Lucinda F. Boyd's Blog – December 2012 Archive (6)

40 Years, $1 Trillion, 45 Million Arrests: This is the War on Drugs.

Forty years ago, President Nixon called a press conference to tell the American people that their “public enemy #1” was drug abuse. He then proceeded to declare an all-out war on drug users and sellers, with resounding repercussions on criminal justice policy and on vast numbers of Americans.

Subsequent presidents, drug czars, and local politicians have followed Nixon’s lead, fueling an unprecedented boom in…

A Brief Outline of Drug Policies in the United States

DRUG LAWS PRE-1960S

1914 – The Harrison Act restricts the sale of heroin and cocaine – both legal at the time – and establishes a legal framework for federal intervention on drug policy.

1919 – Alcohol prohibition is enacted as the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. The failure of Prohibition led to its repeal in 1933 – the only Constitutional Amendment ever repealed by the States.

1937 – After…

The United States is the world's leader in incarceration with 2.3 million people currently in the nation's prisons or jails -- a 500% increase over the past thirty years. Some of these are murderers, robbers or rapists, but many are non-violent offenders whose behavior can be changed by approaches that are much more effective than long sentences. Compounding the problem is the fact that thousands of these nonviolent offenders receive lengthy mandatory minimum terms in state and federal…

Drug War Statistics

Did you know....

Amount spent annually in the U.S. on the war on drugs: More than $51,000,000,000

Number of people arrested in 2011 in the U.S. on nonviolent drug charges: 1.53 million

Number of people arrested for a marijuana law violation in 2011: 757,969

Number of those charged with marijuana law violations who were arrested for possession only: 663,032 (86 percent)

Number of Americans incarcerated in 2009 in federal, state and local…

The Phoenix Boys Center hosted "Amateur Boxing Fight Night" on Saturday, Dec. 15 at the American Legion Post 2 in Tempe and was Sponsored by The Streets Don't Love You Back Movement. The bout was sanctioned by USA Boxing Arizona, the governing body for amateur boxing in Arizona.

Some boxing notables were in attendance and working the corner for a few of the boxers in the eleven bout card. NABF Lightweight Champion, Ray Beltran, former World Flyweight Champion,…

Bill Gates recently gave a Commencement speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about…