"This secondary impact, on police and prisons, may end up being more negative than anything associated with the drug."

"We've cut spending on prisons so far that our prison system now looks like a third world country," she said.

And if you don't pay for any of those things, you're going to spend a small fortune on prisons.

Yes, billions will be spent on law enforcement and prisons.

At one point, in the mid-1990's, California began spending more on prisons than for its giant university system.

For the sake of argument, consider different ways to spend the $15 billion a year now likely to be spent on new prisons.

In that same period of time, states' spending on prisons went up 189 percent.

However, we are not holding an urgent debate on prisons here.

He has done research on the courts, police and prisons.

"We can pursue a story on prisons and reform schools anywhere in the state," he said.