News Flash: The "War" on drugs dosn't work!

[Yuppicide]

Report: Pot use, arrests rising in California

Marijuana arrests in California are increasing faster than the nationwide rate, and African Americans are being booked for pot-related crimes much more often than whites, a new report says.

But despite the rise in arrests and in the seizure of marijuana plants, use of pot in California has increased slightly, said the report, part of a nationwide study released Thursday by a Virginia researcher.

In both California and the United States as a whole, "we keep arresting more and more people, but it's not having a deterrent effect," said Jon Gettman, an adjunct assistant professor of criminal justice at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va.

Nationally, Gettman said, marijuana arrests have doubled since 1991,but marijuana use is unchanged.
Gettman is a former director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He said he favors the legalization of marijuana.

Gettman's report came a day after state officials announced that the state-federal Campaign Against Marijuana Planting had seized a record 4.4 million pot plants in California this year, up from 2.9 million in 2008.

Gettman's study is based on state and FBI arrest records and other government data from 2003 through 2007. It said California officers arrested 61,375 people on marijuana charges in 2003 and 74,024 in 2007, an average increase of more than 5 percent per year. Eighty percent of the arrests in 2007 were for marijuana possession, the report said.

Nationwide, the annual increase during the same period was just under 4 percent, the report said, although California's marijuana arrest rate, compared to its population, remained among the nation's lowest.
The report also found a large racial discrepancy in arrests.

African Americans were about 20 percent more likely than whites to use marijuana in 2007, but the arrest rate for blacks on marijuana charges was nearly 270 percent of whites' arrest rate, the report said.

Gettman said he found similar disparities nationwide and in most major cities, including San Francisco.
"I don't believe it's racially motivated," he said. Among the possible contributing factors, he said, are "more intensive patrolling" by police in minority neighborhoods, and the presence of marijuana when people are arrested for other crimes.

Overall, the report said, marijuana use increased in California by 0.73 percent a year in the four-year period, while nationwide use declined by 0.21 percent a year.
By geographic zone, the state's northernmost counties, which include the prime marijuana-growing areas of Humboldt and Mendocino counties, ranked 12th out of 350 regions in the nation in pot use by their residents. A region consisting of San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties ranked 15th.


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[Klaws]

My comment?

Harry Anslinger is a tool and the war on drugs is like a war on being sad.

Human nature will never change.

[mirage2521]

The wars on drugs has done exactly what prohibition did. It causes a huge rise in voilent crime as rival criminal groups battle for profits. Legal drugs and 90% of drug related crime disappears.

[FrankC]

Originally Posted by mirage2521

The wars on drugs has done exactly what prohibition did. It causes a huge rise in voilent crime as rival criminal groups battle for profits. Legal drugs and 90% of drug related crime disappears.

Agreed! I have said this many times, if you take all the money out of drugs by making them legal you remove 90% or more of the crime involved and reduce (massively) the tax burden caused by the war on drugs.

[mirage2521]

Originally Posted by FrankC

Agreed! I have said this many times, if you take all the money out of drugs by making them legal you remove 90% or more of the crime involved and reduce (massively) the tax burden caused by the war on drugs.

Not to mention the fact that so many studies have shown that drug use does not increase after legalization.

[gsx1138]

Originally Posted by FrankC

Agreed! I have said this many times, if you take all the money out of drugs by making them legal you remove 90% or more of the crime involved and reduce (massively) the tax burden caused by the war on drugs.

But that might make 8lb 6oz. baby Jesus cry?!

Don't worry, I'm sure we have a few more billion dollars to waste on 'fighting the good fight'.

[ghost--scout]

Being in the military I'm not sure how I feel about this but based on my drinking habits before I turned 21 (I was in the Corps from the age of 1 and after, once it's legal use will decline because there's no "we're breaking the rules and f the man!" party sentiment attached to it. I still don't like the idea of somebody that's high driving a car or handling a firearm. How do you prove somebody is under the effects, similar to DWI/DUI? Would it be DWH? Other than urinalysis or blood test is there a way to prove it? If so, at what level is it determined that a person is legally "drunk" from whatever, pot, alcohol or any other drug? I still do not believe that the legalized drugs should be allowed in the military.

[bowl443]

The "War on Drugs" is a joke. It rarely leads to capturing the "big wigs" and only punishes those that are too young to realize that the consequences of their actions have to potential to follow them their entire life.

Prisons are crowded and there are bigger fish to fry.

Waste of resources IMO.

[ghost--scout]

Originally Posted by bowl443

The "War on Drugs" is a joke. It rarely leads to capturing the "big wigs" and only punishes those that are too young to realize that the consequences of their actions have to potential to follow them their entire life.

Prisons are crowded and there are bigger fish to fry.

Waste of resources IMO.

I disagree. We found a meth lab in the barracks a few years ago. He supplied quite a bit on Camp Lejeune.

[mirage2521]

Originally Posted by ghost--scout

B I still do not believe that the legalized drugs should be allowed in the military.

I am not sure what I think about that. Vodka is a legalized drug, so is nicotine. So if they are legal why not. I halfway agree but I cannot state a defintie reason for either argument. If pot was legal, then how would it be differnt than bear? I personally think getting high makes you stupid. No research done but I used to know a lot of stoners and many of them were quite smart before getting high for a few years.

I will not do it even if it was legal. I can't afford the brain cells.