MARIJUANA ARRESTS UP

Concentration on hard crime down?

The 2006 Uniform Crime Report released by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation revealed that 44 percent of all current drug-crime
arrests involve marijuana, amounting to a total of 829,625 people
arrested.

This was reported in a Sept. 24, 2007 news release made by NORML, an
organization that works for the reform of marijuana laws. Allen St.
Pierre, the executive director of NORML, points out that people are
under the impression that law enforcement officers do not target
marijuana users; the 2006 FBI numbers speak otherwise.

"This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources that
diverts law enforcement personnel away from focusing on serious and
violent crime," St. Pierre continued.

This is not an argument about the legalization of marijuana, but
rather the misappropriation of the criminal justice system. Who poses
a bigger threat to society: a Nintendo-playing stoner or a malicious
sexual assailant? Police should be more concerned about violent
criminals than potheads who get baked and sit around doing nothing.
So while it's easy for the 5-0 to stick its nose in the air and smell
the hash, its time may be better spent looking for the type of
criminal that robs apartments - like those in the University Heights.

Prisons are filled with the non-violent pot-smokers, and taxpayers
are financing their incarceration. Instead, the government should be
using that money to track down murderers on the loose.

The ideal of American streets being safe from criminals is far from
realistic. But arresting killers and rapists instead of pot-smoking
hippies is a step in the right direction. Who would you rather have
behind bars: 50 stoners or one homicidal maniac?