The farcical war on marijuana

Press-Telegram ^ | May 09, 2005 | Rich Lowry

[Uncle Fud]

That's exactly why there is no support for the legalization of pot. A drug that anyone can grow and easily prepare for use provides no financial incentive for middlemen.

[fr_freak]

The "I was just following orders..." excuse has been dismissed time and time again.

Cops can choose to turn a blind eye to anything they want, though they may pay a price if seen doing this by the wrong people. What I was referring to, however, was the overall effort of a particular police department. For instance, if a city decides it wants a "zero tolerance" policy on marijuana and will therefore dedicate a certain number of police officers to that emphasis, rather than general policing, then the officers involved really don't have much discretion in the matter. It's like the DUI checkpoints (another huge waste of time and effort, in my opinion). An officer may believe his time is wasted at a checkpoint, but once he's assigned to one, he has no choice but to go through the motions. So it is with the drug enforcement.

[joebuck]

I'm not sure what these statistics really mean. Although pot posession busts are up I seriously doubt that investigations for pot posession are up. I practiced criminal law during the first 15 of my career and I don't think I ever saw a police investigation of a mere posession charge. 98% of all Pot posession busts were cases where the defendant was being busted for something else (DUI, trespass, disorderlly conduct or more serious charges) and the cops happened to find some pot on the guy. Or the cops were investigaing a complaint (ie. noise, fighting, etc.) and the cop turns up some pot while investigating the original complaint. I don't believe cops devote any real resourses to investigating cases of possible marijuana posession. If anything, more posession busts probably means more people are smoking the stuff or fewer cops are looking the other way when some pot does turn up during an investigation or bust.

[TKDietz]

I do nothing but criminal defense and I see a lot of marijuana cases coming to court where there are no other charges filed. I don't know that police are out really "investigating" these cases, but some of them are making a real effort to bust people for pot. I'm in a small town where police have a good idea who uses drugs and they pull people over and shake them down for drugs a lot. They'll have some bogus excuse like a cracked windshield or a license plate light out or some minor traffic infraction of some sort. When they make the stop, they'll question these people about drugs, ask for consent to search which is often granted, or they'll do "weapons patdowns" where they are really searching for drugs. The judges here never suppress evidence on cases like these, so all of these charges stick.

[Pessimist]

Good Captioning!

I always looked at that girl as the "poster child for type B personaility", but now that I see a still of her its hard to discount "pot smoker"...

[Wolfie]

The WOD is a mistake, but to be fair to the cops out on the street, they don't really get to choose which crimes get emphasized.

I used to fall for that line too. Then crap like this started turning up:

Police Launch Petition Drive Against Pot Law

Make no mistake about it, they want to legislate as well as enforce.

[Wolfie]

The plain truth of the matter is that marijuana is the focal point because without it, there simply aren't enough users of all other illegal drugs combined to justify the huge budgets and rights shredding tactics of the Drug War.

[NRA2BFree]

Good Captioning!

Thanks!

I always looked at that girl as the "poster child for type B personaility", but now that I see a still of her its hard to discount "pot smoker"...

Pot smokers are usually harmless to the general public, except for an accident if they are too stoned. It does damage their brain after they have used it for a long period of time.

People who consume alcohol cause more fatal accidents than a casual pot smoker. We should ban alcohol, because alcohol kills more people than drugs ever have. I KNOW that alcohol is a drug, but it's ignored as one. Good thing I've got my asbestos undies on today, because I'll probably get flamed for that. LOL

[Know your rights]

there is no support for the legalization of pot.

Actually, 41% of Americans support it.

[Know your rights]

The main concern I have usually hear against it is that it is a "gateway drug" that will lead to trying scarier stuff

The mild correlation between use of pot and use of "scarier stuff" can be entirely explained by a pre-existing inclination to alter one's mental state ... which accounts for the fact that there is similar data for alcohol and tobacco being "gateways."

[Know your rights]

prescribe that....for ???

Pain and nausea, to name just two.

[Know your rights]

San Franciso is a much better place now that marijuana has been legalized - sarcasm

It hasn't been legalized. And where are the benefits of marijuana being illegal? All I see are inflated profits going into criminal hands.

[Know your rights]

"Increased arrest rates are not associated with reduced marijuana use, reduced marijuana availability, a reduction in the number of new users, reduced treatment admissions, reduced emergency-room mentions, any reduction in marijuana potency, or any increases in the price of marijuana." Besides that, the war on marijuana is a smash success.

LOL! It's a success at providing paychecks for WOD bureaucrats and warm fuzzy feelings for big-government puritans.

[FreedomAvatar]

the city's new marijuana ordinance by those who say it reduces possession of a small amount of the drug to "less than a parking ticket."

In other words, they get less revenue.

[FreedomAvatar]

Make no mistake about it, they want to legislate as well as enforce.

And why not? A badge, gun, ego, and a GED are all you need to legislate.

[Wolfie]

I've often said, if you want to become a cop, you shouldn't be allowed to.

[Sonny M]

Some sap standing up in a church basement saying "My name is Joe, and I'm a marijuana addict".

Admit it, you stole that from a movie.

I think it was called "Half baked".

[Sonny M]

And why not? A badge, gun, ego, and a GED are all you need to legislate.

Depends on where you are, some places require some college education.

[William Terrell]

and prescribe that....for ???

Migraine headaches.

[pageonetoo]

Plus, one criminal conviction can ruin the career future of a promising college student, possibly turning them from productive contribution to less savory activities to make money.