Opinion: America's war on drugs needs renovation

America is known around the world as the “land of the free,” but how often do Americans stop and measure their freedoms? Americans look at social freedoms like gay marriage and abortion to gauge freedoms, but one overlooked measurement is incarceration. According to the International Centre for Prison Studies (ICPS), the United States has the highest number of people in prison in the world, with China in second. In fact, the United States has more than 400,000 more prisoners than China, which is significant, as China has roughly one billion more people than the U.S. Looking at the numbers, it appears as if much of it could come from the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 (what a name!)Since the act, passed under President Reagan, and according to Michelle Alexander—author of “The New Jim Crow”—incarceration of people for drug offenses has multiplied by 12, over 29 years. This rise in incarceration for drug offenses has provided prisons, since 1985, with about two-thirds of the rise of inmates in federal prison. Being the number one in the world in incarceration rates, and being described, as “the land of the free” seems a bit hypocritical to me. So what could America do in order to change this? The answer to this question is much more difficult. America has little to go off of when it comes to developed countries and drug policy, but there are examples. What it ultimately comes down to is what the American people are comfortable with. In recent years, the United States has experienced legalization of recreational and medical use of marijuana at the state level. Though many arrests are from marijuana, the United States is the biggest consumer of illegal drugs in the world. How do we continue to grow our population and decrease the amount of drug use?Portugal has a legal system in which if a person is caught with possession of any drug (all of which are legal), they are taken to a dissuasion board—a board filled with medical experts, sociologists, psychologists etc. This system actually reduced drug usage in the total population, which has risen consistently since this system reform occurred. Looking at drug addicts like some look at gun laws is a useful analogy. Users will find and use drugs whether the government says so or not, but simply deciding to treat addicts medically, not legally, could make all of the difference in the U.S. This could be a solution for the United States, but are the American people ready for that kind of reform? Looking at the current economic trends of the United States, the legalization of recreational marijuana could help the United States economy surge back. Not only would this help the economy, but also it could lower the United States incarceration rates, hopefully at least lowering our rank relative to other countries. In addition, taxpayer dollars wouldn’t be used to feed inmates, staff prisons and even keep whole complexes running. America will always be the ”land of the free,” and in many ways it is, but that freedom is limited, to an extent, with the current incarceration statistics. As Americans, we should surround hard drug users with a medical system that cares for them, not a legal system that throws them in federal prison. True reform and freedom comes from helping one another, not punishing.