What as trip to go from one side of the prison system to the other. I can imagine the ex officer sitting there saying. I used to be fingerprinting you guys...now I am one of you guys. Do you think his sheriff buddies will smile at him? Life is funny

At the present time, 76% of all addictions treatment is provided by State and Federal Funding. The agencies that contract with the State and/or Federal Agencies to provide services usually provide outpatient services and do not have facilities for inpatient medical detoxification. To get into a State and Federally Funded inpatient, medically supervised, detoxification program will put an individual in need (such as an alcoholic on the verge of DT's) on a waiting list and it can take as much as six to eight months to get a bed. This is Socialized Medicine in action. The outpatient treatment is by and large a "money-go-round" that rarely produces much better than unfunded 12-Step programs, as far as successful outcomes. That would put their long-term success rate at around 12% to 14%. They rarely do outcome studies so no one really knows for sure, however; the courts are well aware of the rates of recidivism and yet have been unable to do anything about the problem.

The unbelievable growth in the "Criminal Justice System" since 1971, when the ONDCP was established, has become a nightmare. It has cost trillions of dollars and ruined the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans alone. Money, Power and Greed drives the invisible machine that, as I see it, is just as bad as the "Holocaust", but in a more invisible and protacted manner. Hidden by the "need to rid the nation of drunks and druggies" the general public has been duped just as they are being duped by the "Global Warming Hoax". We live in a land of "Lemmings on Parade"!

For those of us who value the strength of truth and are unafraid to use it in defense of what is right, the "War on Drugs" will be stopped, and those responsible will be held accountable in every legal and financial way possible.

The time is near and, as a long-time Professional Addictions Futurist, much closer than many may realize. Full legalization, regulation, and fair taxation of marijuana is but the first doorway. I have predicted this for 15 years and we are now only 3 to 4 years away from that prediction if that long.

Due to the long-term hold that socialized medicine has had in the field of addictions, the antiquated psychosocial form of a 12-Step program has been used to assure that the outcomes remain in line with AA, NA, and other forms of 12-Step programs. This insures that few get well and the big "Money-go-Round" continues. This assures the Criminal Justice System of steady jobs, good pay, benefits and retirement all in the name of "Doing What is Right for The Citizens (and non-citizens) of our Great Nation". This keeps money in the pockets of organized crime and international illicit drug trade. It make a very "Dirty Triad" of National and International Organized Illicit Drug Trade (don't forget that the Kennedy Clan Patriarch, Joseph Kennedy, was a Bootlegger during Prohibition), Socialized Medicine in Addiction Treatment Programs, and the Criminal Justice System in all of its forms from the ONDCP on through the DOC right on down to the Defense Attorneys. This is a $900 billion per year GDP Monster.

Now, here is the real shocker. As I noted, marijuana "will be the Gateway Drug" much to the dismay of many. The Federal Government and the current Administration have worked themselves into an economic corner and will use, just as was done during Prohibition, the legalization, control, taxation, and regulation of, in this case, marijuana rather than alcohol in hopes of finding the money needed to bail themselves out. It will be a step in the right direction as far as crippling the "War on Drugs" and just at the right/wrong time.

There remains a little known or publicized international factor in research into the true nature of the misuse of, dependency on, and addiction to alcohol and other chemicals and behaviours. As a result ot the rapid increase in IT, the answers to genetic, epigenetic, and neuroscientific treatments and cures are pouring in at an exponentially increasing rate. (The guy on TV that touts a "cure for addiction" is, as I see it, a Con-Man). Much of the misuse of, dependency on, and addiction to alcohol and other chemicals is as a self-medication for undiagnosed mental disorders of largely genetic based and neurobiological imbalances in brain chemistry. The answers to treatement that will represent permanent cures are no more than 10 to 15 years away. During the time up to 2025, new breakthoughs in effective and long-term treatment of our Nation's and the World's alcohol and drug problems will be coming in at an ever increasing pace. This will destroy the "Drug War Triad" but it will put our National Economic Balance in a serious position. It plays a role in our current "National Recession" which is really a true "Economic and Social Depression". I will not go into the details of the role that the "Drug War" is involved here. It is much to detailed, so you will simply have to take my word for it, the problems are well hidden.

Any and all comments should make for a nice long discussion that I will look forward to seeing.

Smokey G.

Smokey G, ever get seriously sick in the U.K.? You get treatment immediately irrespective of your financial worth. Obama tried to imitate that program but it turned into a mockery with all the deals with insurance companies and HMOs he had to make. People against socialized medicine are essentially hill-billies. The ones who used to be proud of the spam they stockpiled in their bomb shelters. They used to lump socialized medicine in with bolshevism. Now they call Obama Hitler and go back to watching Fox News.

They always say genius is one step away from insanity, perhaps "criminal justice" is one step away from from "criminal"...

"Now, here is the real shocker. As I noted, marijuana "will be the Gateway Drug" much to the dismay of many." Smokey you sure have done your homework !! Since you call marijuana "The Gateway Drug". If you had never done marijuana, and you do other drugs. I take it(since you say Gateway Way Drug) you or not really doing drugs? Since Marijuana is "The Gateway Drug" right? Smokey go back and hit the books!! You homework grade is a "F"