T
The420Guy
Guest
Although President Clinton says a little marijuana shouldn't be a crime,
arrests for marijuana possession have more than doubled during his
administration.
Meanwhile, the latest numbers show, fewer drug dealers are being busted.
"I think that most small amounts of marijuana have been decriminalized in
most places, and should be," Clinton told Rolling Stone publisher Jann
Wenner last November.
Nevertheless, during his administration, the war on drugs has turned its
focus to marijuana -- both nationally and in Arkansas.
And a White House spokesman said Friday that Clinton does not support the
decriminalization of marijuana.
"The president's major point is that we need to look seriously at our
policies of imprisonment and mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent
minor offenses and look at other alternatives," said the spokesman, Jason
Schechter.
"The president believes that we shouldn't have harsh sentences for
first-time, nonviolent offenders, and that we can get tough on drug use by
getting tough on drug testing and drug treatment, as complements to
enforcement."
In 1992, the year before Clinton became president, nearly one in three drug
arrests was for manufacturing or selling illicit drugs. Today, fewer than
one in five is, according to Justice Department statistics.
However, arrests for marijuana possession have soared from 271,900 in 1992
to 620,500 in 1999, a 128 percent increase. Today, 40.5 percent of all drug
arrests are for possession of marijuana. In Arkansas, more than half are.
It is not because there are more smokers. According to federal government
statistics, marijuana usage has risen just 15 percent since 1992 -- barely
more than the overall population increase.
In Arkansas, the vast majority of those arrested were charged with
misdemeanors -- possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. Possession
of more than an ounce is a felony -- possession with an assumed intent to
deliver.
What exactly the numbers mean is hotly debated between those backing
America's war on drugs and those who consider it to be a failure.
For Bob Weiner, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, the numbers mean success.
"Cocaine has gone down so dramatically," he said. "So that's the reason why
the market share ... is going down." With cocaine down, arrests for
marijuana possession are rising, he said.
Timothy Lynch, a criminal-justice scholar for the Cato Institute in
Washington, D.C., is sharply critical. His organization bills itself as a
nonpartisan research foundation that seeks to broaden public-policy debate.
Lynch said America's drug policy is wasting money and resources, often
pursuing simple marijuana smokers instead of violent criminals.
"That's one of the main points I'm trying to hammer home," he said, calling
leniency to violent criminals a "side effect" of the war on drugs. Every
day law enforcement tries to crack down on drugs, he said, it takes away
resources to solve a murder or rape.
Weiner, though, contends that those murders and rapes are often linked to
drugs. In fact, he said, the war on drugs is reducing not only drug use,
but also crime overall.
He noted, too, that billions are being spent on drug-abuse treatment and
prevention. Last year, those efforts were allocated $6 billion in federal
money.
Even more money was allocated for arrest and interdiction -- $12.5 billion.
The amount budgeted for domestic law enforcement has risen 74 percent under
Clinton.
Is the money being spent wisely? Again, it's open to debate.
Critics like Lynch say some law-enforcement budgets have become swollen
with drug-war money, giving law officers a vested interest in continuing
that war. Even the Pentagon, he noted, receives millions every year for
combating drugs. Last year, the Defense Department got $1 billion. Health
and Human Services was budgeted $3.1 billion, the Justice Department $7.4
billion.
Lynch cited a recent book released by the Cato Institute, After
Prohibition: An Adult Approach to Drug Policies in the 21st Century, that
contends that some law enforcement agencies intentionally target easy drug
arrests so they can inflate their numbers and seek more money the next year.
Weiner, citing the falling crime rates, says the money is well spent,
saving and rebuilding lives, and dismisses Lynch. "There's a lot of false
arguments out there. ... The arguments are absurd, and the American people
know it."
For two of the men fighting the drug war in Arkansas, the equation is simple.
"Is the war on drugs costly?" muses Arkansas State Police Sgt. Don
Birdsong. "Yes. But as a parent, it's a lot less costly than losing one of
my children."
Arkansas Drug Director Bill Hardin contends that the state's police
agencies and prisons are starving for money -- with very little to waste.
That brings the debate back around to the numbers. Why have Arkansas'
annual arrests for marijuana possession -- up from 2,722 to 7,806 during
the Clinton administration -- so outstripped other drug arrests?
Hardin isn't sure. "I couldn't explain that."
Are marijuana smokers being targeted by law enforcement?
"No," he said.
Much of Arkansas' drug-war money is aimed at methamphetamine, a highly
addictive drug whose manufacture has created a cottage industry in the
state. Arkansas leads the nation in raids on meth labs.
"We are very aggressive on this," Hardin said. "We work at it every day."
Indeed, the state's methamphetamine arrests have grown at a faster pace
than marijuana arrests over the past three years.
But that is the exception. And few others address the increase in marijuana
arrests as directly as Hardin.
Little Rock defense lawyer John Wesley Hall says a marijuana bust is often
a byproduct of a simple traffic stop during which the police officer finds
a roach. State Police Sgt. Birdsong said the drug's bulk and distinctive
odor make it "easy to find."
Marijuana might be easy to find, but predicting the final outcome of the
war on drugs is anything but easy.
Former President Nixon began the war in 1972. "Legalizing marijuana would
simply encourage more and more of our young people to start down the long
dismal road that leads to hard drugs and eventually self-destruction," he
said in 1974.
Three years later, though, Jimmy Carter questioned the approach. "Penalties
against a drug should not be more dangerous to an individual than use of
the drug itself, and where they are, they should be changed," he said in
1977. "Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession
of marijuana."
That same year, young Arkansas Attorney General Bill Clinton also
questioned the laws making marijuana possession illegal.
"Vast numbers of young people see their fellows, usually young men, going
to the state penitentiary for something they don't think is morally wrong,"
he said, calling that part of law enforcement a "terrific cost" that should
be reconsidered.
But Ronald Reagan and George Bush staunchly opposed the idea of
decriminalizing marijuana, and in fact turned up the volume of the war on
drugs. When Reagan won the presidency in 1980, the drug-war budget was $1
billion. By the end of Bush's term in 1992, it was $11.9 billion. Under
Clinton, it has grown to $18.5 billion.
Some progress has been made toward the decriminalization of marijuana that
Carter and Clinton proposed.
According to The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, 10
states, including California and New York, have made the possession of
small amounts of marijuana civil infractions instead of crimes in many
cases. That means that almost a third of the country's population lives in
states that have decriminalized marijuana at least to some degree.
While Arkansas drug czar Hardin doesn't want that to happen in his state,
he said that, in general, small-time marijuana users should be placed in
treatment, not jails, an opinion shared by most people interviewed.
Indeed, few are actually incarcerated. For example, nationwide in 1996,
just 2 percent to 3 percent of jail inmates were there because of marijuana
possession, according to Caroline Harlow, a statistician for the federal
Bureau of Justice Statistics. In 1999, just 21 percent of Arkansans
convicted of marijuana felonies -- including those holding more than 100
pounds of marijuana -- received prison time.
And while the drug-war debate goes on, covering money and politics and even
science, Hardin does have one ironclad conclusion. "I can tell you one
thing: It's against the law."
Information for this article was contributed by Kevin Freking of the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Newshawk: Mister Farmer
Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jan 2001
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (AR)
Copyright: 2001 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
Contact: voices@ardemgaz.com
Address: 121 East Capitol Avenue, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72201
Website: Arkansas Online
Forum: Letters to the Editor
Author: Jeff Porter
arrests for marijuana possession have more than doubled during his
administration.
Meanwhile, the latest numbers show, fewer drug dealers are being busted.
"I think that most small amounts of marijuana have been decriminalized in
most places, and should be," Clinton told Rolling Stone publisher Jann
Wenner last November.
Nevertheless, during his administration, the war on drugs has turned its
focus to marijuana -- both nationally and in Arkansas.
And a White House spokesman said Friday that Clinton does not support the
decriminalization of marijuana.
"The president's major point is that we need to look seriously at our
policies of imprisonment and mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent
minor offenses and look at other alternatives," said the spokesman, Jason
Schechter.
"The president believes that we shouldn't have harsh sentences for
first-time, nonviolent offenders, and that we can get tough on drug use by
getting tough on drug testing and drug treatment, as complements to
enforcement."
In 1992, the year before Clinton became president, nearly one in three drug
arrests was for manufacturing or selling illicit drugs. Today, fewer than
one in five is, according to Justice Department statistics.
However, arrests for marijuana possession have soared from 271,900 in 1992
to 620,500 in 1999, a 128 percent increase. Today, 40.5 percent of all drug
arrests are for possession of marijuana. In Arkansas, more than half are.
It is not because there are more smokers. According to federal government
statistics, marijuana usage has risen just 15 percent since 1992 -- barely
more than the overall population increase.
In Arkansas, the vast majority of those arrested were charged with
misdemeanors -- possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. Possession
of more than an ounce is a felony -- possession with an assumed intent to
deliver.
What exactly the numbers mean is hotly debated between those backing
America's war on drugs and those who consider it to be a failure.
For Bob Weiner, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, the numbers mean success.
"Cocaine has gone down so dramatically," he said. "So that's the reason why
the market share ... is going down." With cocaine down, arrests for
marijuana possession are rising, he said.
Timothy Lynch, a criminal-justice scholar for the Cato Institute in
Washington, D.C., is sharply critical. His organization bills itself as a
nonpartisan research foundation that seeks to broaden public-policy debate.
Lynch said America's drug policy is wasting money and resources, often
pursuing simple marijuana smokers instead of violent criminals.
"That's one of the main points I'm trying to hammer home," he said, calling
leniency to violent criminals a "side effect" of the war on drugs. Every
day law enforcement tries to crack down on drugs, he said, it takes away
resources to solve a murder or rape.
Weiner, though, contends that those murders and rapes are often linked to
drugs. In fact, he said, the war on drugs is reducing not only drug use,
but also crime overall.
He noted, too, that billions are being spent on drug-abuse treatment and
prevention. Last year, those efforts were allocated $6 billion in federal
money.
Even more money was allocated for arrest and interdiction -- $12.5 billion.
The amount budgeted for domestic law enforcement has risen 74 percent under
Clinton.
Is the money being spent wisely? Again, it's open to debate.
Critics like Lynch say some law-enforcement budgets have become swollen
with drug-war money, giving law officers a vested interest in continuing
that war. Even the Pentagon, he noted, receives millions every year for
combating drugs. Last year, the Defense Department got $1 billion. Health
and Human Services was budgeted $3.1 billion, the Justice Department $7.4
billion.
Lynch cited a recent book released by the Cato Institute, After
Prohibition: An Adult Approach to Drug Policies in the 21st Century, that
contends that some law enforcement agencies intentionally target easy drug
arrests so they can inflate their numbers and seek more money the next year.
Weiner, citing the falling crime rates, says the money is well spent,
saving and rebuilding lives, and dismisses Lynch. "There's a lot of false
arguments out there. ... The arguments are absurd, and the American people
know it."
For two of the men fighting the drug war in Arkansas, the equation is simple.
"Is the war on drugs costly?" muses Arkansas State Police Sgt. Don
Birdsong. "Yes. But as a parent, it's a lot less costly than losing one of
my children."
Arkansas Drug Director Bill Hardin contends that the state's police
agencies and prisons are starving for money -- with very little to waste.
That brings the debate back around to the numbers. Why have Arkansas'
annual arrests for marijuana possession -- up from 2,722 to 7,806 during
the Clinton administration -- so outstripped other drug arrests?
Hardin isn't sure. "I couldn't explain that."
Are marijuana smokers being targeted by law enforcement?
"No," he said.
Much of Arkansas' drug-war money is aimed at methamphetamine, a highly
addictive drug whose manufacture has created a cottage industry in the
state. Arkansas leads the nation in raids on meth labs.
"We are very aggressive on this," Hardin said. "We work at it every day."
Indeed, the state's methamphetamine arrests have grown at a faster pace
than marijuana arrests over the past three years.
But that is the exception. And few others address the increase in marijuana
arrests as directly as Hardin.
Little Rock defense lawyer John Wesley Hall says a marijuana bust is often
a byproduct of a simple traffic stop during which the police officer finds
a roach. State Police Sgt. Birdsong said the drug's bulk and distinctive
odor make it "easy to find."
Marijuana might be easy to find, but predicting the final outcome of the
war on drugs is anything but easy.
Former President Nixon began the war in 1972. "Legalizing marijuana would
simply encourage more and more of our young people to start down the long
dismal road that leads to hard drugs and eventually self-destruction," he
said in 1974.
Three years later, though, Jimmy Carter questioned the approach. "Penalties
against a drug should not be more dangerous to an individual than use of
the drug itself, and where they are, they should be changed," he said in
1977. "Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession
of marijuana."
That same year, young Arkansas Attorney General Bill Clinton also
questioned the laws making marijuana possession illegal.
"Vast numbers of young people see their fellows, usually young men, going
to the state penitentiary for something they don't think is morally wrong,"
he said, calling that part of law enforcement a "terrific cost" that should
be reconsidered.
But Ronald Reagan and George Bush staunchly opposed the idea of
decriminalizing marijuana, and in fact turned up the volume of the war on
drugs. When Reagan won the presidency in 1980, the drug-war budget was $1
billion. By the end of Bush's term in 1992, it was $11.9 billion. Under
Clinton, it has grown to $18.5 billion.
Some progress has been made toward the decriminalization of marijuana that
Carter and Clinton proposed.
According to The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, 10
states, including California and New York, have made the possession of
small amounts of marijuana civil infractions instead of crimes in many
cases. That means that almost a third of the country's population lives in
states that have decriminalized marijuana at least to some degree.
While Arkansas drug czar Hardin doesn't want that to happen in his state,
he said that, in general, small-time marijuana users should be placed in
treatment, not jails, an opinion shared by most people interviewed.
Indeed, few are actually incarcerated. For example, nationwide in 1996,
just 2 percent to 3 percent of jail inmates were there because of marijuana
possession, according to Caroline Harlow, a statistician for the federal
Bureau of Justice Statistics. In 1999, just 21 percent of Arkansans
convicted of marijuana felonies -- including those holding more than 100
pounds of marijuana -- received prison time.
And while the drug-war debate goes on, covering money and politics and even
science, Hardin does have one ironclad conclusion. "I can tell you one
thing: It's against the law."
Information for this article was contributed by Kevin Freking of the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Newshawk: Mister Farmer
Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jan 2001
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (AR)
Copyright: 2001 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
Contact: voices@ardemgaz.com
Address: 121 East Capitol Avenue, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72201
Website: Arkansas Online
Forum: Letters to the Editor
Author: Jeff Porter
