THE ECONOMICS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT

Thanks for the front-page story on the marijuana raids that took 55
officers serving warrants across the country on those enterprising
home growers to net a whopping $22,000. It took officers from DEA,
BNE, NET, ATF and several sheriff's departments, "investigating" for
who knows how long or breaking who knows what laws to do this, to put
these heinous pot growers behind bars. Compare that with the Madoff
story, an old fellow who made off with $50 billion. There was only one
agency peripherally involved and I say peripheral only because the SEC
claims they just don't have the money to police all the crime they are
mandated to police. And of course, the police didn't solve this crime;
Madoff's sons turned him in. I am still waiting for the story where
the two sons of a wealthy marijuana farmer turn their dad in for
growing pot that hurt thousands of people and charity organizations.
OK, I'd settle for the pot grower's son turning dad in for hurting
even one person. We spend millions more police dollars enforcing the
law on folks not wearing seat belts than we do on crime that hurts
society 50 billion times more. Maybe the law-enforcement business is
more like investment banking than I thought, and our laws aren't
really safe and are way overleveraged.

Walt Froloff

Aptos