MARIJUANA SEIZURE DOES NOTHING FOR PUBLIC SAFETY

I was appalled when I saw the spectacle that was The Standard-Times'
top story on Friday. Pictured was new Bristol County D.A. C. Samuel
Sutter, flanked by various stern-faced individuals representing law
enforcement from U.S. Customs to our esteemed Sheriff's Department.
They were standing behind their personal spoils of the War on Drugs.
Was it guns? Heroin? Crack? Nope. Just a cache of cell phones, some
cash, a few laptop computers, and the reason for it all: a few bags of
marijuana! Wow. Thank God we have these dedicated folks standing
between us and those bloodthirsty pot dealers.

I will rest better tonight knowing that a few pounds of a plant and
those cell phones are off the streets, along with their lawless owners.

Somebody should tell Mr. Sutter that marijuana is now medically legal
in many states, including our neighbor, Rhode Island, and that despite
his Herculean efforts, marijuana will still be the number one cash
crop in the U.S. again this year. If the drug war were a business
plan, it would have been scrapped almost as soon as it began because
the more money that was spent on it, the worse the outcome.

If anyone reading this were to do his or her job like our state and
federal governments have done with this so-called war, we would be
collecting unemployment. Despite mind-boggling expenditures, drugs
have become more plentiful, more potent and much less expensive.

Only the government could come up with a plan like
that!

This didn't happen by accident, though.

Marijuana is constantly and powerfully vilified by very powerful
groups in Washington. Lobbyists for police, prison guards and prison
supply industries all fight for the continued pursuit of drugs by
interdiction instead of treatment, even though $1 spent on treatment
is as effective as $11 on enforcement and incarceration. One of the
biggest lobbyist groups opposed to legalization is the all-powerful
pharmaceutical lobby.

They make billions upon billions feeding us drugs that are often
unnecessary, dangerous and more addictive than the illegal drugs.

Commercials bombard us with pleas to "ask your doctor if drug X is
right for you."

In addition, the laws have set up a classic fox-guarding-the-chicken-coop
situation by awarding a large percentage of the seized property from
ill-gotten gains to the cities and towns whose police departments
seized them. (In forfeiture cases, you are guilty until proven
innocent and must prove that you bought your property with taxed money.

I thought proof was the burden of the government; I guess my civics
classes were wrong.) The district attorney talks about all the
seizures that he is pursuing, while hoping that nobody notices the
feathers sticking out from the corners of his mouth.

In the end, I suppose this is news. It is news that things aren't
changing anytime soon. I can't help thinking what I try to avoid
thinking every time I see a police officer pulling people over for
going 45 mph in a 35 mph zone: Don't they have anything better to do?
A recent contributor to The Standard-Times' op-ed page referred to the
district attorney fulfilling his campaign promises and taking "thugs"
and "punks" off the streets.

We said the same thing about the bootleggers in prohibition, but
realized that by making alcohol illegal and creating the black market,
we had, in fact, attracted these undesirables and created a new
criminal class.

Often, the only crime these people are guilty of is taking advantage
of a black market that was created by the government. Eventually,
however, this lawlessness leads to wars over territory in which to
sell drugs, gang formation, and real danger in the community.

Take away the black market and the problem of drug-related crime
disappears.

That makes too much sense and leaves a good number of police, prison
guards and prosecutors without jobs. Of course, we can't have that.

Editor's note: The recent seizure also included 711 grams of cocaine,
a gun, and brass knuckles.