<story><title>At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt</title><url>https://apnews.com/article/crime-prisons-lawsuits-connecticut-074a8f643766e155df58d2c8fbc7214c</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>standardUser</author><text>What drives me absolutely insane about stories like this is that so many of the people suffering under these policies are guilty of little more than market participation. The government strains, at &lt;i&gt;extraordinary&lt;/i&gt; expense, to pretend they can stop drugs from being made, bought and sold, but they can&amp;#x27;t. They simply can&amp;#x27;t. Countless laws, countless billions of dollars and countless ruined lives later, drugs are no less popular or accessible than they ever were in the past. The government gave it their best shot, failed in spectacular fashion over generations, and anyone who still supports this approach is either hopelessly brainwashed or, maybe, just not very smart.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tmpz22</author><text>There are over 2 MILLION prisoners in the US prison population of a population of 330M.&lt;p&gt;This gives the USA the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world.&lt;p&gt;The next four?&lt;p&gt;* Rwanda&lt;p&gt;* Turkmenistan&lt;p&gt;* El Salvador&lt;p&gt;* Cuba&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;worldpopulationreview.com&amp;#x2F;country-rankings&amp;#x2F;incarceration-rates-by-country&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;worldpopulationreview.com&amp;#x2F;country-rankings&amp;#x2F;incarcera...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt</title><url>https://apnews.com/article/crime-prisons-lawsuits-connecticut-074a8f643766e155df58d2c8fbc7214c</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>standardUser</author><text>What drives me absolutely insane about stories like this is that so many of the people suffering under these policies are guilty of little more than market participation. The government strains, at &lt;i&gt;extraordinary&lt;/i&gt; expense, to pretend they can stop drugs from being made, bought and sold, but they can&amp;#x27;t. They simply can&amp;#x27;t. Countless laws, countless billions of dollars and countless ruined lives later, drugs are no less popular or accessible than they ever were in the past. The government gave it their best shot, failed in spectacular fashion over generations, and anyone who still supports this approach is either hopelessly brainwashed or, maybe, just not very smart.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>xfitm3</author><text>Portugal is an excellent role model, there are numerous studies on their approach to drugs[0]. While I am not an expert on the subject the model is morally appealing to me, and I believe public order is maintained. Begin researching on your own if you&amp;#x27;re interested in this subject. I feel for anyone who loves a drug user.&lt;p&gt;Separately I just learned fentanyl test strips are not legal in all 50 states. Given that fentanyl is a leading cause of death, giving access to test strips can save lives. I don&amp;#x27;t know how heavily this law is enforced, but it&amp;#x27;s a great example of cutting your nose to spite your face. To me it&amp;#x27;s a litmus test that reinforces the notion the USA&amp;#x27;s stance on drugs was never about harm reduction.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;substanceabusepolicy.biomedcentral.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;10.1186&amp;#x2F;s13011-021-00394-7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;substanceabusepolicy.biomedcentral.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;10.1...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>