law enforcement on the manufacture and dealing of dangerous hard drugs like meth and crack cocaine.

There is no way at present to tell how this failed Drug War will end up, and I have no personal axe to grind, but the first thing history teaches is that what Prohibition did was to start up one of the biggest Criminal enterprises in Illegal Booze, (at the time) that made organized Crime a permanent, high profit player in this Nations history and apparently in its future as well.

It gave them the money to buy as many politicians as needed to shelter the new enterprise.

The Government has lost the Drug war long ago, and more and more of the illegal substances come across our wide open Borders daily.

It makes one think that maybe there are no pro Americans left in our congress.

It is unfortunate that Police pay the price for this lost War.

I tend to agree tht we need to stop this necessary war. If we can accept various other rude, vulgar, and immoral conduct why not allow just one more vice? We have come to accept nudity, pornography, vulgarity and profanity as forms of free speech. We condone alcohol and drunkenness and its consequences. Illegitimacy is no longer stigma. Promiscuous sex and its widespread diseases are rampant and ignored. Why on earth resist drugs as legitimate corruption? It’s all part of our decline into decadency and loss of greatness.

No great empire or society of the past has been able to keep its greatness. Success perverts. Complete success perverts completely.

The ship is sinking with nothing anyone is willing to do about it. This means that the good, the bad, and the ugly all die like rats. Let’s eat, drink and be merry until we hit the bottom.

Which is it? Are the people in jail/prison miscreants or do they have a medical problem? I don't think you can have it both ways. Cheers, MGM