TW: This Chicago Tribune editorial speaks to the confused nature of how America deals with pot. A proposed Cook County measure to reduce the sanctions against pot possession has garnered press not because of its profound substance, it would not change much either way, but because it is pot and ooooh pot is pot.
The editorial one hand appears to support reducing the possession sanctions (because they are expensive) but then blanches at the notion of perhaps legalizing it to tax and regulate (because after all it is illegal...but jeez if it were legalized would it not then be....legal). They appear to like the notion fining pot possessors just not taxing them. Perhaps because fines sound better than taxes.
Like many other political issues I suspect over time liberalized laws will grow, it is just a very haphazard (inefficient and inequitable) way of going about governance.
From Chicago Tribune:
"The measure would give...officers discretion to issue a $200 ticket instead of making a misdemeanor arrest in cases where the suspect was carrying less than 10 grams of marijuana.
....Cook County will be far from the first place to decriminalize small amounts of pot. Similar laws began popping up in the '70s, and close to one in three Americans now lives in a jurisdiction where officers are allowed to make similar calls.Whether this reflects growing acceptance of marijuana use or a more pragmatic concern for the cost of enforcement, or both, is subject to interpretation.
...Roughly 9 of every 10 marijuana arrests nationwide are for possession only, and the vast majority of them result in plea bargains or dismissals, calling into question the cost-effectiveness of arresting, jailing and prosecuting small-time users. Governments that have decriminalized such cases report little to no increase in marijuana use -- and significant savings in enforcement.
We see the sense in decriminalizing. Lately, though, the liberalization of marijuana laws is being driven by pot's potential as a revenue source. Prosecuting people for possession costs money; fining them brings in cash.
...We're grateful that Illinois leaders haven't smoked enough to fantasize about marijuana as a budget booster. It's an illegal drug, remember?
...They and other police departments will have no such discretion in the cities and villages. Dart's officers made just 173 misdemeanor pot arrests last year and 150 the year before..."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/chi-0725edit1jul25,0,7364464.story
No comments:
Post a Comment