Every 38 seconds in this country, someone is arrested for a marijuana offense. In 2006, 738,915 Americans were charged with marijuana possession only.
In past years, roughly 30 percent of those arrested were age 19 or younger.
“Present policies have done little if anything to decrease marijuana’s availability or dissuade youth from trying it,” St. Pierre said, noting young people in the U.S. now frequently report that they have easier access to pot than alcohol or tobacco.
If past trends are any indication, those arrested are likely to be disproportionately non-white, despite the fact that drug use rates are roughly equal when compared across racial lines. Considering that 8 million people have been arrested for marijuana offenses over the past decade, and nearly 100 million Americans have admitted to having used it, can anyone explain the point to all of this? Or is the only explanation that still makes sense that it gives police and prosecutors more to do?
Better our law enforcement arrest and convict snot nosed black kids than go after insurance and investment scam artists or corporate thieves. After all, all those white collar types do is parade their bad memories, hide behind the 5th Amendment (horrors), and show off how well dressed their attorneys are (GAWD! Not lawyers!).
Hey, maybe the wingnuttiae are on to something.
@1
The greatest Chappelle Show skit ever was when they parodied the difference between how the two different types are prosecuted… :)
You don’t GET it. Repeat after me:”Booze good, POT, root of all evil”
Pot was made illegal at the behest of J.Edgar Hoover in the 1930’s so he could have a way to provre that his crime fightin’ was actually accomplising something.
38 seconds? Man it sure seemed like longer than that.
Lee when was the last time you saw a lawyer in the unemployment line? What is the biggest source of revenue that supports the goverment besides taxes? FINES maybe? Now you know why the goverments likes issue you druggies tickets, maybe to make money. So don’t Bogart that joint my friend. Man what a drag and love that smell of popping seeds.
@5: don’t Bogart that joint, my friend.
@6
Klake should know; he spends most of his time in the unemployment line. If he didn’t sell his food stamps for booze
money, he’d better off. And so would we. He whines when he’s drunk.
After the haze wears off and the fridge is empty, try this site:
clusterfuck nation
Cheerios!
“Or is the only explanation that still makes sense that it gives police and prosecutors more to do?”
Well, handing out jaywalking tickets doesn’t generate the newspaper headlines that “Major Drug Bust!” does. Also, look what happened when the police here in Seattle went after dispensers of legal drugs, i.e. the folks who work in bars: the Mayor lost his prized legislation in the backlash.
The War on Drugs began as a way for Nixon to criminalize his political opponents, and it remains a way to harass “those” people. Nothing more or less.
Proud yer an ass@1: Funny how the lawyers support dem Dem causes!
chadt: yer an idiot.
KLake served his country as a military lifer. You are just a laffer
Puddy, you serve as an indispensable laughingstock and as a font of ill-informed, right-wing propaganda with amazing delusions and moronic delivery. We need more like you to keep this place rocking. Bring your friends! You’re the best freak show we could hope for.
#12 — How do you know who he was serving? He may have been serving his own interests in the military.
Stupid Choir – typical comment from you about a typical lefty
Chadt: Batting .992 for lunatic commentary!
Piddlebust @ 11: What? Fat cat corporate shysters are Democrats? Surely you jest. Try exhaling once and a while.
Better our law enforcement arrest and convict snot nosed black kids than go after insurance and investment scam artists or corporate thieves. After all, all those white collar types do is parade their bad memories, hide behind the 5th Amendment (horrors), and show off how well dressed their attorneys are (GAWD! Not lawyers!).
Hey, maybe the wingnuttiae are on to something.
Hear, hear. Let’s take it easy on the insurance scammers though. Kay.
I am willing to go along with decriminalizing marijuana if you libs will go along with decriminalize tax evasion. Deal? Both are victimless crimes. Well tax evasion certainly is, drugs abuse is debatable.
Rufus @ 18,
So now you are channeling a dead man?
You must have had a very special relationship with him.
Hehehehe.
20
Hey I still have a little life left even though I am dead. I am still registered to vote. Gimme a break.
Rufus @ 21,
Awwwwww…Rufus, your STILL a sore loser. That’s simply adorable.
Now go ask the Warden for some cookies and warm milk before you snuggle up in your bunk. And, yeah, you can suck your thumb, too, after lights-out.
4:
Actually, that was just a smokescreen for Corporate America. The move to make marijuana illegal was actually a way to force paper makers of the era to switch from naturally white hemp pulp to wood pulp, which is of course yellow. In order to make the white paper people preferred, paper makers were forced to buy chemical bleaching agents from the major chemical manufactureres such as Dow and DuPont, who bought the votes needed to pass the legislation.
@22
I’ll bet that’s not all he sucks after lights out.
Besides, his lights have been out for years.
@6
Oh, klake, you lovable mental patient…
Lee when was the last time you saw a lawyer in the unemployment line?
When was the last time you saw a doctor, a dentist, an MBA, or anyone else with an advanced degree in that line either?
What is the biggest source of revenue that supports the goverment besides taxes? FINES maybe?
Maybe in certain locales (like speed trap towns), but that’s probably not normal.
Now you know why the goverments likes issue you druggies tickets, maybe to make money.
They don’t issue tickets, they arrest you. You generally have a court date. Where government’s have made money on this is through asset forfeiture, which is another topic of discussion (and I believe Goldy covered it this weekend on the radio).
So don’t Bogart that joint my friend. Man what a drag and love that smell of popping seeds.
What?
#17 ASSProud: Shaw Group and those cheap labor liberals at the lead polluting Mattel Toys immediately come to mind.
But since those we identified more than 24 hours ago, I realize you Moonbat!tic mind forgot those facts.
Dude, if your weed is poppin’ seeds, you’re buying some horrid bunk.
The reality of the issue is the easy bust. Cops will go after a few stoned clerks from Wal-Mart long before they raid a crack house in White Center.
Crack house got Uzis, stoners got Cheetos.
When you need to make the numbers nice and pretty for when the Drug Czar comes a callin’, a couple of dozen busts for possession of 40 grams or less go a long way.