UCSC sociologist says making pot legal does not boost use

Santa Cruz (CA) Sentinel ^ | May 4, 2004 | ANNA GOSLINE

[The Other Harry]

Oh, they CAN get busted in SF, but they hardly ever do

I once went riding with a policeman in a city not too far from there. He was stopped, talking with another policeman when a call came in about some teenagers who were apparently smoking marijuana. The one cop said, "We'd better get right on that." Then they continued talking about other things.

[The kings dead]

Are we really spending 'billions of dollars' chasing pot users?

We're spending $36 billion a year on drug enforcement, and pot is far and away the most popular illegal drug.

[barkeep]

Yes, we are literally spending billions. The feds don't break it down by drug, but the federal share of the drug war was 15 billion last year and that does not include cost of incarceration. As the most popular drug by far, we can assume much of this 15 billion was spent chasing pot.

Why would anyone think legalization would increase use? As far as I can tell, and I really am a barkeep, I hear a lot, any fool who wants the stuff now doesn't have any problem finding it. Seems to be primarily the young and dumb who get caught, I have friends who have smoked for 30 years without a bust, just by being reasonably cautious. Philosophical arguement aside, this a huge waste of tax money.

[tdadams]

So why legalize it, if the same people are going to use it anyway?

Well, I had a similar question, but my initial reaction was, "Why criminalize it?"

[Wolfie]

The Dutch have had the same statistics for 20 years. Why the big deal now?

[Psycho_Bunny]

UCSC sociologist says making pot legal does not boost use

If I'm somehow able to avoid Kerry ads, this my well be the stupidest statement I hear this month.