In that case we should do it.
There should not be laws which are enforced based upon the personal discretion of the police.
Neither should we give prosecutors the option to use victimless crimes as a "handle" to arrest people when they suspect a more serious crimes but don't have the evidence (which appears to be the case in this Montana bust).
We'd be better off to bust everybody with a single bud on their possession and clog up the courts with those cases (including all the doctors', lawyers', city officials', and cops' kids). It would force awareness of the real implications of the law.
(1) Roughly 100,000 drug offenders are incarcerated in Federal prisons.
95% for drug dealing.
5% (5,000) of them for drug possession.
That 5,000 includes possession for ALL drug types, not just marijuana.
Sources: William J. Sabol, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Department of Justice, December 2008, page 22, Appendix Table 12 - Christopher Mumola, Department of Justice, October 2006, page 4
(2) I did multiple search titles for info on first time offenders serving time for possession of user amounts of marijuana in federal prisons.
I can find no record that any such prisoners exist.
(3) Roughly 255,000 drug offenders are held in state prisons.
Source: William J. Sabol, “Prisoners in 2007,” Department of Justice, December 2008, page 21, Appendix Table 10
(4) Only 4,000 state prisoners are incarcerated for marijuana possession.
There is no data on the quantity of marijuana they possessed, or if they had previous convictions.
I can find no data that indicates any of those state prisoners are first time offenders who possessed user amounts of marijuana.
Source: DEA, 2008 Marijuana Sourcebook, page 10
(5) According to NORML, there were 860,000 marijuana arrests in 2009.
I can find dozens of links on NORML’s website to stories about peaceful, law abiding dealers going to jail.
I cannot find one link on NORML to any story about peaceful, law abiding users going to jail for possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Source: NORML.org
Bottom line...
There were 860,000 arrests for marijuana in 2009.
At most, there were 6,000 federal and state prisoners serving time for marijuana possession.
I cannot find one citation that even one of those 6,000 prisoners was a first time offender with user amounts of marijuana.
I stand by my original statement:
“The number of recreational (but otherwise law abiding) users in jail is close to zero.”
You make several good points.
In many urban areas close to 40% of the prisoners in city or county lockup are drug possession cases.
Police use it as prima facie evidence for arrest.
Prosecutors use it as a negotiating tool.