Check out two articles linked in today’s DU. First, U.S. businesses that outsource to Mexico are hurting. Border violence---fueled by U.S. demands for (currently) illegal marijuana have made the northern portion of Mexico a lot like Beirut in the 1980s.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu... Poor U.S. manufacturers. It’s too dangerous to outsource our jobs. Good thing the American workers have someone in their court----the states which have an economic incentive to keep marijuana Illegal with a capital P. As in, you will do hard prison time in those states if you light up.
Private prison time.
Here is the DU article on the five states which bring the hammer down hardest on those who commit the victimless crime of smoking weed:
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/... Note that the state at the top of the list is
not on the U.S. Mexican border. Why is Oklahoma so down on dope? Because recreational drug users are the cheapest, easiest prisoners for private prisons to incarcerate (at public expense). And your average pot smoker is a lot easier on the pocketbook than a full blown heroin addict. No HIV, not Hepatitis C. Just one poor soul who wants to get out of jail real bad so that he can return to his productive life as a U.S. worker. This guy is definitely not going to be a problem for the private company that is getting paid a gazillion dollars to keep him from smoking (weed) for a year.
“Follow the money,” he said. “Private prisons make a profit of over 30 percent on each inmate. They utilize a good portion to influence local policy decisions by hiring the most affluent lobbying firms and making political donations.”
http://opea.org/private-prisons-are-no-bar... Oklahoma is booming. Or, at least, its prisons are.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OKCURE/messa... The state's prison population routinely hits 99 percent of capacity, the
Board of Corrections was told Wednesday.
In Texas, private prisons are a boom industry. Note that Texas has the largest number of private prisoners in the country as of 2007:
http://www.texasprisonbidness.org/lobbying... And guess who comes in second? That’s right, Florida, the third worst state in which to smoke dope. Arizona, the fifth worst state for draconian pot laws is third in number of for profit incarcerations. Louisiana made the list in 2007, too, and GOP Governor Bobby “Blanche” Jindal (relies on the kindness of the feds for free money while arguing against Big Government)wants to see even more money flow into the hands of the privates.
http://www.thepelicanpost.org/2011/04/05/l... ’s-plan-to-privatize-prisons/
Paul Rainwater, Gov. Jindal’s top budget advisor, counters that the one-time money would help private health providers navigate a tough financial year.
Hmmm. And if we sold every male whose name begins with the letter B (sorry, Bobby) into slavery in Saudi Arabia, we could pay for platinum plated health insurance for the rest of us!
Remember, we don't want our private prison industry to suffer hard times just because the rest of us are, either. So, light up America! Keep those manufacturing jobs at home and America's private prison industry profitable!
