The Facts

In 2009 for example, in the state of Florida, considered the harshest state on cannabis, while 824,559 non-violent crimes were reported, only 193,529 (about 23% ) of those resulted in arrest with only 84,120 guilty dispositions (about 10% of reported crimes). That means 631, 030 of those crimes (nearly 77%) went unsolved with no arrests.

In a separate category of reported crimes was violent crimes at 113,415 which. total violent crimes resulting in a guilty disposition was 28,131, this figure includes reported and not reported violent crimes. There is no indication of how many violent crimes arrests were reported crimes and how many were not reported crimes yet arrested. Even if all arrests for violent crimes were results of reported violent crimes, a doubtful given, that still leaves 85,282 reported violent crimes with no arrests. That is the unsolved reported violent crimes is more than 3 times those with guilty dispositions. An other notable fact from the figures is that there were more violent crimes unresolved than non violent crimes resulting in a guilty disposition.

There was a total 856,400 “other arrests” which includes the violent crimes, and unreported crimes. Of those there were 146,056 drug arrests of which only 48,184 of those arrested resulted in a guilty verdict. Less than one third of those arrested for drugs are found guilty.

This is a point often made by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) when Neill Franklin points out that in 1963 the closure rate for homicides in this country was 91%, whereas today is down to 61%. His reason, they spend 70 - 80 % of their time chasing drug arrests. Violent criminals run free while a cannabis user is being arrested.

Is arresting someone for smoking a bit of cannabis really worth 85,282 unsolved violent crimes? Who would you rather see in court or jail.

In a recent conversation with a group of cannabis activists it was stated that approximately 50% of those arrested become activists. If that holds true with the Florida figures 17 - 20% more arrestees become activists than are found guilty.

Most drug crime is simple possession of a controlled substance. The violence in the area of drug crime is directly due to the fact it is illegal and a black market product. By legalizing it you take it off the black market. If we tax and regulate it, it becomes as difficult for minors to obtain as alcohol. Fact is cannabis and other illegal drugs are far easier for a minor to obtain than alcohol. Drugs are available in schools across the nation, alcohol is not.

Ever since I began doing this I’ve been absolutely amazed at the amount of people that come to me to tell things and what they tell me. They don’t want their names involved but they want the facts out. Some of those include the amount of drugs consumed by law enforcement. One woman who worked in a sheriff’s department in Georgia and shared a residence with several explained how the first thing after work many of the officers got together and had a smoke out. In Florida apparently when cash was found during a drug bust the cash never was listed on the property reports, it simply went in the officers pockets. An other woman told me of several people that she was aware of that happening with including one man who they took $12,000.00. Never reported it. Others at smaller amounts but it seemed to be a regular event. An other woman explained her husband used to be a big time cocaine dealer. His largest clients were the police and sheriffs not only from her county but other nearby counties, along with doctors, and lawyers. Still an other told of judges and politicians she was aware of being users. I called a list of politicians during the primary election, asking where they stood on medicinal use of cannabis and on ending prohibition. When I asked the one I knew was in fact a user, his response was he was for medicinal use but needed to look into ending prohibition more before he could answer that. This man smokes regularly from my understanding, how could he want it to remain illegal. He was running on the Republican ticket, but still, does he really want to be considered a criminal?

By ending prohibition a large amount of corruption would also come to an end. After all, law enforcement uses, as does the prosecutors, the defending attorneys, judges and politicians. I have even met ministers that use. People from all walks of life partake in forbidden substances. One would be hard pressed to find a politician that does not ever drink alcohol. Alcohol is a drug, it may be legal but it is still a drug with psychotropic effects. Alcohol is also far more damaging to the body, brain and society than cannabis and far more addictive than cannabis.

We can not out law addictive personalities, these are the people prohibition is supposedly meant to save. The addictive personality will always find a substance until they seek help and except the fact they are just one who should not be using any substance. It is only through honest education, not the tactics of Reefer Madness and the DARE program that change will come. We do not put alcoholics in prison or on probation simply for being an alcoholic. Doctor hand out Xanex as if it were aspirin. As someone who has witnessed the effects of this legal drug I wish doctors were required to experience a drug before prescribing them so freely. Or at the very least observe someone on the drug prior to being permitted to prescribe it. Although many drugs are prescribed with an advisory to not consume alcohol with the drug it is not a crime to do so.

Drug use and abuse has gone on for thousands of centuries. Ideology and laws will not change it. Focusing on real crimes and making this a safer nation will cut down the use of drugs by means of fewer traumatized victims and fewer families damaged by prison terms for simple possession. Also one would think some of the tens of billions of tax dollars spent on investigating, arresting, prosecuting, and imprisoning citizens for the use of drugs would be wisely spent on honest education and rehabilitation, to achieve a lower use. As a taxpayer whose dollars are spent fighting the use of drugs would not you prefer to see those dollars of yours spent fighting real crime and locking up real and violent criminals instead of focused on the guy smoking a joint.

Learn more check out this video-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LayaGk0TMDc

MM1, please erase this weed heads stupid a$$ forum.

You want facts? I can give you facts...(believe it or not...numbers can be made up!)

Didn't you know that 81% of all facts are made up, that results in precisely 16,648,576 (annually) of these facts are that are really just...bullsh*t. Worse yet, this ammounts to 35.86740028475% of people for every thousand actually believe these erroneous facts when told to them. So if I'm doing the math correctly (and of course I am) that means every year, and every fact, with every person...it's exactly 547,885,221,363,927,157.12547885852364565986511551 55126321656516 false facts that are being told, believed, and to a person!?!?!? Can you believe that?????

P.S. it pained me to tell you this because...19.3546% of people who read this will become so annoyed, argumentative and just plain mad that they will actually consider a violent crime just to alleviate the headache from these numbers. And with 23.65874% of those people realistically going through with these crimes, that means 1.451558 of these people will actually get away with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You want facts? I can give you facts...(believe it or not...numbers can be made up!)

Didn't you know that 81% of all facts are made up,

The fact is the facts came from Florida Department of Law Enforcement! Are those also made up facts?
http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Content/.../UCR-Home.aspx

You want facts? I can give you facts...(believe it or not...numbers can be made up!)

Didn't you know that 81% of all facts are made up,

The fact is the facts came from Florida Department of Law Enforcement! Are those also made up facts?
http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Content/.../UCR-Home.aspx

First things first, I dont believe what you wrote is a proper sentence. It should be written...(These) facts (are) the facts (that) came from (the)...but i digress (after all I'm arguing with a pothead). And second, I would have to say yes, even the mighy FDLE can get numbers wrong...it's called being human. I'm not saying the FDLE knowingly posted false facts, but those facts had to come from a long chain a people...and yes i believe along the way they could have been misconstrued. Did you ever hear of the McCarthy trials? Or read about the number of fallen soldiers in the Vietnam War? Those came from Gov. officials and respected military positions, and those numbers, believe it or not...were a little off (READ A BOOK STONER!!!). You know you're going through alot of trouble just to make a statement about smoking a joint, if you really want to do that so bad then go ahead and do it, i mean after all it results in a lower sperm count and lower brain cells, which hinders your chance of getting a job or reproducing...it's called natural selection (again...read a book). I now consider this matter closed and i assure you that I will continue to arrest people with weed on them and I will do it with a smile on my face...(considering it's about noon and you will probably be getting up in a few hours to catch your daily dose of MTV/BET, I figure you should be reading this soon. So I apologize in advance for the buzz kill.) Bye for now Johnny Appleweed.

[quote="TheBuzzKill
but i digress (after all I'm arguing with a pothead). (READ A BOOK STONER!!!). considering it's about noon and you will probably be getting up in a few hours to catch your daily dose of MTV/BET, I figure you should be reading this soon. So I apologize in advance for the buzz kill.) Bye for now Johnny Appleweed.[/quote]

Asumptions, Assumptions, Not a pothead or a stoner, and I do not watch MTV or BET. I am a news junkie, a member of LEAP, a researcher, author, and could pass any drug test any time. In response to your other comments:
#2 Should pregnant women smoke consume pot?
The Cannabis Papers
- a citizen's guide to cannabinoids
by Publius

Uterine cannabinoids and the beginning of human life

"Do you want pregnant women to smoke pot?"

That question bounced around the room (and in my head) for a moment. And the answer is an equivocal "Yes" — but the reason why I hesitate is the word "smoke."

Here's a better question — "Do you want pregnant women to consume cannabinoids?" The answer to that question might surprise you, but this is too important of an issue to be wrong — no matter what misconceptions one might have. Current research is confirming a new theory: cannabinoids play a fundamental role in a healthy and successful pregnancy.

First of all, there is no such thing as a drug-free pregnancy. The making of a baby is a biological and chemical phenomenon that every adult is somewhat familiar with. We know cells divide, organs grow, parts mature, and then birth — and the mystery of fertility goes on.

One aspect of fertility is becoming significantly less mysterious. A 2006 report from the Pediatrics Department at Vanderbilt University characterized endocannabinoids as "an emerging concept in female reproduction." Why such praise? Because of what they found: a "cannabinoid sensor" mechanism to influence crucial steps during early pregnancy.

Pregnancy is a stress to the body. To modulate that stress, the ECS responds by creating endocannabinoids — the body's version of "first responders." By first responders I am referring to what the Vanderbilt research termed the "endocannabinoid signaling in preimplantation embryo development and activation." One of the first things the fertilized embryo must do is to attach itself to the lining of the uterus. Without becoming attached to the uterine wall, which forms the umbilical cord, there will be no pregnancy. Here is where cannabinoids play a key role: for the embryo to become attached to the lining of the uterus, a particular range (or amount) of one specific endocannabinoid, called anandamide, is necessary. This endocannabinoid uses the CB1 receptors that are on the blastocyst (fertilized egg) — the same type of receptors that the herbal cannabinoid THC uses. The Vanderbilt research shows that if there is not enough of the endocannabinoid anandamide, or too much anandamide, the embryo will not become attached to the uterine lining.
The Vanderbilt research shows how the fertilized egg is dependent on a functioning ECS — and specifically, the endocannabinoid anandamide and the CB1 receptor. To make this more charming and less scientific, one could say that once upon a time there was a baby Publius. And before I was a baby, before even a fetus or an anything — there was this one sperm that was part of making me — and it was the smallest cell in the human body, only swimming 3mm a minute. And that single cell had a ways to travel. The journey to conception begins in one organ and ends up in another — from gonads to vagina, passing through the cervix, the uterus, and into a fallopian tube where the smallest human cell joins with the largest — my mother's egg. So the sperm and the egg meet and off they go to form . . .

No — not yet — there is another part to the story. Until the now fertilized egg attaches itself to something, in this case, the lining of the uterus, there is no viable pregnancy — just a fertilized egg. That is why the Vanderbilt research is important. It points to a revolution in our way of thinking about cannabis and the cannabinoids it contains. For example, a fertilized egg is cannabinoid dependent. It, the life of the egg and the beginning of a viable pregnancy, depends on a healthy ECS. It takes the right amount of cannabinoids to activate a certain number of CB1 receptors in order for the fertilized egg to attach itself to the uterus. This process is accomplished because there are CB1 receptors on the blastocyst — that is, on the fertilized egg itself — and the cannabinoid anandamide on the endometrium — the inner lining of the uterus.

Cannabinoids are not only one of the first responses of the body to fertility, they also play a role in other aspects of pregnancy as well. A 2004 study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology concluded: "Both endogenous and exogenous cannabinoids exert a potent and direct relaxant effect on human pregnant myometrium, which is mediated through the CB1 receptor." This means that the middle layer of the uterine wall, the "myometrium," is modulated by cannabinoids as well. — And as a reminder, these uterine CB1 receptors are activated by endocannabinoids as well herbal and synthetic cannabinoids.

In addition to conception, another 2004 report showed that endocannabinoids activate the oral motor musculature necessary for newborn mice to nurse — which makes sense because breast milk contains endocannabinoids. The same 2004 study also stated "Anandamide has neuroprotectant properties in the developing postnatal brain." And of course, all of this is new, right? — No. Fourteen years ago, in 1995, there was lab research on mice that showed that the mammalian ECS is involved in signaling within the uterus.

So let's review: cannabinoid receptors are located on the blastocyst, the fertilized egg, making the implantation of the egg cannabinoid dependent. We've also learned that throughout pregnancy and during nursing that the ECS delivers relief and neuroprotection to mother, fetus, and baby. That sounds pretty important — important enough to rethink the guilt, fear, shame, hesitation, and reticence of using cannabis to modulate the ECS before, during, and after pregnancy — as it seems that nature thought of it way before we did.

And no, pregnant women don't have to smoke blunts or joints to get their cannabinoids. There are easier ways to consume cannabinoids. Simply put, expectant mothers and new moms could consume cannabinoids in baked goods, tinctures, teas or whatever form is best for them. Harm reduction is the key. Perhaps in the future the health of a woman's ECS, and its effects on fetus and baby, will be the focus of pregnancy and not the fear mongering of "smoked marijuana." In the future, mothers-to-be might want to start asking their doctors something like, "How are my anandamide levels? — Too high or too low?" Or perhaps even more likely, maybe the doctors will be asking the mothers, "Have you had your cannabis brownie today?"

Publius

In an other resent study, Mortality Within the First 2 Years in Infants Exposed to Cocaine, Opiate, or Cannabinoid During Gestation - pediatrics.aappublications.org

A total of 2,964 infants were drug-tested at birth to see if they were positive for drugs - cocaine, opiates and cannabis were studied and compared to drug free infants. During the first two years of their lives, 44 babies from the original group died. The death rates were :

"No drugs at birth" deaths....... 15.7 deaths per 1000 live births

"Cocaine positive" deaths.......17.7 deaths per 1000 live births

"Opiate positive" deaths.......18.4 deaths per 1000 live births

"Cannabis positive" deaths.... 8.9 deaths per 1000 live births

The "cannabis positive" infants rate of death is almost half of what the "No drugs" infants death rate is! When it comes to failure to thrive, cannabis shows a significant improvement in the outcome.

If the body is low on cannabinoids, just as with any other defiency, the body does not function correctly since the endocannabinoid system regulates all other systems in the body. Misinformation has done much damage over the last 73 years as has the war on a plant and those who use it. Cannabis has continually been shown to be a remarkable anti-inflammatory which could be of great help to the 86 million people that suffer chronic pain. No one ever died from cannabis/marijuana though much suffering has taken place from the prohibition of it. It is time to end this travesty.

As someone who suffers many health problems, which even my doctor says cannabis would be a physically safer choice than all the chemical phamaceuticals which cause much damage to the body and are far more addictive and leave me bed ridden if I took them all, so don't I try to get by with a minimal use of prescriptions. I would like to see it permitted for medicinal use. However Florida does not have medicinal use. YET! Due to my position I do not use cannabis! But I will continue to fight for medicinal use in Florida. I am 54 years old and most likely will be dead within 6 years, so what have I got to loose. It is my health stuggle which lead me to LEAP and further investigation, information, and insight. For example do you know the history of the outlawing of cannabis? Or that the controlled substance act and subsequent schedule was done 18 years before science was even aware that the human body has an endo-cannabinoid system which controlls all other systems in the body? Have you heard of the Vienna Declaration? Have you heard of the Prague Declaration? Are you aware of the science? Have you listened with an open mind to anything Leap has to say? If the government controlled cannabis and drugs, there would be no more drug related violence, drug cartels, and no more drug dealers on the streets. Wouldn't that be a nicer way to live? 37% increase in deaths of officer this year, wouldn't a decrease be better? Are you aware of the improvements in society in portugal and other nations with a change in drug policy? Lower crime, less use, especially by the youth. I'd like to see that before I die.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0psJhQHk_GI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tghU...eature=related

It's just after 6am long before noon! I've been up for about an hour now.

Oh, okay, I get it. You're not a stoner or a pothead...you're a hippie. And considering that impressively long reply you worked out I guess your the worst kind of hippie there is...the college know-it-all hippie. I've seen your type before, you spent your first year at college on your parents dime and you think you know the world (or maybe it owes you something). And you come back thinking, "dude, this world would be so much better if everybody would just live the way I think they should"...(you must be a liberal). But what you dont see inside your little bubble is the damage that drugs (shocker...INCLUDING WEED) causes to the community. Does FDLE ever report how there's a drive-by done on someone because they didn't pay up for the weed they bought last week? Or does the 'Happy stoner mommy giving birth to healthy babies' magazine ever tell you about adoption rates of drug users, or ever touch the subject of infant/toddler deaths due to child neglect beacuse the parents (if both are even there) are too busy getting high and looking for their next hit? I dont think it does. So go keep doing your research hippie, in fact make it the topic of your thesis, I'm sure your liberal professor will love it and you'll get an 'A' with a big smiley face on it to make you feel extra special, and you can go show that to your parents so they know they spent their money wisely. But for the rest of us that live in the real world, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you hippie, but the sh!t your slingin'is never gonna fly over here. Bye for now...Mr. Suit and tie, looking all serious because weed is not bad and everyone should know it. (you're pathetic)

...oh yeah, and the next time you quote me, try and get the whole quote and not chop it apart so it looks better for your response...bye hippie!

A total of 2,964 infants were drug-tested at birth to see if they were positive for drugs - cocaine, opiates and cannabis were studied and compared to drug free infants. During the first two years of their lives, 44 babies from the original group died. The death rates were :

"No drugs at birth" deaths....... 15.7 deaths per 1000 live births

"Cocaine positive" deaths.......17.7 deaths per 1000 live births

"Opiate positive" deaths.......18.4 deaths per 1000 live births

"Cannabis positive" deaths.... 8.9 deaths per 1000 live births


yeah and what about numbers being made up like you said before. i wonder if these are made up too, hahaha!

Oh, okay, I get it. You're not a stoner or a pothead...you're a hippie. And considering that impressively long reply you worked out I guess your the worst kind of hippie there is...the college know-it-all hippie. I've seen your type before, you spent your first year at college on your parents dime and you think you know the world (or maybe it owes you something). And you come back thinking, "dude, this world would be so much better if everybody would just live the way I think they should"...(you must be a liberal). But what you dont see inside your little bubble is the damage that drugs (shocker...INCLUDING WEED) causes to the community. Does FDLE ever report how there's a drive-by done on someone because they didn't pay up for the weed they bought last week? Or does the 'Happy stoner mommy giving birth to healthy babies' magazine ever tell you about adoption rates of drug users, or ever touch the subject of infant/toddler deaths due to child neglect beacuse the parents (if both are even there) are too busy getting high and looking for their next hit? I dont think it does. So go keep doing your research hippie, in fact make it the topic of your thesis, I'm sure your liberal professor will love it and you'll get an 'A' with a big smiley face on it to make you feel extra special, and you can go show that to your parents so they know they spent their money wisely. But for the rest of us that live in the real world, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you hippie, but the sh!t your slingin'is never gonna fly over here. Bye for now...Mr. Suit and tie, looking all serious because weed is not bad and everyone should know it. (you're pathetic)

Wow, well, hopefully you know what assuming does. I will do my best to refrain from letting it make one out of me by not getting defensive. Apparently you did not read the last paragraph. I do understand you are looking at the subject from one perspective, a soldier on the frontline, as most who read this. I have watched the WOD from many sides. I fled a neighborhood which was becoming infected with crack addicts. I have half a dozen or so relatives that are officiers, from sheriff deputies to undercover narcotic officiers. My daughter's father was a contractor robbed and shot by a drug addict upon his return from the bank with payroll. Ironically he wound up getting addicted to the pain killers and hung himself on day 3 of withdrawls. I have spent the last 30 years counseling people to get off drugs and alcohol. I actually witnessed a heroin addict and alcoholic argue of who was the "better addict". I've watched people loose everything including their kids. I've watched cops loose their careers after becoming corrupt by temptation. I watched a prosecutor and defense attorney on a Sunday morning sharing champagne and strawberries and a mirror load of cocaine while viewing the video of an arrest of their mutual friend that the one was prosecuting and the other defending. I've seen or known of doctors, lawyers, prosectors, judges, cops, business owners, even politicians, along with the average citizen become users, abusers. Some overcame it, some hit bottom. I've even had a cop tell me he wished everyone would just smoke pot, that it kept the town peaceful and happy vs what happens everytime a new shipment of cocaine comes in.

But what I have not seen is a lower demand or lower supply of drugs in this nation. I have not seenany evidence that the WOD has had any positive affect. However in nations that has changed their approach to the problem, a lower demand and lower use is happening, with less young people tempted to use them. When funds are spent on treatment and education it has more effect.

More of those pesky facts:
Dr. Carel Edwards, the Anti-Drugs Coordinator for the European Union from 2003 to 2010 joined LEAP as a speaker and advisory board member. On December 8th, 2010 at a Public Hearing on Drug Policies in the European Parliament held in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, Dana Spinant, the new Coordinator of the European Commissions Anti-Drugs Unit, repeatedly stated, “The European Union will not block any initiative of EU Member States to start the legal regulation of cannabis and other currently illegal drugs.” This opens the doors for 27 EU Member States, two candidate countries and Norway (population 500 million) to start “the legal regulation of cannabis and other currently illegal drugs“.

The United States has 5% of the world’s population, and 25% of the world’s prisoners, 40% of whom are there for simple possession. One in every 31 Americans is either behind bars, on probation or on parole according to the Pew Center on the States‘ recent report “One in 31 - The long Reach of American Corrections. And according to the FBIs' Uniform Crimes Report, marijuana users are arrested at the rate of 1 every 40 seconds, with about 88 percent of all marijuana arrests being for possession - not production or distribution. The United States imprisons more people for drug offenses than European Union (EU) countries imprison for all offenses, even though EU countries have 100-million more citizens.

Anand Grover, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, submitted a report to the UN August 2010 stating “Decriminalization of certain laws governing drug control would improve the health and welfare of people who use drugs and the general population demonstrably.” While the UN has not adopted and ratified Grover’s recommendations, for the first time open dialog and conversation took place on the possibilities of changing the way nations deal with drug use and why it should be done.

UNGASS 98 is an acronym for United Nations General Assembly Special Session 1998, which issued a declaration and action plan to curb world wide drug abuse and trafficking.
The study found :

“No evidence that the global drug problem was reduced during the UNGASS period from 1998 to 2007. “

“There is a lack of evidence that controls can reduce total global production. The same applies to trafficking.”

“Enforcement of drug prohibitions has caused substantial unintended harms; many were predictable. “

“ Production and trafficking controls only redistributed activities. “

The study concluded :

“That during the period 1998 to 2007 the size of the global illicit drug problem did not decline; indeed, it has most probably grown somewhat worse over that time.“

“Enforcement against local markets failed in most countries to prevent continued availability at lower price.”


For the record - I have never felt anyone owes me anything, not even a listening ear or an open mind. I did not start the post, someone else using my computer did using a portion of my article that was published elsewhere.

Buzzkill - Cannabis does not kill brain cells. That old study was debunked by every peer review. Those monkeys died from lack of oxygen. Alcohol does kill brain cells. Binge drinking causes damage to 8 areas of the brain. The nuro-protectant property of cannabis actually prevents damage in 7 of those 8 areas, according to 2 recent studies. You can read about the studies at
http://www.gsalternative.com/2010/07...nduced-damage/For further insight and to end your absurd assumptions, go back and read the last paragraph of my last reply.

The war on drugs is not working. If the government controlled cannabis and drugs, there would be no more drug related violence, drug cartels, no more drug dealers on the streets and a safer place for all. I would like to see that before I die. Then you could get back to doing what you originally joined the police for, surely you had larger goals than busting pot smokers. The churches have also turned to this thought. Heck even Pat Robertson has.

But don't take my word for it see it to believe it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlzcd...yer_embedded#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FSjS...layer_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jI1R...eature=channel
A Safe and Happy New Year to All!