
The number of annual marijuana arrests have been setting all-time records lately. Sales and trafficking aside, there are more possession charges nationally than violent crimes combined. Maybe there are a lot more smokers than violent people, or it could be prosecuted disproportionately.

Drug diversion courts around the country offer offenders a chance for redemption, rather than recidivism. After acknowledging guilt for crimes like low-level dealing or stealing to support addictions, addicts can volunteer for nine to 18 months of urine testing, group therapy, mandatory sobriety meetings, intensely supervised by a judge. Those that don't make it through, can end up in jail.

A booming business in Canada's British Columbia allows entrepreneurs to rake in $80,000 a year tax-free while keeping their day jobs. So what's the magic product? Marijuana, of course!

As part of the War on Drugs US federal and local authorities seize cash made from drug trafficking. The practice takes away an incentive for smuggling, and gives the agents an incentive to catch traffickers. The guideline for how that money can be spent, according to most local laws, is the vague standard of "for law-enforcement purposes."

Just consider me Mary Poppins this morning: a little sweet Prince William to help the War on Drugs go down. The Prince is on the front lines of the battle — the warship the Prince is serving on just seized $80 million worth (almost two tons) of cocaine from a speedboat just north of Barbados.
William's ship is patrolling the waters of the West Indies looking for drug runners, and
this score came early on in their mission.

Drug traffickers now join
rappers and models who have been ditching the dollar for the more exquisite euro.
White House drug officials announced this week that cocaine is being rerouted from the US and heading through Venezuela to West Africa eventually reaching its final destination — Europe.
With such a weak dollar, drug dealers have more to make by hustling in the Old World.

With less than 5 percent of the world's population, the US has 25 percent of the world's prisoners. The US incarceration rate, which remained stable for much of US history, increased by seven fold with the late 1970s movement to get tough on crime.
Today's New York Times highlights
explanations offered by criminologists:
[H]igher levels of violent crime, harsher sentencing laws, a legacy of racial turmoil, a special fervor in combating illegal drugs, the American temperament, and the lack of a social safety net.