North County Times, 22 Sep 2010 – Approximately 2.3 million people, 1 in 100 adults, are incarcerated in the United States. More than 30,000 people are in prison in California for a drug offense, two-thirds for mere possession. We spend $49,000 per year on one inmate. In these dire economic times, this is beyond irresponsible. It is insane to waste taxpayer money to imprison a person for smoking, possessing or even abusing "pot." In California, moms are uniting and leading the charge to end marijuana prohibition, just as a group of mothers did to end the prohibition of alcohol in the 1930s. We are fed up with the violence, loss of lives and liberties caused by the war on drugs, so we are demanding an end to the pointless criminaliization of drug users and the needless deaths created by the illegal drug trade. We are joining with mothers who have lost their children to overdose, and parents whose families have been ravaged by addiction and incarceration, in an effort to promote compassionate and therapeutic policies. We cannot continue to try to punish our way out of what is essentially a public health problem.