A few years ago, when the Marijuana Policy Project was lobbying the Minnesota legislature to pass a modest medical marijuana bill, the state prosecutors association led the opposition. Rank-and-file police from the Twin Cities left their beats to fill up committee hearing rooms -- in uniform, with handguns strapped to their waists -- in an attempt to intimidate the state legislators on the committees.
And law enforcement lied, lied, lied, so much so that we started distributing daily "Law Enforcement Lie of the Day" videos to all state legislators and political reporters in the state. We also slammed the leading local prosecutor's office with phone calls from angry constituents; he privately threatened to arrest us for "obstructing justice." I almost wish he had arrested us so that he would have had to explain why trying to help sick people interferes with justice, but he didn't.
For a couple years, it was all-out warfare, but we finally passed a medical marijuana bill through the legislature in May 2009, only to see Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) veto the bill, saying he preferred to "stand with law enforcement."
State prosecutors, police, sheriffs, and attorneys general -- not to mention federal DEA and FBI agents -- are almost universally opposed to marijuana policy reform measures in every state, to the point where they actually spend time and taxpayer money campaigning and lobbying against us. Why?
1. IGNORANCE: For the most part, rank-and-file cops aren't trained scientists or policy experts. They don't spend much time reading medical studies or public policy analyses, and they generally don't have much knowledge about the issue beyond how it directly affects their jobs. When presented with such information, they tend to listen to the people they encounter most in their work. Unfortunately, those people are almost always government officials or those with a vested interest in keeping marijuana illegal, such as drug treatment specialists. Since this information comes from "trusted sources,' it's usually accepted as fact, and differing viewpoints are therefore ignored.
2. JOB SECURITY: Before MPP helped decriminalize marijuana possession in Massachusetts in November 2008, we learned that marijuana-possession arrests accounted for 6% of all arrests in that state each year. So, to some extent, law enforcement was opposing our ballot initiative because they were concerned that some of them might need to be laid off if there were fewer "criminals" to arrest and prosecute. As for me, I never thought that 6% of law enforcement would be laid off; more likely, we were freeing up law enforcement to go after real criminals. Which leads me to...
3. QUALITY OF LIFE: According to the FBI, 48 law-enforcement officers nationwide were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2009, and none of these were killed by enforcing drug laws. It makes sense that going after murderers would be more dangerous than sniffing under college students' doors. But policing exists to make society safer, and hunting down nonviolent marijuana users at the expense of thousands of unsolved assaults, rapes, and murders does nothing to accomplish this.
4. COGNITIVE DISSONANCE: It's hard for any person to change his or her political opinion after years of believing that opinion. So you can imagine how it would be even harder to change your opinion on an issue after you've ruined the lives of hundreds or thousands of people by arresting them on that issue. In other words, once a cop arrests marijuana users, testifies against them in court, and moves up the political food chain because of all this, it's almost impossible for that cop to then declare, "I was wrong."
Thankfully, there's an organization of principled law enforcement professionals who are neither ignorant, self-serving, nor mentally calcified. I'm talking about Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an organization that deserves your wholehearted support.
And there is another ray of hope: When I talk to cops on the beat in the District of Columbia, where I live, I ask them, "What's the worst crime you usually have to deal with?" They almost always answer, "Domestic violence." I ask, "Is marijuana involved in that?" They laugh and say, "Never. It's almost always alcohol." So should marijuana be decriminalized, or maybe even legalized? "Probably, but the higher-ups would never go for that," they say.
So there you have it: There are plenty of police officers who see the futility and unfairness of marijuana prohibition up close, but most law enforcement officials with real authority support marijuana prohibition. Why the discrepancy?
The most obvious explanation is that the higher-ups are (1) more likely to be appointed or hired by mayors and city councils, and (2) responsible for presenting departmental budgets to those politicians every year. So perhaps there's a fifth reason why so many law enforcement officials are hostile...
5. FEAR OF OUT-OF-TOUCH POLITICIANS: Politicians are far behind the public when it comes to understanding the harms of marijuana prohibition. Whether politicians are afraid of being perceived as "soft on crime," of sticking their necks out on what is still a fairly contentious issue, or of offending particular special interest groups, opposition remains high among elected representatives. Law enforcement officials looking for bigger budgets and better jobs will echo these politicians ad nauseum, providing them with political cover and legitimacy. And there we have a self-perpetuating cycle.
This is why it's important to engage law enforcement on this issue at every opportunity. Whether it is the cop on your corner or the chief of police, opening the dialogue is vitally important.
a. Direct donations to politicians-- statistics in the 2008 primary season showed that "Crack down on pot" Giuliani was getting twice as much tobacckgo industry money as any other candidate (and Republicans were, as usual, getting much more than Dems). Time for a thorough study of support a politician like Giuliani was getting throughout his tenure as mayor when the NYPD was setting records for harassment of cannabis users. Among current leaders, take a look at the amounts given to figures like "pack-a-day" Boehner and McConnell.
b. It can be surmised that the direct campaign contributions are a small fraction of the amounts the Industry acquires the right to spend on salaried lobbyists who visit the candidate or office holder and his/her staff, mingling in and schmoozing with everybody on a friendly friendly basis promoting a pro-tobacckgo, i.e. anti-cannabis attitude. Try to find out what John H. Fish, "Vice President for Legislative Affairs" at R. J. Reynolds, receives as a salary and what he advises Mr. Boehner to do about cannabis legalization; same for Bruce Gates from Altria/Philip Morris; both gentlemen reportedly on Boehner; 's advisory council.
Pot is a high input product with a lower profit margin than most other drugs. At the other end of the scale you have speed, very cheap to produce with a high mark-up, and so a huge profit potential. So corrupt cops target pot dealers for arrest because it has a lower value to them and that helps get their conviction quota up and makes them look like they're doing their job. Meanwhile they leave the speed suppliers alone in return for a protection fee which is considerably larger than any pot dealer could ever afford.
If prohibition were to end they would no longer be able to go on safari hunts and enjoy the thrill of the kill. But worse still, for them, is that with prohibition out of the way there would be a whole stack of people, who know a lot about cops, who would no longer be threatened with prison time for their dealing or consuming ways and they would be able to come forward and give evidence against corrupt police and the horrible games they play.
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Good article but you didn't cover police corruption which occurs in several forms. For one there are the cops who really enjoy their work, the chance to bully and intimidate the hippie druggies, once called commies, is a huge rush for these head hunting, trophy collectors. I know how they behave, I have been raided many times. They really get a kick out of standing over people who have absolutely no means of defending themselves against these hired thugs. And you have cops who get seriously out of hand during raids, even falsifying information to justify raids and planting evidence on people and maybe even beating people up and on occasions even worse, shooting grandma's, family dogs in front of children and pregnant women climbing out the window. This stuff did happen and that's only the stuff we heard about.
Then there are the cops who are on the take, they can sell the drugs they confiscate and even keep and use the best stuff for themselves. They also take money from certain dealers and in exchange, leave them to do their business. And they have a business like approach to this which has a negative result for the pot smoker in particular.
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The only real solution to the problem is to treat Americans like (for lack of a better word) Americans. People need to be able to make their own choices and be responsible for those choices. I for one honestle believe that the safer choice of marijuana over alcohol would be better for society. Alcohol leads to people doing things with poor judgment skills(like driving after drinking), hangovers that affect productivity, and let us not forget liquid courage or the "Ten foot tall & bulletproof effect" of alcohol.
I am not saying the world would be perfect if marijuana was as legal as alcohol or tobacco, I am just saying that it would be a step in the direction of the core beliefs of the founding fathers(the whole freedom/persuit of happieness thing). I also know that we treet our freedom like Mom's good china & silver ware, we put it in a locked glass cabinet to look at but never use.
Sorry, but I'm going to disagree with this. Don't talk to the cops unless you HAVE to. Ever.
ALWAYS FOLLOW THE MONEY
The reason is simple: If he steps up his pursuit of marijuana growers, his department is eligible for roughly half a million dollars a year in federal anti-drug funding, helping save some jobs. The majority of the funding would have to be used to fight pot. Marijuana may not be the county's most pressing crime problem, the sheriff says, but "it's where the money is."
The U.S. Justice Department is spent nearly $3.6 billion last year to augment budgets of state and local law-enforcement agencies. In addition, the federal government last year set aside close to $4 billion of the economic-stimulus package for law-enforcement grants for state and local agencies. The White House also is spending about $239 million last year to fund local drug-trafficking task forces.
If you follow the money, you'll see its the primary motivation for arresting marijuana offenders. It has nothing to do with justice. It comes down to job security for police departments.
http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=748
Law enforcement wastes many billions annually enforcing the unjust anti-cannabis laws for advantage of the system & 700,000 people are arrested annually. Big-Pharma’s influence is part of keeping prohibition for their obscene profits from selling dangerous junk; cannabis’ ability to fight cancer was suppressed for 30 years.
http://www.medical-marijuana-testimonials.org/Cancer-and-medical-marijuana.htm
http://preventdisease.com/news/10/080210_cannabinoids_cancer.shtml
IH could provide a renewed economy nearly all by itself with hundreds of new manufacturing avenues and tens of thousands of jobs created. It's time to demand an end to the enormous waste & abuse of the WOD, especially cannabis & IH!
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu02/v5-284.html
http://www.votehemp.com/overview.html
http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/144115/the_war_on_weed%3A_marijuana_is_basically_harmless_--_the_monumentally_stupid_drug_war_is_not/?page=4
That and the fact that padding the stats makes the supervisors look like Eliot Ness to the Public.
It acts as a shakedown statute. If it's on the books it opens options without warrants. They won't ever give it up voluntarily.