Legalizing pot would free up police to fight violent crime, law enforcement group says [Updated]

Legalizing marijuana would put a big dent in drug cartels and free up police, prosecutors and judges to go after violent crimes, a law enforcement group said Monday in endorsing Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization measure.

Proposition 19’s passage in November would decriminalize an estimated 60,000 drug arrests made in California each year, said former Orange County Superior Court Judge James Gray.

Beat police would have more time to go after burglars, robbers and those committing violent assaults, he said.

On-the-job experience demonstrated the futility of trying to enforce laws prohibiting the possession and use of small amounts of cannabis, Gray said at a news conference held by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a nonprofit organization supporting Proposition 19.

“I was a drug warrior until I saw what was happening in my own courtroom,’’ said Gray, a former federal prosecutor.

Current laws are making pot more readily accessible to youngsters than would be the case if it were regulated and taxed by the government, similar to tobacco and alcohol, Gray said.

Juvenile gangs use pot sales as a recruiting tool, he said. Gray was joined by former San Jose Police Chief Joseph McNamara in arguing that much of the money flowing to violent drug cartels comes from the illegal sale of marijuana.

Citing White House statistics, McNamara said 60% of cartel money stems from marijuana. Those who argue that a black market would remain aren’t paying attention to history, McNamara said.

After the prohibition on alcohol was repealed, bootleggers disappeared, said McNamara, now a research fellow in drug policy at Stanford University. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, based in Massachusetts, was started in 2002 by five former police officers who viewed the war on drugs as a failure. Neill Franklin, a retired narcotics officer, recently took over as executive director.

[Corrected, 4:22 p.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said Franklin formed the group.]

Proposition 19 would make it legal to grow, possess and use up to an ounce of marijuana for personal use. It would also permit state and local governments to regulate and tax retail sales for adults 21 and older. State officials estimate passage could generate up to $1.4 billion in new tax revenue per year.

Active law enforcement groups, including the California Police Chiefs Assn., are opposed to the measure, saying it would increase usage and promote crime. Gray, the retired judge, said he believes that many in law enforcement support legalization but are afraid to say so because of political pressure on the job.

“They have a political job, so they can’t tell the truth," Gray said. “People are free to speak out honestly only after they are retired.”

-- Catherine Saillant

Comments

[bill]

Marijuana is a gateway drug to harder drugs. If you legalize it then usage of it will go up and soon the users will be searching for other harder illegal drugs to satisfy their addictions. Drug traffickers will simply change from smuggling marijuana to smuggling and trading even more in harder drugs which command a higher price and thus will lead to even more corruption and violence. Even now we are beginning to see organized crime gangs starting to take over "medicinal" marijuana suppliers due to the higher quality of product they are selling. You absolutely can't make a comparison between alchol prohibition and drug prohibition. It makes no sense. I only hope that I'm too old to drive before they legalize pot completely because if you think we have a driving under the influence problem now, wait till they legalize pot!

[Gaucho420]

Remember History? Prohibition? You mean that if the goods the gangsters are peddling could be bought at a regular store, they wouldn't peddle them anymore? Gee...what claire-voyant thinking and 100% correct thinking. When something is not criminalized and the odds of going to jail don't exist, the cost of said good plummets by usually well over 50% as the deliver of said good suddenly doesn't need a premium based on the risk of going to jail.

Hopefully, the voters will use their brains on this one and remember the lessons of prohibition rather than just ignore them.

[jsa26]

At last some sanity from the PTB

[Pete D]

They are just plain wrong. The police would be far busier and more thinly stretched if this poorly written initiative passes - dealing with more crime, more neighborhood disputes, more workplace disputes, and more car accidents caused by people driving while stoned. There are several pot stores in my neighborhood, and they have increased crime around here. And that's to say nothing of the harm to our quality of life, with teenagers getting stoned on our front lawns, and driving recklessly down our roads. I guess if you are a retired judge and live in a rich gated community, you don't have to worry about those things. But the rest of us do....

[Pounamu]

It is no secret that the Drug War has failed and that it has become a militarized, almost totalitarian operation against the American people. When we lose control over our own bodies, we lose everything, and there have been thousands upon thousands of innocent people who have indeed lost everything because of the War.

Why haven't we learned from our mistakes with alcohol prohibition? Legalize and regulate cannabis *now,* and let us start to stop this insanity.

Yes on 19.

[kwindorf]

Of course Baca and the police chief oppose legalizing MJ its a cash cow for them and the legals system....

[concerned citizen]

Well, of course it would! Vote YES on Proposition 19 to keep the public safe. We need our police officers to go after real criminals, not marijuana users.

[wayne]

“They have a political job, so they can’t tell the truth," Gray said. “People are free to speak out honestly only after they are retired.”

Amen, brother.

It is a sad state of affairs for our "leadership" to continue policies that are blatantly destructive to our civil liberties just so they can pretend to be tough on crime. Traitors is all I can think to call them.

[Jack43]

Duh. And our prisons would be a lot less crowded. And gangs would lose their power. And public servants would be less likely to be corrupted. And people might respect the law a little more. And...

However, we can not make the same mistake when we end the prohibition on drugs that we made when we ended the prohibition on alcohol. We must do away with the legal defense of "impared capacity," that is, the excuse that one should be less accountable for the crimes they commit, or the harm they inflict while "under the influence."

Let's legalize drugs, but let it be an assumption at law that crimes committed under the influence of drugs and alcohol are committed with "malice aforethought" and acts of negligence are subject to punitive as well as compensatory damages.

In other words, let people have their vices, but also let them be held accountable for the acts they commit while practicing them.

[tonye]

Yeah... "political pressure".... more like:

"We don't care what we do with people's lives, we don't care about how we trump and coerce their freedoms, we don't care about the morality of what we're doing.

All we care is that we get lots of money and toys."

Once we retire, then we can tell the truth.

The PolicePrisonComplex is replacing the old MilitaryIndustrialComplex.

So much for freedom and "the pursuit of happiness".

[PGelsman]

A step in the right direction.

[Stephen J. Smith]

Prohibition has never worked. The war on drugs was a failure, as was much of Richard Nixon's agenda. Wake up california.

[Richard Long]

Legalize it. Tax it. It is an absolute win-win.

[truth to power]

Yea, but the prison-industrial complex would be making less $!

[truth to power]

Yea, but the prison-industrial complex would be making less $!

[michael]

Geez, it's only taken 40 years to figure this one out. We live among some stuuupid people.

[Jim W]

It should be legalized, and it will, but it's going to turn the tables. The growers in such places as Humboldt County are going to be in big trouble since pot is the main source of income in that part of California. Small burgs that are now eking out an existence are going to see hard times ahead. They need to start planning now to keep their paradise.

[Blithe]

Arrests and prosecutions for marijuana is a joke in southern California: the more prominent and dangerous drug on the uptick is meth, which is being peddled by your friendly neighborhood neo-nazis based out in the Inland Empire. Meth is far more addicting and damaging to health than marijuana was, is, and ever will be. In fact, there are some studies indicating that marijuana may actually reduce risk of cancer, due to THC's role in killing aging cells and keeping them from becoming carcinogenic:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729_pf.html

Contrary to peoples' beliefs, marijuana is not a "gateway" drug. In fact, if you look closely to accounts of hard-drug addicts, you'll notice that for many of them, the very first drugs (read, "gateway" drugs) they attempted to abuse are two that may be legally purchased or easily obtained: alcohol and tobacco. Abusing these two substances, they then moved on to marijuana, and then other drugs. If you wanted to ban marijuana because it promotes hard-drug use, you should also ban alcohol and tobacco, and return to a Prohibition state of affairs.

[All Hallows Eve]

Plus, for those who take a prescription sleep aid like Ambien to get a good nights sleep, you could replace it with a little weed early in the evening.

And there is NO drowsiness in the morning.

You'd be amazed!

[ghotiheir]

Catherine Saillant wrote a wonderful article here! Especially the context she adds at the end. Nice work LA Times.

[jmactacular]

In hopes of seeing Prop 19 pass, I really hope the people who are running the campaign have their act together. For starters, what is the total annual cost spent on drug prohibition (police, courts, prisons, borders), and then create some common sense ads that offer tax payers a choice. We're already spending this money. So, would we rather spend our tax dollars on something more worthwhile? Schools, teachers, firefighters, or even just fixing our infrastructure that is falling apart. Our roads are so full of potholes it's like an obstacle course now. Many people think Afghanistan is the longest war in history. Actually, the war on drugs is, and one of the greatest wastes of tax dollars of our generation. Personally, I'd rather have taken all of the money (over $1 Trillion) spent on drug prohibition and create a new energy technology to get us off fossil fuels. Then export it to the rest of the world.

[upwinger]

OK so you support PROP 19. Then please send them $10. If all of us who do support Prop 19 just sent $10, it will pass.

[michael ryston]

I am not sure where the 60,000 arrests per year statistic comes from. If you have less than one ounce, you get a $100 ticket, and you are on your way.
One rarely comes into contact with someone who is possession of more than one ounce, unless it is with the intent to sell, which is also not so common.

There are far more pros, than cons with regard to legalizing weed. The most significant positive aspect would be de-funding the drug cartels, whose violence is ruining the country of Mexico. It would be almost impossible to attribute any violent crime to the use of marijuana, other than the countless murders that occur south of the border because of the war over the smuggling routes.

I am not sure why people think that the end of the world is coming if marijuana is legalized. Most who smoke it don't care if it is legal, and do it anyway. We might as well CAPITALIZE on it, and tax it to death.

[Elizabeth]

A guy at my work who smokes marijuana everyday actually does NOT want this proposition to pass because pot is already easy to acquire these days and he does not want to have to pay taxes for it. That says it all!

[Alcohol]

You mix alcohol and pot, you have an atom bomb. This Prop will blow up the entire CA into a sewer.

The USA will be creating a whole generation of POT babies. Marijuana is a gateway to stupidity. That is why they call it dope.

September 13, 2010

"A Shirley woman arrested Monday after leaving her 1-year-old son alone in a car, while she went inside their home to smoke marijuana."

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/cops-shirley-mom-smoked-pot-in-home-left-baby-in-car-1.2285772