Pubdate: Thu, 17 May 2012
Source: Ann Arbor News (MI)
Copyright: 2012 The Ann Arbor News
Contact: http://www.mlive.com/mailforms/aanews/letters/
Website: http://www.annarbor.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/20
Author: Rich Kinsey
Note: Rich Kinsey is a retired Ann Arbor police detective sergeant who now
blogs about crime and safety for AnnArbor.com. He also serves as the
Crime Stoppers coordinator for Washtenaw County.

IT'S A REAL DILEMMA FOR COPS WHEN IT COMES TO ENFORCING MARIJUANA LAWS

Police work is not as easy as one might think. After college and the
police academy, I was pretty brain damaged and thought that things
were black or white. They were right or wrong, either against the law
or lawful. WRONG!

The best police officers operate in the gray shades of human
existence. Those officers enforce the law -- not the letter of the law
- -- but an interpretation based on decency, fairness, humanity and what
in their view keeps the public safe.

For instance, I am a big advocate of wearing seatbelts, so I would be
apt to give violators tickets for noncompliance. My personal threshold
for "writing" speeders was 15 mph over the limit. Others officers
write at 10 over, 8 over and one trooper policing US-2 in the Upper
Peninsula is writing tickets for 5 over the limit for violators with
cars equipped with cruise control -- yikes that's harsh.

Nowhere in the law am I more conflicted and confused than with
marijuana. A funny thing happened during the nearly 30 years of my
police adventure. Since 1982, alcohol has been demonized in our
society, while marijuana is becoming more accepted.

Having policed Ann Arbor and being used to a $5 fine for marijuana use
- -- later changed to a $25 fine, I was conflicted for a while until the
police command staff made enforcement decisions very easy.

For most officers, the $5 fine for possession of marijuana was not
worth writing. To write the $5 ticket it took an officer the time to
write the ticket, drive to the station and log the baggy or joint into
evidence and hand the paperwork into command. This was probably a
45-minute transaction for the officer.

Factor in the time it took for the property officer to catalogue,
store, then some day dispose of the contraband properly and the time
it took the court staff to process the $5 ticket, it seemed a
ridiculous waste of time. We officers felt we should be out doing
"real police work" instead of bothering with $5 weed tickets.

That is why back then a lot of individual marijuana cigarettes or
"joints" as well as small baggies wound up scraped on the pavement
under a combat boot, dropped down storm sewers or blown to the four
winds of heaven in what used to be called "wind testing" the green
leafy substance. In those cases no violation was issued but the dope
was destroyed.

That happened until an officer brought an arrestee in on a serious
crime, found a joint or two in his pocket and flushed the marijuana
down the toilet in police lock up. Well this crook sitting in jail had
time to think about this and became morally outraged by the incident.

Once out of jail, the prisoner turned "victim" of officer's "shortcut"
made a complaint with the Ann Arbor Police Department. This fellow
alleged that the Ann Arbor Police Department might be flushing all the
joints in the city into the sewer system and then in a carefully
choreographed conspiracy with the workers at the wastewater plant
re-harvesting the marijuana and perhaps selling it on the streets.

OK, point well taken. Destruction of evidence turned into big time
discipline for that officer and command sent the message that it was
not right, it would not be tolerated and if you "wind tested" or
flushed any more reefer you could be severely disciplined up to
termination. Roger, 10-4, easy to understand. Take the time and do it
right or face the consequences. It was really easy and clear to me
then.

Now the lines on marijuana are really fuzzy for officers. Officers
find now that it is easier for a teenager to buy a "nickel" or "dime"
- -- $5 or $10 that is-- bag of weed in and around school then it is to
get a 6-pack of beer from their old man's fridge or get an adult to
buy them beer.

The Michigan Medical Marijuana Law has really muddied the waters on
enforcement for officers. When citizens of this state voted for the
law -- yours truly included -- we visualized Grandma Smedley getting
some measure of relief for her cancer therapy chemo or glaucoma by
firing up a doobie, ripping on a bong or eating a few THC laden brownies.

What we voters had not envisioned was the "epidemic" of 18-year-old
"wake and bakers" suffering from every malady from hangnails to
hemorrhoids in order to find some quack to "prescribe" them
"medications" with such colorful names as: Trainwreck, Grape Ape,
White Widow, Purple Erkle, L.A. Confidential, Blue Dragon, Jack the
Ripper, Sweetie Pie or Mr. Magic.

Twenty years ago an officer would have never dreamed of taking a theft
report of marijuana. Unless it was an armed robbery or homicide over
dope it was just not often listed as "stolen property" in a police
report. Now officers are taking larceny reports of medical
marijuana--though most are not exhausting every investigative resource
to recover the "patient's" "medicine."

On the other hand most officers will tell you they have had more
fights with drunks than the more docile, less ambitious burnt out dope
smokers. That is as long as we are talking about marijuana only and
not "blunts" laced with other drugs like PCP, crack or meth. In cases
where it is mixed, officers can have their hands filled.

For those who will blog that marijuana is just a victimless substance
that has been around for 10,000 years -- save it. Ask the people who
live in the southern border states if marijuana is a harmless
victimless recreation drug.

People die everyday to get the recreational users their little baggy
because the baggy comes from a larger bag, which came from a bale,
which was smuggled after it was harvested from a well guarded field.
Lots of money changed hands between there and Ann Arbor. Each time
money changed hands there was an opportunity for someone to get greedy
and someone else to get hurt or killed.

Most officers handle marijuana on a case-by-case basis. Pounds and
dealers get prosecuted, while individual joints, roaches and shake may
be "overlooked." Most officers are as conflicted as I am.

Therefore if you ask me if we should just legalize marijuana and be
done with it -- or -- keep fighting the fight and crack down on
dispensaries, dealers and the disruptive influence of the evil weed --
my answer is unequivocally and without hesitation -- YES!

Lock it up, don't leave it unattended, be aware and watch out for your
neighbors.

Rich Kinsey is a retired Ann Arbor police detective sergeant who now
blogs about crime and safety for AnnArbor.com. He also serves as the
Crime Stoppers coordinator for Washtenaw County. 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D