>>80% seems VERY high to me, more like the users are the ones who are doing it.
You may have a different view than me of the gang to gang violence. But in many areas of the country, they have their turf, they don’t have many turf wars, they are looking to do business for the most part.<<
It is so difficult to get good figures — Goggle/bing/etc. have so many articles that it is impossible to distill down to any useful numbers.
I am form L.A. and that is a number the (Police spokespeople, council members, etc.) seem to like to throw around. It probably should be challenged.
But there is clearly a lot of violence associated with the sale and distribution of drugs — and it is probable that would reduce.
>It is so difficult to get good figures — Goggle/bing/etc. have so many articles that it is impossible to distill down to any useful numbers.<
true, but the department of justice does put out what numbers are “reported” it is a start though the departments tend to play with the numbers before submitting.
As I said I was just talking from what I have seen. Not numbers because they do get played with.
>I am form L.A. and that is a number the (Police spokespeople, council members, etc.) seem to like to throw around. It probably should be challenged.<
It all depends on their tracking systems. How the call comes in, how it gets logged by the officer, dispositions and then How they end up reporting it to the DOJ. They are ultimately the clearing house. So I really have no idea how you would challenge it. Unless you had a civilian panel go in and through everything.
>But there is clearly a lot of violence associated with the sale and distribution of drugs — and it is probable that would reduce.<
I do agree with the fact there is a lot of crime associated with it. But all I was trying to point out was that the users are frequently so hooked that they are the ones who commit the crimes against civilians who are not involved with the drugs.
We have Columbians, Jamaicans, Bloods and bikers here running the gambit. From heroine, to meth, cocaine, crack, ecstasy, weed etc etc etc.
By far the people who use the stuff are causing bigger problems trying to get money to support their habits.
Sure things get violent between the rivals for business. But they tend to take care of it between themselves and don’t involve the public. They don’t want to draw our attention. There are a lot of rips and stuff, but it takes place in an apartment, somebody goes for a ride and it is done. Half of the incidents I bet we don’t even know about.
What we do see a lot of is elderly people having their homes broken into, they get abused and robbed. Etc.
These are REAL victims of this.
I just can’t see how that number would drop if you have an even more free flow of the drugs by legalizing them. if I am making my point clear.