War on Drugs

The war on drugs has created a huge boom in the domestic prison population. With over two million people in prison, the United States has the highest incarceration rates in the world, a factoid that should be repeated by media outlets every day. The United States makes up just five percent of the world’s population, but it contains 25 percent of the world’s prison population. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has intensely ramped up its drug enforcement policies, incarcerating individuals for minor drug offenses, including drug use and possession