Police Focus on Marijuana a Danger to Public Safety
A frequent claim made by opponents of marijuana policy reform is that hardly anybody is ever really arrested for low-level marijuana offenses. But like most prohibitionist arguments, that’s a lie.
In California, where marijuana possession was “decriminalized” in 1976 and medical marijuana legalized 20 years later, the state Department of Justice reports that law enforcement conducted a record 78,492 marijuana arrests in 2008. About 80% of these (61,366) were for mere possession – not sale or cultivation.
The California-based Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ) took a long look at trends for marijuana arrests in the state and revealed some disturbing information. In its recent report to the California Legislature, CJCJ showed that the arrest rate for marijuana possession has skyrocketed in California – up 127% – between 1990 and 2008. But during the same period, arrests for all other offenses in California decreased by 40% – including other drug possession, which sank by nearly 30%. The arrest rate for marijuana sales and manufacturing even decreased 21% during this period.
You can’t help but conclude from this data that California’s police agencies have developed an almost singular focus on marijuana possession as their top law enforcement priority. This is shocking, not only because most Californians now say they want marijuana legal, but because it’s a dangerous and irresponsible use of limited public safety resources.
Last year, while California’s law enforcement officers were rounding up a record number of marijuana consumers, almost 60,000 reported violent crimes never resulted in an arrest.* Thanks to decriminalization in California, these arrests usually don’t result in jail or lengthy detainment, but they do take real police time and other criminal justice resources.
Anyone unfortunate enough to have been a victim of an unsolved crime should support repealing marijuana prohibition and freeing up police to focus on public safety rather than consensual adult activity that’s no more harmful than drinking beer or wine.
*Source: FBI, Crime in the U.S., 2008
Tagged with: arrests and California and Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice by the author
69 comments
this could solely mean there is more marijuana possession. not that marijuana is being targeted.
i have posted a number of replies with headlines in my local town paper about cannabis possession arrests. CA police are indeed arresting people for possession and related to the number of headlines in our paper it is a major focus of the police. in contrast when you call for things like vandalism, suspicous activity in your neighbor hood they aren’t able to send a police officer for sometimes days. I wonder why that is?
They now full legalization is coming and are desperate to stop it.
But the cat is all ready out of the bag. Sorry Charlie
This chart really shows that PROHIBITION IS CAUSING A SEVERE DETERIORATION OF USEFUL LAW ENFORCEMENT!
Real crime goes unpunished while consuming Cannabis (which should not even be a crime at all) takes so much of the law enforcement resources. LEO’s need to concern themselves with REAL CRIME. Actually, as I think about it – the fact that law enforcement spends their time punishing Cannabis users instead of dangerous criminals IS A CRIME in itself! It is a serious crime!
Please show a chart showing the actual number of reported rapes and murders, etc. over the same years as this will prove to Jon the reality of what is going on here. Just because there may be more Cannabis used today does NOT mean that law enforcement should ignore dangerous criminals to go after “otherwise law abiding citizens” who want to use a safer substance than Alcohol!
Aaron, please also look into National Charts!!!
Legalize Cannabis Now!
The “low lying fruit” helps to keep their statistics up and allows them to justify their jobs.
60,000 Violent Crimes go without arrest in California in one year. On the other hand 61,366 people were arrested for SIMPLE possession of marijuana!?!?!?!?!? Looks to me as though this is a waste of limited public resources.
Let’s take the actual crime out of the picture:
If California HAD to choose (and based on their budget problems they might just need to choose) should they spend their resources on non-violent crime or on solving violent crimes?
1 Jon Knoche { 11.03.09 at 11:15 am }
this could solely mean there is more marijuana possession. not that marijuana is being targeted.
or that bc more people are using marijuana all these other crimes are going down
Crime throughtout the nation is down on average, busting marijuana offenders is all they have left to recieve precious budget boosts. Keep pumping in those arrest numbers and exaggerating how much bud those tons of male plants you just uprooted will yield so we can keep fuelling tha choppazzz!. :/
The state of Colorado just destroyed our Constitutional Amendment allowing us to get medicine, Where were you at MMP, Where were you at NORML, we in Colorado donate to your Org’s just like CA but thats all you focus on
Jason – “or that bc more people are using marijuana all these other crimes are going down”.
Very good point!
I could understand why police officers who are still under payroll doesn’t want marijuana legalize. It’s job security, easy promotion, and it’s fun. They get a lot of support from people who does not like you, and more prison is needed because there are too many dope smokers.
7 RelaxSRH { 11.03.09 at 12:19 pm } The state of Colorado just destroyed our Constitutional Amendment allowing us to get medicine, Where were you at MMP, Where were you at NORML, we in Colorado donate to your Org’s just like CA but thats all you focus on
I dont belive they ignore your state. Heck my state mississippi doesn’t even have a norml branch. It is sad that your legislatores decided to gut the medical law but MPP, Noml, and LEAP do what they can. You win some and lose some but if you lose faith there will be no change. I hope that before i die that cannabis sativa is legalized. So that my son and future kids won’t have that to wory about. they will just have to concern themselves with huge debt caused by corporate bail outs from our era.
1 Jon Knoche, 6 jason, and 8 FiddleMan yes marijuana arrests are at an all time high, but that in no way means that violent crimes such as rape, murder, etc are going down. In fact I would say they are going way up. This is because the police all over the country are focusing on arresting marijuana users and therefore the violent criminals are going unpunished! So those people are still on the streets free to commit more violent crimes. Plus lets not forget about all the cartels that are in the country’s 230+ cities and growing. They are out there murdering people every day as a direct result of prohibition and all the violence it brings.
So please don’t say stupid things like other crimes are going down just because innocent people are being arrested for nothing more than smoking a harmless plant. It is simply the arrest rates for the violent crimes that are going down not the crimes themselves. PLEASE dont say stupid things people.
Maybe LEO will get it if people wise up and STOP paying their taxes.
RelaxSRH: By no means does MPP ignore Colorado. In fact, besides our our State Policies staff work on medical marijuana issues in the state, MPP provides funding to Sensible Colorado and SAFER — both great CO-based organizations work for much needed reform in that state.
You may notice that I’m always blogging about California but that’s because it’s my job. I’m the California policy director here at MPP and my office is in the Bay Area.
Rest assured, we care about all 50 states!
…and FiddleMan: Keep an eye out for a national report on similar data in the days ahead!
YesWeCannabis – from my comment #4:
“Please show a chart showing the actual number of reported rapes and murders, etc. over the same years as this will prove to Jon the reality of what is going on here. Just because there may be more Cannabis used today does NOT mean that law enforcement should ignore dangerous criminals to go after “otherwise law abiding citizens” who want to use a safer substance than Alcohol!”
I am sure that violent crimes have indeed risen during this time and that the law enforcement simply want the “safe & easy” task of arresting Cannabis users.
Never-the-less, I agree with Jason that Cannabis users are not violent like Alcohol users, and I certainly believe that when Cannabis is legalized that violent crimes WILL actually go down in numbers simply do to the fact that there will be less Alcohol use!
Legalize Cannabis Now!
Thanks Aaron!
Keep up the good work!
They just caught a serial killer in Cleveland , Ohio. 8 bodies I think is the latest count…Maybe more intense looking for missing people could have saved 1 or more of them. Maybe instead of busting harmless cannabis users daily they could have been looking for those missing women. Maybe real crimes should be focused on instead of nuisances.
#11
The point that marijuana could deter people from commiting these other crimes is not stupid.
Do you deny that people are possessing more marijuana?
I also agree with the jist of the blog.
It could certainly be a combination of these three things.
No one should be arrested for using marijuana responsively.
Look Jason #17 you obviously don’t know how to read. Look at the chart at the top of the page. It clearly states ARREST RATES! That means it is just the people police pursued not the actual crimes that were reported. You can read the paper every day and it will mention the cartel related murders that happened in California alone are higher than they have ever been, but yet there are no arrests being made. Instead the non violent marijuana users are being arrested.
So yes as I said before more people are being arrested for simple possession charges, but that in no way means that there are less rapes and murders being committed. They just arent being pursued by the police.
Now I never said that Marijuana couldn’t deter people from these violent crimes. What I did say is that the police aren’t focusing their efforts on catching rapists and murderers they are focusing on catching marijuana users, which in turn leaves the violent criminals on the streets to continue their reign of terror.
This is so true that cops target mairjuana consumers over other crimes. Why? One, they get federal funds to fight marijuana so the more arrests they make the more money they get, now they will say thats not true but it is and dont let them fool you. Two, marijuana arrests look good to voters, they think streets are safer when they see a bunch of marijuana consumers on the news, it makes cops look like they are doing a great job. Three they dont know any better, prohibition and marijuana arrests are out of control, so to a new cop stepping in he wouldnt know that this is overloaded and causing probles he just knows thats all he knows. So for years and years that all these cops see and so its like clockwork they keep doing it over and over without seeing the damaged caused. Fourth, because we as citizens have let this happen, we have been scared into the Drug war parents have been misslead and we have allowed ourr cops to move focuse to drugs over every other crime.
Now to me I would say if all violent crimes are solved then heck go bust some meth heads but to make marijuana you focus and to let violent crimes go unsolved well thats not protecting and serving the public, thats protecting and serving yourself, for job security!
Its simple the majority feels medical use shouldnt be a crime, yet they keep arresting sick americans all over this nation, the majority now says legal marijuana is more controled than black market marijuana and we want change, yet they act like we are Madd for debating it? But if prohibition did work, we would still have alcohol prohibition and we wouldnt have any marijuana consumers art all, yet we have mroe people smoking marijuana today than ever and its easyer to get better quality and more of it too. Seems to me prohibition hasnt worked and we are seeing cops running around trying to cover that fact up. Well they cant cover it up because the majority knows its only a matter of time till this stupid drug war and all its failings are a thing of the past!
Somedasy I can only hope that this nation wakes up and sees the damage this failed policy has brought and turns it around in a way to control drugs, criminals dont card when they sell to your kids, what will stop that, REGULATION.
Holy Smokes! If you break the rules of probation and smoke cannabis you very well will find yourself in jail. It seems to me a perpetual circle. Cannabis is easy to find. The smell of a burning flower ember is enough to land you on the wrong side of the law.
When alcohol contributes to such a large amount of violence, sexual abuse, and poor health, why do we continue to allow the non-violent enducing substance remain such a villified intoxicant. Turn the tables on the leaders by asking why they continue to promote the use of alcohol over a substance that does not contribute to violence, sexual abuse, death, and medical remedy.
The Rev. Sleezy
The Universal Life Church of the Holy Smokes
Potland, OR
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Thomas_Jefferson
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826), Notes on Virginia
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826), Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781-82
In the end,we will be victorious.
Because they have discovered a new revenue stream…fines for pot
Does going after a rapist allow them to seize cool cars, money, etc.? No. No surprise, just like everything else in this messed up country of ours- follow the money and you have your answer.
I saw a news piece which stated there are TENS of THOUSANDS of rape kits that are sitting unprocessed due to “budgetary” restrictions. Any woman that reads where police are utilizing our tax dollars should be outraged that law enforcement CLAIMS there is not enough money to go ’round.
I forgot the other benefits cops get for busting pot smokers. Pay raise, assurance to other police offiers that they are loyal and will not tolerate pot heads, and property forfeiture.
Drug cartels and law enforement both want marijuana illegal.
Do prohibitionist and crooked politicans really care? They just blame it on pot smokers.
No what this means is that the more people they arrest for marijuana, the less they arrest more violent crimes.
For a different look at how our money…FRNs…federal reserve notes, and our laws, not common law, but administrative law works, check out http://www.newpeopleorder.com. I have not read the book, but have heard many of their internet radio interviews. These folks have connected the dots that explain how we have come to the point of our silly rules and regulations…Cannabis prohibition the appropriate subject for this thread, but this “toxic asset” effects everything. This info will not make you feel very good…but interesting explanation on how the “constructive fraud” works on “we the people”. Check out Dave Champion’s interview explaining the ideas of jury nullification. Little bit of work to watch as its divided into 18 clips. .http://www.originalintent.org/edu/mmedia/viewclips.php?mmedia_id=juryduty
Something very similar was said at the California debate. The judge said that the tougher we get on marijuana, the softer we get on everything else and long and behold here are those numbers.
This just states that pot smokers are non-violent, open minded and peace loving people, and the government is willing to destroy americans lives then deal with the real issue of why they want to keep it illegal, and listen to common sense and reason. Those numbers should then drop even more across the board because the ones that would be prone to violent crimes like rape and murder would not have that “violent factor” to commit the crimes.
Why can’t we just be left alone?
MPP POST THIS!!! http://cbs4denver.com/local/Colorado.ski.town.2.1290301.html
“but that in no way means that violent crimes such as rape, murder, etc are going down. In fact I would say they are going way up.”
=opinion. Back this up and you win.
32# i wonder what that will do to the court decision just handed down? Will breckenridge be a island unto itself like vatican city?
#25
Hell ya! Demand that pot smokers be left alone. If my mother ,sister wife ,girlfriend was raped and they told me they couldnt get to the tests any sooner due to the fact there are a bunch of pee tests ahead of us….It wouldnt be pretty.
Protect other women, do the tests. These other tests are NOT that important.
I’m with you #32:
http://cbs4denver.com/local/Colorado.ski.town.2.1290301.html
The local law is already working to undermine what the people have voted for.
These weasels dont get it. They dont make the rules, We The People do.
First License Issued To Montana Hemp Farmer
October 29th, 2009 Liz Posted in Family Farms, Peace
Hey MPP,
heres a story that would be worth watching, if not doing a report on.
Montana has issued its first license for an industrial hemp-growing operation, setting up a possible test case of whether the Drug Enforcement Administration is willing to override a state law allowing propagation of the plant.
Opps! heres the link
http://willienelsonpri.com/peace/4466/first-license-issued-to-montana-hemp-farmer.html
It sure would be helpful to see what kind of revenue is generated year by year for california from these arrests and ensuing fines.
Forget California. Every person fined, arrested or jailed for marijuana is a statistic. I would like to know state by state how much money is raised by, fines, home monitoring systems, court fees, rehab fees, monies raised by selling of confiscated cars, guns, homes ect., and fines related to incarserations. That is over kill. All that money taken by someone who is looking out for my safety. If they were truely looking out for my safety cigs would be against the law for everyone and cannabis would be legal. Proven by science cannabis cannot harm anyone, EVER!
I’m disgusted by the idea that my taxes are spent arresting marijuana users while violent criminals roam free, and I’m sick of the idea that the criminal drug cartels might try to get my kids involved in drugs just for the money.
Licensing, taxing, and regulating the distribution of marijuana is the surest way to put the criminal drug dealers out of business and protect our children from the money-hungry criminal element. It’s time to protect our children and take the marijuana business out of the hands of criminals. License, tax, and regulate the marijuana business.
And while we’re at it, let’s find a way to pull the revenue-hungry public policy in the right direction on personal cultivation (i.e., let’s get past the “you can’t tax it because people will just grow their own” argument). Let’s implement a personal cultivation permit. Limit the size of the growing area or the number of plants, and put a small user-fee on it to cover administrative costs, something like a fishing license. Maybe high enough that there will be a little something left over for education or fixing the roads.
One possibility:$100 per year for a permit to cultivate a dozen plants.
It’s a win-win.
one interesting thing about this is when we get into conversation with prohibitionist we have great comebacks, and they’re not just unprovable lies. They are facts.
YesWeCannabis #11 and Jason #33:
Here is the REPORTED crimes for California from 1960 thru 2008:
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/cacrime.htm
You’ll notice that from 1992 to the present the number of REPORTED violent crimes have been trending downward since 1992.
What I find especially interesting is that there were 185,173 violent crimes REPORTED in CA in 2008. According to the article Aaron put together almost 60,000 of those REPORTED crimes did not result in arrest.
That means 32% of the REPORTED VIOLENT CRIMES went without ARREST in CA in 2008…..
1 in 3 murders go unpunished…
1 in 3 rapes go unpunished… (doesn’t help that there is a backlog of untested rape kits)
But you prefer to spend your time and limited (was there not talk about CA going Bankrupt) resources on non-violent “crimes”???
District Attorneys across the State should be horrified by these statistics….
MPP:
Idea for TV advertising:
Ever thought about running a spot that would essentially be about how we can “Protect our Children”
Picture the ad:
Starts out following a 14-15 year old around town…. he heads into a 7-11 and tries to buy a pack a cigs… “ID please?” no luck with the cigs, on to the next store… he tries to by a 6 pack… “ID please?”… once again no luck…. next he runs into another young kid on the playground where he proceeds to buy some marijuana… “DRUG DEALERS DON’T CHECK IDs… PROTECT THE KIDS… TAX AND REGULATE MARIJUANA”
Hell maybe he buys it from a Mexican Cartel member…. I think you get my point…
i’m sure many of those arrests were probable cause stops in an automobile. even people that smoke pot can be dumb sometimes.
police should be spying playgrounds and malls instead of sniffing at people’s doors. police should be looking for methlabs instead of grow-ops.
amensty for all possession inmates, and those on probation that choose marijuana as their adult recreational substance.
take marijuana and hemp off schedule 1.
tell kids the truth about drugs, and give them incentive to lead a chemical free lifestyle.
have needle exchange programs, and help addicts get weaned off of meth, crack, and blackmarket prescription drugs.
thank you.
DarthNole…
great idea!
no, at the end, when the other kid transfers the cash, quick edit scene to seeing the dollar bills go into the kid’s pocket, but when the hand exits, it is connected to a drug kingpin-type looking dude (end scene, show text).
Darth and Angus, you two need to get together with a video camera and shoot this film. What a great concept!
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826)
Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have … The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826)
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Thomas_Jefferson
and by “no more harmful than drinking” you meant “extremely less harmful”, right? Because it is.
[...] WAR ON DRUGS: Police Focus on Marijuana a Danger to Public Safety As marijuana arrests go up, rape, robbery, assault, and murder arrests go down. [...]
And the ones MOST responsible for this waste are the cops on the beat taking the easy pickings to suck up the overtime. Who is the biggest criminal to the welfare of the community?
prohibition is all about the people who work for the nazi DEA wanting to keep making money jailing americans. drug companies want to keep selling their deadly drugs and making billions,cops and drug task forces want to keep the money coming in while jailing people and breaking up families and jailing people for smoking a flowering herb. the drug war is a war on the constitution and freedom. hitler bit the dirt,now the drug war should bite the dirt.
You all are insane. I love reading these logs and all of your nonsense theories about cops and how they enjoy arresting people for marijuana possession instead of people committing rapes and robberies. In LA County, possession of marijuana is not even an arrestable offense, the person receives a cite.
I have spoken to many people in custody and listened to there story about how they ended up in jail. Majority start with how they chose to start abusing marijuana and then chose to move onto the harder drugs which sent them off into a downward spiral. I can gurantee if you legalize marijuana you will not gain much financially in the long run. Like alcohol, what you gain in money you give back from the problems it brings. Using marijuana is a choice and if you chose to use then be prepared to face the consequences. Stop the madness, and stop trying to legalize your shitty, weak habit. And don’t even try to respond with the whole “I need my medicine.” If you do then go to a real doctor and get a legal presrciption for Marinol or any of the other synthetic forms. With a prescription you will not run into any problems with the law.
Marijuana has been decriminalized, and based on these statistics, I would like to see what other crimes were attached to the booking. In LA County you can possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana and not be arrested unless there is other arrestable criminal activity.
looking at the total numbers of arrests for possession, those stats include a person receiving a citation for possession which as LE is concerned is an arrest, but there is no jail time or booking time with that, so slow your roll people
Its funny, LE can spin topics up in their favor just as you do on this website. With all the other problems in the world, you chose this one, what a joke. Well keep enjoying that freedom that i provide. Fight on!
John you are quite the stupid man woman whatever you may be. I live in the state of New York. I have been arrested for smoking pot and nothing else. I was in the military and went to afghanistan to fight but was sent back due to my uncontrollale headaches. When I found out my problem and my doctor told me that the best medicine for my disease is Marijuana. It protects the brain of adults not children. This whole thing now has been turned into a race struggle. You can sit in your home and drink whatever you want while poisining your body but if a black man or a Puertorican man was seen smoking something like marijuana that protects them how in the hell can you even look at yourself and say what you say? It is dumb shits like you that keep this medicine out of our hands. You embarrass me soldier.
and no you tart i do not smoke anything. I inhale my meds with a vaporizer. Secondly the doctors that have seen me prescribed asparin. But the aspirin helps in stopping the headache but not the Strokes i get. I went to a specialist who told me I should get my hands on marijuana because his study showed improvement in people like myself who is dealing with this disease. So obviously you are dumer than I could have imagined. Learn something soldier. Read a bit or are you to busy doing your PT to even try to learn something new.
Oh one more thing Mr Idiot Marinol is garbage. It does not even work. Learn something man. Marinol takes forever and a day for it to produce even the slightest pain relief. Again soldier learn something instead of looking stupid in front of the US and believing the lies that have been running thru our lives forever.
Holy Smokes. “that hardly anybody is ever really arrested for low-level marijuana offenses.” I don’t think that’s quite a true statement. Look to the state of Washington and a mandatory day of jail looks to be on the books and continues to be enforced. Look. Marijuana is SAFER than alcohol. Remember, Marijuana is SAFER than alcohol.
Next time you want to get intoxicated with alcohol ask yourself is this the safest choice I can make for myself or of those around me? Marijuana’s biggest harm is the prohibitionists continued use of deadly force against those who choose to use it. SWAT tactics on a family member who uses pot. Come on. When was the last time you as a LEO got in a fight with a dope smoking hippy freak sitting at home? Versus, When was the last time you got in a fight with a DRUNK leaving a bar headed towards the car to drive home. Think, Pooh, Think. God gave you a mind to do someting with it. Its called think.
The Rev.Sleezy
The Universal Life Church of the Holy Smokes
Potland, OR
John 53,
I started smoking pot when I was 18 and with the exception of the time period when I was taking my turn on the front lines, have more or less continued to do that all my life. Like many Americans, I also started drinking about then as well. Your entitled to your opinion just as much as I am entitled to mine, and while I understand that weed, like alcohol, isn’t for everyone, I will say this about that: I have never ever smoked so much weed that I passed out, blacked out, ran over anyone in my car, drove off the road and into a tree or off a bridge or into a van carrying someone else’s loved ones. I never got high and abused my wife and kids, never was not financially responsible to my family because alcohol seemed more important, never been arrested for DUI, etc. I think you get the picture.
By the way, I haven’t drank to the point of drunkeness in many years but no, I haven’t done any those things I listed either. My alcoholic step father and his drunken friends have done most of them.
I have indirectly supported the Mexican mafia by buying weed on the street, but now that I have a prescription, I get quality weed from local growers who are just that, growers, and my money does not find it’s way back to the criminal gangs responsible for so much violence in our country. And by the way, I happily pay more for my legal weed for just that very reason, plus the fact that I now have greater control over what I am buying, not just getting whatever the local dealer happens to be peddling that month.
In the end, if you can have your alcohol made legal then why shouldn’t my pot be legal? After all, it’s a drug that is much less harmful than alcohol both for myself as well as the people around me.
Oh and John, one more thing. That “freedom” your providing by working for the US Federal government; don’t look to deeply into how your actions support one of the most repressive organizations in the history of the world. and never really try to understand that most government officials are concerned only with staying in power and expanding that power, mostly by having mentally lazy people reiterate their myths and propaganda without really seeking the reality. i.e. Continue to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
Tom, the US is one of the most repressive organizations in the history of the world. Yet you can log onto the internet and voice your opinion without any fear of retribution. You are insane. Try this in another country. I guarantee your comments will not be welcomed. And that governement that is trying to stay in power, why not say thank you for allowing me to voice my opinion.
Fernando, while I might embarrass you, you disappoint me brother.
and as I said before, stop with the medicine part. I have not stated I am against Cannabis/medical marijuana. And you do not need a PhD or a lab coat to figure out that Cannabis is helping people with medical conditions or diseases not only get through their day but get through it with some dignity. I am against the out right legalization of Marijuana. Having the average joe being able to go and get high off marijuana, I don’t see anything good coming from that. Just like alcohol and nicotine, there is absolutely no benefit. I know you are going to stay that the governement should not be able to tell you what you can and can’t do in regards to what you put in your bodies. No government is perfect.
And if you think by legalizing marijuana you are going to stop the violence along the border and the black market, you are wrong. Even with marijuana legal you will have somebody trying to sell the product under the table in order to gain more profit. And do you really want to allow the drug cartels an open invitiation to come up and open businesses to sell legal marijuana. Don’t think that they will not jump right on board in an effort to further hide their illegal activity under that legal umbrella.
cops and drug companies dont want cannabis legal. they want to arrest citizens and take their posessions in violation of the fourth amendment. I hate cops ,judges,lawyers,elected officials. I was busted for a phone call to purchase cannabis. cost me 10000$ to keep out of jail. I no longer am proud of my country USA. nothing but lies and out of control cops. never there when you need them for protection. they only target cannabis smokers and non violent people. this country is rapidly turning communist. no cops obey the constitution anymore. the drug war[war on americans] has taken our freedom. this country stinks,and I was born here 65 years ago. we are like most empires that only lasted two hundred years and are collapsing rapidly. no jobs,no freedom and we are a police state.
@aaron smith
the math major in me is kinda cringing
You need to include a the # of arrests for each arrest category. For all we know the 110 percent increase could be increasing from like 10 to 21…
your graph doesn’t mean anything without it
lol
One way to easily do this would be would be to have to the right a 1990 and a 2009 arrest figure. I assume that you already have these and derived your percents from them.
@Kyle
The numbers for marijuana-related arrests for both years are on table 1 of the CJCJ report linked above ( http://www.mpp.org/assets/pdfs/library/MarijuanaArrestRates_October2009.pdf ).
In 1990, there were 20,834 arrests for marijuana possession. In 2008, there were 61,388 — a 127% increase in rate (adjusted for population growth) over that time span.
If you want more details on non-marijuana arrest rates, I’d contact the authors of the report at CJCJ or contact their source, the California Dept. of Justice Statistics Center. They’re surprisingly responsive and helpful.
I just attended a misdemeanor trial in Phoenix on 12-03-09 for cannabis possession in Arizona. What a waste of time and money. There was a judge, prosecutor, recorder, court officer, bailiff, defense attorney, arresting officer, lab technician and the defendant for court that day.
The victim was riding his bike that had a broken taillight, the police pulled him over, took his ID and called it in. Found out he had prior for cannabis possession. He told the cop that they could not search him but the cop then harassed the offender into admitting he had some cannabis on his possession and they then arrested him for having a gram and a half of pot and a rolling paper.
The victim got some sympathy from the judge but she sentenced the defendant to 24 hours of community service or a $750 anti drug class. What a waste of resources.
Nobody mentioned the fact that the arresting officer was a skin head and that the victim (defendant) was a black man with dreadlocks…. and on and on it goes.
Its all about chasing shadows.
By that I mean latching on to this or that latest, most innovative idea that some self styled money making guru has put out in the hope it’ll go viral and make them a lot of money off the backs of all the headless chickens who will follow them blindly down a blind alley. Its a shame but a truism nonetheless that people will follow where someone they see as an expert leads. Even if they lead them to certain disaster, which is what most of the gurus tend to do to their flocks.
The trick is to recognize a shadow when you see it!
http://www.onlineuniversalwork.com
How loud do we have to bark before anything gets done. Those are horrible statistics. The DA and his gang all think they are all hero’s. Oh they must get a medal! OMG, Give them another medal for busting another pot smoker, better yet, how about be getting a statue of stupidity if they bust a pot smoker!
Leave a Comment