Drug legalization is supported by Nobel laureates Gary Becker and Milton Friedman, Federal Judges Robert Sweet and Ed Schwartz, former Secretary of State George Shultz, Mayors Kurt Shmoke of Baltimore and Carrie Saxon-Perry of Hartford, former Congressman George Crocket of Michigan, and columnists William F. Buckley, Steve Chapman, Richard Cohen, Mike Royko, Thomas Sowell, and Anthony Lewis. The Economist, Oakland Tribune , and Detroit News have editorialized in favor of legalization. In addition, legalization is supported by the National Association of Veteran Police Officers, American Bar Association, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the American Civil Liberties Union. Sentences seldom mean what they say. On average a criminal will serve only 37 percent of any sentence imposed.
Juveniles are clearly responsible for a disproportionate amount of violent crime.
From 1982-1991, the number of juveniles arrested for murder or manslaughter increased by 93 percent. In 1990, individuals under the age of 21 were responsible for one-third of all murders. Yet, only 5 percent of violent juvenile offenders are tried as adults. Research by Peter Hart Associates in 1980 found that 4 percent of American households reported defensive use of a handgun within the previous five years. More recently, Gary Kleck of Florida State University estimated defensive handgun use at between 850,000 and 2.5 million incidents per year.