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Comment by almostgotcaught | Hacker News Reader

I can only remain bemused at how some people weigh things; 300,000 people were arrested in 2020 for possession of marijuana [1]. There is nothing short-sighted about wishing the free so many people of the misery of being under the same thumb (the penal system) that you bemoan for Assange and Snowden.

1. https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/317793-people-were-a...

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It’s interesting that you chose to omit the more recent stats, as well as to notice that under the proposed change those people could still be in trouble for illegally possessing a controlled substance. But even then, it’s not just “2 guys” we’re talking about here. It’s 350 million people who are being illegally spied on and lied to. Dropping the charges against Assange and Snowden and apologizing to them would be a good first step on fixing all that.

> chose to omit ...

I pasted the first link I found but since you're trying to insinuate something about my motives:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/irisdorbian/2023/10/19/weed-arr...

> The exact figure was 227,108 arrests. Of that number, 92% were for possession only. This number is a slight jump from 2021 when the FBI reported a total of 219,489 arrests for marijuana.

Your point being what? That 220k arrested is a dramatic improvement over 300k?

Where is the stats for 2023?

Weed offenses do not not precedent over unlawful spying, espionage and the countless more lives it would save for their actions. Unfortunately those people are overseas and you seem dismissive of the American evils such as collateral murder. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HfvFpT-iypw

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