Pubdate: Sun, 24 Nov 2013
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2013 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/mVLAxQfA
Website: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Author: Neill Franklin
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n552/a03.html

COPS WASTING TIME ARRESTING DRUG USERS

Regarding Sheriff Grady Judd's Viewpoint, "Medical marijuana is a 
sham," on Nov. 19:

As a 33-year law enforcement veteran who has no vested interest in 
marijuana or the current policy, I attest that the biggest scam of 
all time is not the medical marijuana movement, but the drug war 
embraced by sheriffs like Grady Judd of Polk County.

Whether warehousing prisoners or stockpiling millions of seized 
dollars and property from anyone suspected of having anything to do 
with illegal drugs, our law enforcement agencies are getting rich, 
just like the drug dealers and smugglers we have learned to hate.

More than 700,000 marijuana possession arrests are made across our 
country each year, costing more than $6 billion in limited law 
enforcement resources. These dollars also translate into millions of 
wasted man-hours needed so desperately for investigating rapes, 
murders, domestic violence and crimes against our children.

Additionally, drug dealers hire children to sell drugs to other 
children in our schools, unlike liquor store owners who would never 
consider hiring children to sell booze. Drug dealers also manage 
their businesses with guns and street violence; again, something that 
Coors and Anheuser Busch do not. Courtrooms are more their style. 
With 25 percent of the world's prisoners, we have grown our prison 
population to the number one world ranking. Either we have the most 
heinous people in the world, or our policies have failed us.

I believe it's the policy.

Treat drug use and abuse as the health and educational concern it is, 
and let cops get back to solving violent crimes. This is not a law 
enforcement decision, but one made by the patients, their families 
and their doctors.

Major Neill Franklin, executive director, Law Enforcement Against 
Prohibition, Silver Spring, Md.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom