How can we afford to lock up such a lage portion of our workforce?
In every other land on Earth this foolishness would fail , but we can afford to hire an illeagal laborer to cover the loss of a pot smoker.
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The need is to have an abundant supply of cheap labor. One way is to import workers, even illegal workers, from elsewhere. Another way would be to lock up lots of citizens on relatively unimportant drug charges (such as marijuana). If the jobs become too plentiful, the state can release the prisoners early.
Prison guards don't have to be as well-trained as city police. Most states locate their prisons in rural areas where there are lots of unemployed workers, usually men. Some of the unemployed men will turn to drugs, and others can be trained cheaply as prison guards to guard them in the Big House.
Although we DO lock up a huge number of potsmoking potentially productive citizens, it is debatable whether we can "afford" it, because there are better ways of dealing with drug use.
Ignoring personal production and use of pot would be one way.
