Cops Under Pressure To Deny They Support Legalizing Marijuana

During California gubernatorial debates last week, Meg Whitman was asked about her position on Proposition 19 and marijuana legalization and said: "Every single law enforcement official in this entire state is against Proposition 19."

Former San Jose Chief of Police Joseph McNamara disagrees.

"She's absolutely wrong," said McNamara. "A lot of police officers both retired and on duty are in favor of passing it because they realize that the 'war on drugs' has failed and is going to fail."

For example, McNamara noted, hundreds have joined the advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

"I think she misstated what she believed," he said.

Whitman's office did not immediately respond to a HuffPost query requesting clarification.

One thing is true: California's active-duty police officers can't speak up in favor of legalizing marijuana for fear of losing their jobs.

For instance, scores of former officials recently signed a letter saying that marijuana prohibition only fuels more dangerous crime by enriching Mexican drug cartels who put guns on American streets -- but every member of the California police department waited until after they'd retired to sign.

HuffPost talked with cops who support Prop. 19 about the element of suppression.

"It's difficult, there are all kinds of factors that inhibit police officers from taking a public stance," said David Bratzer, a police officer for the Victoria Police Department in British Columbia who supports legalizing the drug. "They're worried about career advancement; harassment from colleagues or supervisors -- these are all issues that serving police officers have to consider."

Bratzer told HuffPost in an interview Wednesday night that even though many law enforcement officers will agree with him privately, only a handful of cops have been willing to make their opinions known publicly.

"The paramilitary structure of law enforcement discourages police officers from speaking out against the status quo even if that status quo is causing enormous damage in terms of wasted lives and resources," said Bratzer, who was careful to emphasize to HuffPost that his views are his alone and should not be attributed to his police department.

Groups ranging from The National Black Police Association to the California NAACP haveendorsed Prop. 19, arguing that police waste valuable resources targeting non-violent cannabis consumers, while thousands of violent crimes go unsolved. Still most officers wait until they've left their jobs in law enforcement to take a stand.

"I was with the LAPD when Nixon declared the 'war on drugs' over 40 years ago and was one of the 'generals' on the front lines who helped implement that same failed drug policy that is still in effect today," said Stephen Downing, a retired LAPD deputy chief of police.

"By keeping marijuana illegal, we aren't preventing anyone from using it," added Downing in a statement. "The only results are billions of tax-free dollars being funneled into the pockets of bloodthirsty drug cartels and gangs who control the illegal market."

Downing is not the only former police chief who has come out against prohibition.

McNamara, now a research fellow in drug policy at Stanford University, has argued that the 60 percent of the cash that supports violent drug cartels comes from the sale of illegal marijuana.

"I think many veteran officers start out as I did being a drug war warrior," explained McNamara, who, since he began studying drug policy academically, has become increasingly convinced that the problem is prohibition not the plant.

"We were participants in the war on marijuana," he said. "But after a while, I realized that the majority of the cops I hired during my 18 years as a police chief had used marijuana before we hired them."

"I don't personally use it," he said, "but I think it's really stupid to put people in jail for that reason."

Still, McNamara insists there are good reasons for cops not to speak out in favor of marijuana legalization while they're on active duty.

"You take an oath to support the law, not just the laws you agree with," he told HuffPost in an interview. "You're under the authority of elected officials and so you can't speak out on policy issues in opposition to what your superiors say."

If police officers feel they can't enforce a law in good conscience, they can always leave. But often, McNamara said, they don't.

"People don't commit career suicide," he said. "So they do the best they can. Whether they agree with them or not, they have to carry out the laws." When he was a cop, McNamara said he tried to keep things in perspective. "I did, within the area of my discretion, enforce the law with as much common sense as I could," he said.

A poll of 1,067 likely voters released Thursday found 44 percent of likely voters said they plan to vote for Prop. 19, while 49 percent plan to vote against it. That's an 8-point drop in support since September when 52 percent of likely voters said they would vote for it.

"Personally I think it's a shame that more serving California police officers are not supporting reform publicly," said Bratzer. "History will remember this as a failure of leadership at the highest levels of law enforcement in the state."

Weed Reform Would Benefit All

Florida -- Nearly all of us have done it, everyone from Lil Wayne to President Barack Obama. Yes, we're talking about marijuana, pot, reefer, Mary Jane, whatever you want to call it.
Next month, California will vote on Proposition 19 - the Regulate Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 - and if it passes, it will decriminalize marijuana in the state of California. If the proposition passes, only a federal agency - such as the Drug Enforcement Administration - would be able to arrest pot smokers, but the odds of that happening are highly unlikely.

California has been a forerunner in marijuana reform laws.

In 1996, it was the first state to legalize medical marijuana, and since then, 13 other states and the District of Columbia have done the same.
Last week, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a major stride by reducing the penalty for an ounce or less - about 30 joints - to an infraction, resulting in a small fine and no criminal record.
In Florida, if you are found with 20 grams or less - about 25 joints, or slightly less than an ounce - you may be forced to pay a $1,000 fine or spend a year in prison, along with a misdemeanor being added to your criminal record.
We think California should pass its marijuana mentality this way.
In the past, many have regarded marijuana as a gateway drug and have cautioned against its adverse health effects, but recent studies show that mind set is starting to burn out.
The Journal of Health and Social Behavior published a study last month which found that marijuana had very little to do with whether an individual eventually moved on to harder drugs.
Instead, the study contributed hard drug use to life factors such as employment status and stress.
According to the American Council for Drug Education, when smoking marijuana, one may experience dry mouth, impaired coordination, lack of balance, delayed reaction time and other mild symptoms associated with the high, many of which are similar to the effects caused by alcohol consumption.
As for long-term medical side effects, frequent marijuana users can experience chest colds, bronchitis, emphysema, bronchial asthma and, at worst, lung cancer.
These side effects are nearly identical to those caused by cigarette smoking, which is legal in the U.S.
A recent poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 52 percent of likely voters favor Prop. 19, and only 41 percent oppose it.
Really, this means the vote next month could go either way, but we're hoping to see the proposition pass.
We think that if passed, the proposition could generate much needed revenue through taxation and it would allow law enforcement officers to concentrate on more serious offenders.
A study by the Cato Institute found that if marijuana were legalized, regulated and taxed, it could potentially save $8.7 billion in law enforcement costs and generate $8.7 billion in revenue nationwide.
This sounds like a good idea to us.
We say that if people want to unwind and indulge in a little herbal therapy, they should be allowed to; we see no societal harm in people getting stoned and eating Twinkies.
We'll be keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that California voters decide to embrace their inner-hippy and vote to pass Proposition 19 in the upcoming election.
If history repeats itself, this proposition may pave the way for other states to adopt similar laws.
We can only hope that Florida will eventually jump on the bandwagon and decide to spark up.

Source: Central Florida Future (Orlando, FL Edu)
Published: Sunday, October 10, 2010
Copyright: 2010 Central Florida Future
URL: http://drugsense.org
Website: http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/

The Buzz About Proposition 19

California -- Under current state law, the possession, cultivation, or distribution of marijuana generally is illegal in California. Possession of less than one ounce of marijuana is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine, while selling marijuana is a felony and may result in a prison sentence. In November 1996, voters approved Proposition 215, which legalized the cultivation and possession of marijuana in California for medical purposes.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005, however, that federal authorities could continue to prosecute California patients and providers engaged in the cultivation and use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Despite having this authority, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in March 2009 that the current administration would not prosecute marijuana patients and providers whose actions are consistent with state medical marijuana laws.

Proposition 19 changes state law by legalizing the possession and cultivation of limited amounts of marijuana for personal use by individuals age 21 or older, and authorizing various commercial marijuana related activities under certain conditions. Nonetheless, these marijuana related activities would continue to be prohibited under federal law and it is not known to what extent the federal government would continue to enforce them. Currently, no other state permits commercial marijuana- related activities for non-medical purposes.
Under the measure, persons age 21 or older generally may possess, process, share or transport up to one ounce of marijuana; cultivate marijuana on private property in an area up to 25 square feet per private residence or parcel; possess harvested and living marijuana plants cultivated in such an area; and possess any items or equipment associated with the above activities. 


The possession and cultivation of marijuana must be solely for an individual's personal consumption and not for sale to others, and consumption of marijuana would only be permitted in a residence or other "non public place."
The smoking of marijuana in the presence of minors is prohibited.
The measure also sustains existing laws that prohibit driving under the influence of drugs or that prohibit possessing marijuana on school grounds. Any person age 21 or older who knowingly gives marijuana to a person age 18 through 20 could be sent to county jail for up to six months and fined up to $1,000 per offense.


Prop 19 allows local governments to adopt ordinances and regulations regarding commercial marijuana related activities including marijuana cultivation, processing, distribution, transportation, and retail sales.
However it does not permit the transportation of marijuana between California and another state or country nor permit sales to persons under 21.
Whether or not local governments engaged in this regulation, the state could, on a statewide basis, regulate the commercial production of marijuana.
The state could also authorize the production of hemp, a type of marijuana plant that can be used to make products such as fabric and paper.


Prop 19 requires that licensed marijuana establishments pay all applicable federal, state, and local taxes and fees currently imposed on other similar businesses.
In addition, the measure permits local governments to impose new general, excise, or transfer taxes, as well as benefit assessments and fees, on authorized marijuana related activities.
The purpose of such charges would be to raise revenue for local governments and/or to offset any costs associated with marijuana regulation.
In addition, the state could impose similar charges.


Prop 19 could result in savings to the state and local governments by reducing the number of marijuana offenders incarcerated in state prisons and county jails, as well as the number placed under county probation or state parole supervision. These savings could reach several tens of millions of dollars annually.


The measure would result in a reduction in costs for enforcement of marijuana related offenses and the handling of related criminal cases in the court system.
Proposition 19 is carefully crafted to decriminalize personal marijuana use and production so those over 21 years of age may decide if it is something they wish to consume.
By so doing it enhances freedom of choice, engenders respect for the law, protects children, regulates marijuana use and production, and significantly reduces burdens on our police, justice, and correctional systems.


Vote YES on Prop 19 to halt victimless crimes.

Source: Red Bluff Daily News (CA)
Author: Richard Mazzucchi
Website: redbluffdailynews

CBS radio reporter, wife arrested on suspicion of growing marijuana

Tribune Newspapers) -- The Washington Post reports that CBS Radio News correspondent Howard Arenstein and his wife were arrested Saturday on drug charges after police said they searched their Washington home and found marijuana plants growing in the yard.

The Post says that police arrested Arenstein and his wife, Orly Azoulay, and charged them with possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Azoulay is the Washington correspondent for Yedioth Ahronoth, the largest and most widely read newspaper in Israel.

Police executed a search warrant at the home Saturday, according to the Post, after a tip, and found 11 fully mature marijuana plants and six two-ounce bags of marijuana inside the home. Each plant is considered by authorities to equal one pound of marijuana.


Source Tribune interactive

Time for Marijuana To Be Legalized, Regulated

Aurora, CO -- While a proposal to track medical marijuana sales is far from being the unreasonable intrusion critics are making it out to be, the notion certainly points out how arcane the country’s anti-marijuana laws are.
An Associated Press story on Wednesday spelled out how state officials hope to monitor who’s buying medical marijuana and just how much. Some officials say they believe that some patients are buying up large quantities of pot and then selling it on the black market.
At this point, there’s really no way of knowing that. With the prolific number of medical marijuana dispensaries, it would be difficult to track such sales even with a control system.
Such regulated sales aren’t the beginning of some new era of Big Brother snooping. Registry of guns and other controlled substances and devices are long standing.
Medical patients currently can’t drag a single prescription for Vicodin from pharmacy to pharmacy, collecting huge quantities of the narcotic for personal use or to sell on the black market. There should be no expectation from medical marijuana users that their medicine should be treated any differently.


But since there is no agreed upon way of how to prescribe marijuana, it’s difficult to find an easy way to control and limit its sale to individual patients.
While video taping would do little to halt unscrupulous sales but only allow for prosecution after the fact, it makes more sense to use some kind of database that records the amount of medical marijuana purchased by a cardholder.


More to the point, this and other problems medical marijuana programs keep turning up make it clear that the age of marijuana prohibition needs to come to an end.
Each week, this burgeoning industry and the horrific news coming out of Mexico, where drug gangs continue to slaughter endless number of people over illegal marijuana sales to the United States, only highlight the obvious: it’s time to legalize and regulate the substance.
The United States spends more than $40 billion a year on uselessly trying to stop drugs from entering the country, stop people here from using them and warehousing those that are caught with them. Meanwhile, the illegal $400-billion-a-year industry grows each year as thousands of people die from thug fights in Mexico and other Latin American countries.
It’s a scourge unlike any other in our part of the world.


No one is asking for the United States to stand back and allow for a free-for-all in drug trade, but, clearly, current U.S. drug policy is beyond dysfunctional; it’s a major part of the problem.
Regulate these medicinal sales now, and then follow California’s lead toward decriminalization after that.


Source: Aurora Sentinel (CO)
Published: September 29, 2010
Copyright: 2010 Aurora Sentinel
Website: www.aurorasentinel.com