Americas secret police force the FBI announced this week that they arrested record numbers of marijuana users last year, catching 771,608 unlucky smokers. A further 984,000 people were busted for other drug offences in 2004, with the vast majority, 81%, arrested for simple possession.
The new all time high pot arrest figures are more than double the numbers busted in 1993, and mean almost eight million Americans have been done for weed since 1995, said DRC.net.
Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) said the figures prove US authorities are continuing to aggressively target pot users ahead of serious criminals and terrorists and said the 17 million Americans busted since 1965 prove that Prohibition has failed.
“Arresting adults who smoke marijuana responsibly needlessly destroys the lives of tens of thousands of otherwise law abiding citizens each year,” said Mr St. Pierre.
Is not such a public policy (of legally controlling marijuana via taxation) preferable to the current one where government arrests an extraordinary amount of citizens for an adult behaviour that is not deviant, or, for that matter, dissimilar than consuming products that contain alcohol? he asked (DRC.net)
The figures were published in the FBIs latest annual Uniform Crime Report just two weeks after the Feds announced theyre considering recruiting ex potheads (as long as theyve managed to evade arrest), which prompted a dismayed reaction from puritanical Senator Mark Souder this week.
Unlike the CIA or State Department, the FBI is charged principally with enforcing laws, including drug laws. We expect and should continue to expect FBI employees to abide by the laws they are charged to enforce. We expect people who have exhibited a lifetime of good judgment, the fanatical drug warrior told USA Today.
It is incredible that the FBI seems dedicated to lowering its own standards. We need our best and brightest, now more than ever. One wonders what it is about repeat drug abusers that the FBI thinks it needs, he mused.
http://ga0.org/campaign/methbill (Stop Harsh New Methamphetamine Bill: An atrocious new bill sponsored by Rep. Mark Souder — one of the worst and most irresponsible drug warriors in the US Congress — would impose long mandatory minimum sentences on low-level, nonviolent methamphetamine offenders . . .)
Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)
