I was, and I think the penalties and number of people in "the system" for drug offenses is significantly higher than it was in the 80s and 90s. We now have more

I was, and I think the penalties and number of people in "the system" for drug offenses is significantly higher than it was in the 80s and 90s. We now have more people (not percentage of people) incarcerated than any other country, even China. The rhetoric may be softer, but I don't think the judges are. Here is a year over year incarceration map. http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-war-on-drugs-changed-americas-prison-population-2014-4 http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-war-on-drugs-changed-... Here's prison population by country: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2page1.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2... Incarcerate is the only hammer many of our state governments will even consider using for most social problems.