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Cops Say Marijuana Legalization Works

Posted 24 months ago|7 comments|944 views
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Chris D
Seattle, WA
What will the United States look like after voters re-legalize marijuana?

We’ll get to see fairly soon. California residents will likely make cannabis legal when they vote on the issue in November. Among other things, the Tax, Regulate and Control Cannabis Act will free up quite a bit of police time and energy.

Ever since 1937, and especially since President Nixon declared the War on Drugs in 1971, law enforcement officers have obediently put the handcuffs on people who smoke marijuana. It’s part of the status quo: police officers arrest people who smoke weed. Everyone knows that buying, possessing, and smoking marijuana is illegal. But it seems that the status quo is changing.

Law enforcement officers are the front line soldiers in the War on Drugs, and they see the worst parts of society on a daily basis. Then why are more and more cops throwing their support to marijuana legalization? Even the top DEA agent in the country, Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, has stated that the Obama Administration does not approve of the term “the War on Drugs.”

Don’t take it from me: watch the video to the left. It features former police chief Norm Stamper, a member of LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a pro-legalization group. Listen to his arguments and ask yourself, "what is the point of the War on Drugs?"


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COMMENTS
Altruist
Altruist
Eugene, OR
24 months ago: We are loosing our 50 year war on drugs. The drug gangs are better armed than the governments South of the Border that try to fight it.
Money is key and if you legalize it, you can cut the drug gang's profits.
What is driving the legalization here in California is the revenue that taxation will bring. The government is 20 billion in debt. Many of the people in the prison system are there for drug charges, eliminating them will also save costs.
markbyrn
markbyrn
 Moderator
24 months ago: Altruist,

I agree but aren't you the same guy that said we need to 'outlaw' boxing and MMA? Sounds like a social-conservative in reverse.

We pay a massive price for the downsides to drug & alcohol addition and abuse. Legalizing & regulating psychoactive drugs (inc. booze) are the key to getting money in order to offset the damages (at least monetary ones) and highly discourage their use, especially among youth.

It's one thing to legalize - its quite another to romanticize.
nettik
nettik
Los Angeles, CA
24 months ago: Legalizing is not the all covering band-aid for our drug problem in the United States, but it is definitely a HUGE step in the right direction. It's most likely the most important legislation on the ballot for November 2010 (in CA).
THE RONBOT HUNTER
THE RONBOT HUNTER
24 months ago: I can tell you one thing -- it is that cops are stressed out and emotionally and mentally exhausted.

They live a hard life, and they more than anyone else, know that pot is NOT bad for you, as some claim.

They need to chill-out and relax.

When is the last time you have seen a relaxed cop?

Too many times they are ready to bite your head off.

I rather see a chill-outed cop, than a drunken fool of a cop, after hours.

THE WORLD IS CHANGING AND SO ARE COPS.

THE RONBOT HUNTER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
24 months ago: Prohibition is and has always been wrong. Be it for weed or alcohol or recreational drugs. The rich have always been able to do whatever they wanted and then pass laws so the poor pay the price for doing the same thing.

We need more laws stricken from the books.
Altruist
Altruist
Eugene, OR
24 months ago: The emphasis should be on criminalizing dealers of hard drugs rather than users. If drug use remained illegal and all of the contraband drugs were given to the addicts if they agreed to drug treatment, then we would have a lot less addicts thus less crime, and the drug dealers in Afghanistan and South America wouldn't make any money (because they wouldn't sell much if it was given away free), so their whole operation would fail, Cops wouldn't be killed, and the peasants would have to go back to raising food crops.
24 months ago: Al, to me that is a pipe dream because there will always be another crop of users PLUS all the ones who went through treatment and are still addicted and continue to use. PLUS we are not the only customers of those growers. AND just because there is less drug use does not mean there will be less crime, might even be more because a lot of those people have no skills AND they have police records that will keep them from holding a decent job.

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