Since fourteen states have legalized the use of cannabis for sick and disabled people we here at NORML have reported on numerous stories of medical users harassed, arrested, and jailed by police. We have also reported on healthy adults in all fifty states whose lives are turned upside down by an arrest, sometimes losing student loans, jobs, children, pets, dignity, property, and freedom over a single joint, seed, or even a cannabis stem. When we and others bring up these insane injustices to the police who are making these arrests, we often hear the platitude that "cops don't make the laws, we just enforce the laws."
So why do we consistently see representatives of law enforcement opposing medical marijuana, marijuana decriminalization, and marijuana legalization efforts in state legislatures?
In California, the California Narcotics Officers Association schools police officers to believe the public "have been misled... into believing there is merit to their argument that smoking marijuana is a safe and effective medicine." This is in direct contradiction of the stated position of the American Medical Association otherwise that "short term controlled trials indicate that smoked cannabis reduces neuropathic pain, improves appetite and caloric intake especially in patients with reduced muscle mass, and may relieve spasticity and pain in patients with multiple sclerosis."
In New Jersey, the medical marijuana law was severely curtailed when the Assembly heard the unfounded assertion by a representative of New Jersey's Fraternal Order of Police that "I've heard in California there's a lot peripheral crime around these centers [medical marijuana dispensaries], I get that from the different law enforcement agencies around the country who I have regular contact with." This is in direct contradiction of the findings of the Chief of the LAPD who stated: "Banks are more likely to get robbed than medical marijuana dispensaries." The Chief was responding to the notion that there is greater crime around dispensaries and said "I have tried to verify that because that, of course, is the mantra. It doesn't really bear out."
And in Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics & Dangerous Drugs Control publishes a "fact sheet" on marijuana that states: "Today's new cultivation methods are producing a drug with up to 30 percent THC, or 3,000 percent higher than the old 1960's-1980's available marijuana." This is in direct contradiction to the DEA's own figures on marijuana potency which find that today's average cannabis seizure may have doubled in THC potency (a 100% increase, not a 3,000% increase.) Oklahoma's bureau doesn't address why 30% THC marijuana is to be feared, but 100% THC Marinol pills are FDA-approved.
The attitudes of most in law enforcement are also contrary to the attitudes of the public. A recent ABC News / Washington Post poll found that support for medical marijuana is now at 81% nationwide, with a majority overall (62% nationwide) who support a system at least as open as Oregon's OMMA where not-necessarily terminal patients can only qualify if they suffer a specific condition from a list and a majority of those who support medical marijuana (56% of the 81% who support it) supporting an open system like California's Prop-215 where "doctors should be able to prescribe medical marijuana to anyone they think it can help".
But according to a June 2009 survey in POLICE Magazine, even though a majority (54.6%) of police say they support medical marijuana, almost all of those who support it (88%) say it must be only under stricter regulation than we have currently in the medical marijuana states.
When asked about marijuana legalization overall, even for healthy adults, the American Public are also contrary to the opinions of law enforcement. The latest Angus Reid poll is the first to show majority American support for legalization (53%), while the latest Gallup poll puts support at 44%, its best mark in forty years of polling.
But according to the same POLICE survey, marijuana legalization has less than half the support among cops than among the public they protect and serve. Only 23% of police supported re-legalization of cannabis.
When asked why, specifically, those police who opposed re-legalization felt that way, eight in ten said that marijuana is a "gateway drug", there was the danger of "people driving high", and seven in ten cited the "harm to user and society". Longtime NORML readers know that the gateway drug theory has been debunked by the Institutes of Medicine in 1999 and every reputable study over the past ten years. While everybody, especially NORML, discourages driving under the influence of cannabis, we understand that there are people behaving irresponsibly now and re-legalization would not encourage less responsibility, but more. Under re-legalization, money raised from taxes could sponsor anti-stoned-driving campaigns like the ones that have successfully reduced drunk driving.
As for the "harm to user and society", POLICE readers still felt by a margin of 3-2 that alcohol was "more of a threat to the community" than marijuana. (The survey does not record the support among police for reinstating alcohol prohibition to prevent alcohol's "harm to user and society", however.) This 39% of police who believe marijuana is safer than alcohol comes closest to matching public opinion, which shows now a slim majority (51%) believe marijuana is safer than alcohol.
While the general public is barely approaching majority support for outright marijuana legalization, the public has long held the belief that any punishment for adult marijuana possession should be a fine only. Three out of four Americans (76%) believe that if marijuana users are to be punished, they should only be fined and not arrested and sent to jail. Yet the POLICE Magazine survey finds that two out of three cops (65%) think it is "worth law enforcement's time to bust marijuana users".
Another area where police opinions differ from the public is on the issue of the murderous Mexican drug gangs that have assassinated, kidnapped, murdered, tortured, and beheaded over 15,000 Mexicans in just two years. The Arizona Attorney General has cited that "marijuana sales make up 75 percent of the money that Mexican cartels use for other operations, including smuggling other drugs and fighting the Mexican army and police." But in the POLICE Magazine survey, two-thirds of cops (68%) believe marijuana legalization would have no "favorable impact on problems associated with gangs and cartels."
So do the police know something about the dangers of cannabis use that the American Medical Association, the American people, and the Arizona Attorney General do not? A cynic might think that police are merely acting in their own best interest, protecting their source of easy statistic-padding arrests and asset forfeiture bounty, but I'm more inclined to believe many of these front-line soldiers in the War on Marijuana are acting in good faith based on terrible misinformation about cannabis.
Follow Russ Belville on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RadicalRuss
I don't think it should be generalized that "law enforcement is against legalization"... better to say that SOME in law enforcement feel that way. The opposite is equally true.
Those for legalization aren't saying, "just legalize it"... they're saying that the problems of the illegal drug trade far outweigh the problems of the drug use itself. And if drugs are regulated (and taxed), then we have funds to manage the use, or more specifically, abuse... which is where the user-side problems stem from.
Usage isn't going away, short of a death penalty like SIngapore has (and even they haven't succeeded in 100% eradication of drug use).
But the laws are creating an enormous burden on states and the federal government, just in incarceration costs alone (never mind enforcement costs). Do you have any idea how many billions of $ a year it is costing taxpayers to keep the millions of prisoners locked up, simply for USING drugs? Not for manufacturing, transporting, selling... just using.
It doesn't make any sense at all. Make it like alcohol. Age-limited, regulated, taxed, but freely available. Harsh penalties for operating under the influence. Education about usage... we'd be able to fund that.
Legalization makes sense from all perspectives. Those countries that have legalized have found a much more manageable situation overall.
I come from a family of police and military men.
Most police are just like anyone else, but with a special passion.
A passion to help others or those being trod upon.
Or a passion to have ultimate control over another man or woman.
A passion to shoot, punch, injure and kill those they find repugnant to themselves or society.
They are the ones you want to see if you're afraid someone's busting into your home.
There are many reasons why law enforcement and military powers don't like marijuana and their enhanced ability to express their opinion can and does alter legislation.
But their opinions are quite jaded, warped and self serving and I wouldn't want my brother Officer Mike setting the policies regarding my personal freedoms. And most LEOs I've met are cut from very similar cloth.
These guys seem to have low level PTSD, likely from the stress and horrors of their profession.
They really aren't emotionally stable.
No, keep them out of the statehouse, their opinion is a given.
And yes, it's all about the money, it ALWAYS is.
However
Police officers do not have the right to voice an opinion when they are acting as police officers.
Very few police officers, compared to the total, have any education beyond a high school diploma. They're not scientists, doctors, or researchers. They haven't spent years studying anything that would provide them with any significant insight into marijuana. They're not even botanists. I doubt any of them could point out the difference between a cotyledon and a pistil.
So, there is a problem when police officers present themselves as experts on marijuana with faked anecdotal "evidence" and skewed statistics to support their goals. People believe that the officer sent to discuss the topic is an expert. Otherwise why would the department send that person. The truth is, they're pretty much picked out of a hat and get paid to be there to lie. The truth for them comes from whoever is signing their checks.
Next time a police officer decides to throw his hat in the ring, ask him what books he's read, what sites he frequents for his info. Does he know the history of marijuana use? How was marijuana finally banned? Has he ever used?
When it comes to drugs do not expect a scintilla of truth. Anslinger lied to get marijuana outlawed and every drug warrior since follows in his wicked footsteps.
"Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind."
"[Smoking] one [marihuana] cigarette might develop a homicidal mania, probably to kill his brother." (see US Government Propaganda To Outlaw Marijuana - http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/t3.htm)
If you want to set a drug warrior down hard accuse them of only doing it for the money. Be prepared with a rebuttal about overtime pay, forfeiture etc. That shuts them up quickly and without a big fuss. There is so much dishonesty involved in drug money and drug property confiscations that few dare get into the subject.
The bottom line is that drug prohibition began with lies and continues with fictions, dissembling and corruption down to this very day.
Police oppose marijuana legalization because they make money with marijuana prohibition. Beat cops deliberately make marijuana arrests late in their shift so they can pick up some overtime pay. They also get paid extra for appearing in court. Plus they love confiscating people's property and money and then putting the proceeds to their own use.
Drug warriors never hesitate to repeat the old reefer madness propaganda used to outlaw cannabis to begin with, but when confronted to name dates, places and good reasons for marijuana prohibition they shut their mouths. They absolutely refuse to publicly debate the subject knowing that no drug warrior has won a drug war debate in over 15 years. Marijuana laws are based on racist lies so outrageous that no one dares repeat them.
NO ONE is allowed to have an oppinion, unless it is a liberal one.
but I believe in "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"
and the 10th amendment.
And I believe Prohibition has had clearly IMMORAL consequences:
violence in our streets - any major U.S. city
Juarez Mexico - murder capital of the world
easy black-market access for kids
Alcohol Prohibition didn't work either (but made violent gangs rich & powerful)
The solution is to legalize & regulate - just like alcohol.
Get a life and stop intruding into other people's. To think that people like this are actually trying to influence laws on this subject... mind-boggling.
Buddy, if you're not kidding, which you probably are, I'm going to tell you something terrible. Forklift operators are out getting stoned at this minute, and there's not a thing you can do about it. Your only option is to RUN and hide! Try Dubai.
Greg, with all due respect marijuana is prevalent in society already.
Your argument insinuates that somehow it isn't and that irresponsible behavior isn't already going on ... it is.
(some) People are being irresponsible with it right now.
Legal status - Legalization or Prohibition, will not eliminate bad behavior, but bad behavior is no reason to support immoral policy (Prohibition), or deny Liberty.
Judging alcohol abuse by smell alone is not reliable, people can smell like an alcoholic without drinking. You have to test anyway if you want to be sure.
No, this cannot be an argument against legalization. You need to control it and prevent use while working or driving, but what people do in their free time, especially at home, without bothering any other person or causing any social damage, should be each persons own business alone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wobHdSVE3b0
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This war needs to end so we can trust our cops again.
15,000 Mexican citizens have been murdered in the last 2 years at the hands of criminals that import cannabis to illegal users here in the U.S., and the answer is to legalize cannabis? How many Americans are murdered because of illegal cannabis use in this country? There's a stat. for you.
The Mexicans have legalized personal use. How's that working for them? Did the criminals involved in illegal alcohol in the 30s convert to a life of church going after the legalization of alcohol?
If you don't like the law, change it. Until then cannabis is illegal. Police officers are entitled to their opinions, and have every right to lobby in favor of the current laws. They have more contact with illegal users than the AMA and the average voter. If you claim the Police are padding their stats. or filling their own coffers, in essence, you accuse them of crimes. You'd better legalize it before it turns everyone into a criminal.
The use of cannabis is a crime, not some made up crime of padding stats, and if you've ever talked to person under the influence of cannabis, you couldn't find a better example of someone truly misinformed.
The police officers do not have the right to go to public hearings opposing medical marijuana laws that are being introduced while I'm paying taxes that pay their salary. They need to take a vacation day in order to do that... right?
We are trying to change the law but when someone's livelihood depends on the illegality of a substance it changes the battle into a war.
Some cops say legalize all drugs...
Regarding officers speaking before the legislature, they are usually invited because of their expertise, and yes, they should be paid. They are paid to enforce the law 24/7, and as a taxpayer, I'd like to know their opinion.
Did Capone's cronies become church-goers following Prohibition's repeal? Probably not, but the statistics on murder and deaths from alcohol overdose plummeted. I'm always fascinated by that reasoning; doesn't that mean the reason we're keeping pot illegal is to provide safer trade for violent criminals?
Cannabis use may be mala prohibita but certainly not mala in se. Marijuana smoking isn't a "crime" in the sense that it violates the rights of others, but it is a "crime" in that it violates social norms, like gay sex, interracial marriage, or harboring fugitive slaves used to be "crimes".
Cannabis usage in personal amounts is LEGAL in Mexico. Do you want those murders here?
"How many Americans are murdered over cigarettes or alcohol trafficking?"
Exactly. Shall we make that legal as well?
"...doesn't that mean the reason we're keeping pot illegal is to provide safer trade for violent criminals?"
That's your tortured logic, not mine. Cannabis is illegal in all 50 states by directive of
the legislature, and the votes favor prohibition because cannabis alters a person's cognitive abilities.
"Marijuana smoking isn't a "crime" in the sense that it violates the rights of others..."
I guess you have never heard of people driving under the influence of cannabis and the resulting carnage.
And let's face it, a lot of HARD drug users often have marijuana present, which is easy to smell, detect, see the paraphenalia, of, etc.
I guess it's back to busting out people's taillights.
Some of the survey results were fascinating. Personally, I'd rather ride shotgun with someone who has smoked a bowl than someone who is drunk, any day. And how often do you see two potheads trying to knock each other's teeth out over a pool game or a pretty girl? Some day, the government may start to listen to the will of the masses. As the population gets older and sicker, this may become a far more important issue.
I think the proliferation of dispensaries in California, along with the failure of the world to end in a crimey, grimey fireball because of them, will start to convince more people that legal weed is just not that big a threat.