I'm shocked and saddened, as the politicians like to say, to find out that one of my good friends has been arrested for marijuanica! A month ago I wrote, "one upside to living in the city, law enforcement is too busy with actual crimes" to put its scare resources towards busting nonviolent drug offenders.
Boy was I wrong! Maryland has one of the highest marijuana arrest rates in the country, and the city has a higher arrest rate than HoCo!
Here's a link for galt who (I suspect) will say we need to enforce all of our laws even if they're stupid. I disagree. This is nothing but a tragic waste for everyone involved. This guy had no weapons, no white drugs, no prior arrests.
This state needs to end costly, wasteful and pointless marijuana prohibition and put its resources towards keeping us safe from violent criminals!
31 comments:
The fact that weed is even illegal is idiotic.
Subject to verification of my best medical understanding, I agree.
Marijuana itself could probably be legalized. Notice I didn't say decriminalized.
Often, offenders on other grounds will be caught because they are in possession of weed. It is prima facie and you need prove no intent. Convicting them of the stupid things they did to get the pot or because they were using it is generally more difficult.
If you legalize the pot, you'll probably need to ratchet up the enforcement on other related and still illegal misconduct.
So, if a second-story artist who used to get caught with pot is now allowed to have it, you now need to be more diligent about patrols so as to catch him burgling.
Now, since we don't want the legalization of the pot to encourage the 'victimless' crime of using white drugs you need o ratchet up the sentencing when they are in use.
I'd advocate:
1) mere possession of white drugs is a felony as a separately prosecuble offense, and
2) the sentence for each and every other offense committed under the influence or while in possession is to be automatically doubled by operation of law at the time of sentencing.
And that's why criminals shouldn't touch the stuff: because the consequences are too stiff for offenders otherwise covered under the criminal code.
But this is about legalizing under the Criminal Code of the State of Maryland, not decriminalizing in select crime-tolerant jurisdictions.
The fact that Baltimore doesn't agree with the Legislature does not afford it a de facto veto by underproviding enforcement resources and selectively enforcing.
Municipalities which are found to regularly underenforce the Code should probably be stripped of authority to police upon review of a nonBaltimore committee of the Assembly.
BTW, I do not encourage the police to focus on violent crime; I do not recall having repealed the proscription against nonviolent crime.
It is not an officer's (nor any Department's) choice. All the things that are designated criminal offenses are criminal offenses. He has no particular dispensation to pardon some but not others. That would make him the Governor.
To the extent laws are Loony... repeal them in the Legislature. Not in the precinct house.
Galt:
Laws in this city are going to be selectively enforced no matter what. There simply aren't enough cops, prosecutors or judges to do otherwise. Seeing as how we have to live with that fact, it would make sense to put more effort into fighting real crime and less into busting people for smoking ganja.
I don't see much difference between pot and "white drugs". Or maybe one seems like super cool dude kind of thing to smoke and the other is more something a creepy person will try to sell you in a small bag at 3AM on a questionable street corner. But a mind altering substance is still a mind altering substance regardless of whether it is pot, heroin, crack, PCP, LSD, crystal meth, prescribed by a doctor, alcohol or a mushroom.
All of it is bad for you and will rot your brain.
When you are the subject of a sovereign government (Maryland) and you sufficienty take issue with the laws as written by its Legislature, you may lobby for repeal, become an outlaw, or secede.
I will never grant the idiots in City Hall sovereignty. They may operate only subject to the Laws of the State of Maryland.
Baltimore is already well-known as a haven for criminals. The Mayor & City Council shelter them. They should be declared abettors.
If Baltimore's politicians had any backbone, they'd display the courage of their convictions and secede, thereby becoming a Rogue State, which would impair the territorial integrity of the Union, which in turn renders Baltimore hoodlums enemy combatants.
Voila'! Gitmo bound!
Problem solved.
Waterboard Dixon!
FYI, since we're trailing behind Memphis for violent crime, be aware that Mayor Herenton has proposed the addition of 650 new police officers to a current force about the size of Baltimore's.
Cham:
Some mind-altering substances can be used responsibly. Millions of people enjoy alcohol without drinking themselves under the table every night. Despite what the drug-warrior idiots say I believe that marijuana can be used the same way. It's kind of hard to find a productive, gainfully employed meth user though.
BTW, alcohol isn't necessarily bad for you. In moderation it has lots of potential health benefits.
the main diff, cham, is that the white drugs are highly physiologically addictive (heroin is almost as addictive as nicotine!) and can kill someone in a single dose.
TV rots your brain, too.
(which is not to say I think criminalization of the drogas blanco, or TV is the solution to their ills, necessarily)
Hey Chuck I just realized I can "bump" posts by changing the time stamp!
After reading some of these posts, I'm so happy I am soon to be a resident of another state.
This blog sucks, and I'm done reading it. You morons and the morons in Baltimore and Annapolis will continue to blather about this and that... yet you will never solve the problems in this city.
John Galt seems to think he has the right to tell people what they may do with their own bodies. I could give a crap if you want to drink bleach and shove crack cocaine up your butt.
Who cares. It's your body.
Further, we can't stop people from getting high and drunk. That's what people like to do. They've done it for thousands of years.
Obviously, making laws and putting people in jail cannot even stop it. Incarceration has virtually no impact on people's behavior when it comes to drug use.
Anyway... you morans blather on... watch Baltimore go to complete shit (like it's not already the armpit of America).
Yay, one less "moran" reader!
... now to get rid of the other 999
Legalize everything. Eliminate "voluntary intoxication" as a defense to anything. There is no reason on Earth to make heroin and cocaine illegal. If heroin was legal tomorrow, would you run out and start shooting up? Of course not. Make it legal, regulate it like alcohol and tobacco, and use some of the billions saved from the reduced strain on the court system, and/or some of the millions in new tax revenue, to expand the public health programs used to fight addiction.
The success rate of drug treatment is not great, but it's better than the success rate of the war on drugs.
As liberal as I am about drug policy I'm not quite ready to endorse the sale of heroin in your local CVS. That being said, it's worth taking a look at what Switzerland has done. There if you're hooked on heroin you can get your dose at a government run clinic. I don't remember if it's free or if you have to pay, but it's certainly cheaper and safer than buying it from a drug dealer, and it puts drug dealers out of business.
Considering the effect that marijuana use can have on sperm count, some might say that letting delinquents and criminals smoke up on a regular basis could do wonders for birth control issues in this city.
Nah, just cut their balls off and be done with it.
With the amount of fatherless children and the amount of pot use in this city, it is obvious that weed doesn't lower sperm count enough.
Also, why is the prohibition of throwing hay beals out of a second story window a "Looney Law", do you know how much those things weigh? Trust me, you don't want to get hit with one of those.
btw, thank you for your critique ncdco, now go away.
gor, fortunately, I've been lucky enough to secure employment out of state.
I'll leave you idiots (excluding emptyman) to go down with the ship while you wring your hands about "drug dealers" and junkies...
Don't forget, you live in the worst city in America, and the morans are doing everything they can to make it even more horrible.
Go chattle up with Mr. Councilman Cole... he's really going to make a difference by fining those counties idiots who buy drugs here... that'll really help (rolling my eyes).
" Considering the effect that marijuana use can have on sperm count, some might say that letting delinquents and criminals smoke up on a regular basis could do wonders for birth control issues in this city."
I once suggested that we distribute heroin laced with depo...
"Don't forget, you live in the worst city in America, and the morans are doing everything they can to make it even more horrible."
Detroit will always be worse.
Didn't ncdco say, "This blog sucks, and I'm done reading it"? So, what the hell is he doing responding to a post? Fucking liar.
ncdco also said we're a bunch of morans. I wonder which one of us is Joanie.
What I would like to know is how the hell does someone get ARRESTED for weed? Surely, he wasn't just minding his business smoking in his house. Was he trying to buy it from a stranger who turned out to be a cop?
What happened?
I think "moran" may be a reference to this:
http://media.urbandictionary.com/image/large/moran-7512.jpg
At least I hope.
He was probably making some allusion to Jason Moran, Australian criminal. We're a city of ciminals, see, and there are lots of ... Australians?
Ah yes, the folks who say that some area is an armpit and they are glad they don't live there. And then they keep reappearing on the same website saying the same thing over and over again. Sounds to me like someone needs some extra attention and hug.
Well, Baltimore is fascinating in it's shittyness. Every day there are new and insightful crimes committed. It's hard to look away.
Interesting factoids from the Examiner, several weeks ago: (sorry, don't have the link): Since Bealefeld took office, the number of simple possession arrests for drugs has increased dramatically. In the Northeast District, where I do a lot of work, for example, they have increased 193%.
My educated guess is that the overwhelming majority of these arrests are for marijuana.
And, oddly, the murders are down--along with nonfatal shootings, yet overall crime in Baltimore is up.
My bad, overall crime is "down". Except for rape, based on preliminary numbers reported.
Of course, as John Galt says, these are only the numbers reported to the police if and when they actually take a report-and when the citizens call.
I suspect that in wide swaths of the city, many robberies are not reported, because they involve people involved in the drug business robbing customers, dealers, and each other.
I'm still trying to figure out what happened, Helix. They got a warrant and searched his house while he wasn't home. What the cause was to get the warrant, I don't know. He didn't really have neighbors so it wasn't a complaint.
I know in one case we covered on here, they followed a guy home from buying growing supplies at a greenhouse. (Nine Months of Ankle Bracelet for Horticulturalist)
When the cops raid a house with a search warrant, they're supposed to leave a copy of the warrant there when they leave, outlining what they seized. The outline of probable cause for the search should be in the warrant.
mjb, you reminded me of this line;
"We grow copious amounts of ganja here, and you're carrying a wasted girl and a bag of fertilizer. You don't look like your average horti-fucking-culturalist."
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