Pubdate: Sat, 20 Sep 2014
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2014 Orlando Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Note: Rarely prints out-of-state LTEs.
Author: Ray Strack, Guest columnist
Note: Ray Strack, who worked 27 years as a U.S. Customs special agent, is
the principal Florida spokesperson for Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition, a national organization.

WHY SHERIFFS OPPOSE MEDICAL POT: PROFITS, NOT PUBLIC SAFETY

The opposition of the Florida Sheriffs
Association to Amendment 2 has more to do with
cash than public safety. The sheriffs have become
so accustomed to federal anti-drug money and
property forfeitures that they resist any change
that might someday shut off their pipeline of cash, cars and property.

Consider Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd,
Florida's most vocal opponent of medical-marijuana reform.

During his highly publicized debate with attorney
John Morgan, Judd vigorously defended his
motives: =93It may come as a shock to you,=94 he told
the audience in Lakeland, =93but our budget is not
predicated on arrests; it's not predicated on
seizures; it's not created so we can spend that
operating money on cars, or capital equipment, or
operating equipment, or salaries.=94 Hogwash.
According to Justice Department records, the Polk
County Sheriff 's Office took in more than $1.2
million from the federal Assets Forfeiture Fund
just since 2007, part of the $230 million that
all of Florida's law-enforcement agencies
received from the fund during that period.

The fund distributes the proceeds of property
seized in law-enforcement asset forfeitures,
primarily from those suspected of drug crimes. No
arrest is even required, and the standard of
proof is significantly less than in a criminal
case, making it a favorite tool of police and
prosecutors. Carrying excess cash? It can be
confiscated if officials can convince a judge the
funds came from drug trafficking. Caught driving
with a marijuana cigarette? Your car can be hauled away.

Between 1989 and 2010, U.S. attorneys seized at
least $12.6 billion in assets, with the fund
growing sixfold in just two decades, and from
$2.9 billion to $4.4 billion in 2012 alone.

The states were quick to jump on the forfeiture
bandwagon, and Florida was no exception.
According to a 2010 Institute for Justice study,
Florida law enforcement agencies seized $104
million in assets between 2001 and 2003.

Florida's Contraband Forfeiture Act lets the
sheriffs and other local law enforcement agencies
keep 85 percent of the value of the property they
seize, with the remainder given to charities =AD
doubtless buying considerable good will for the
elected sheriffs at campaign time.

Where does the money go? In 2003, it was reported
that top Tampa police officials kept a 43-vehicle
fleet of captured cars that included five Lincoln
Navigators, a pair of Ford Expeditions, a BMW, a
Lexus and =AD former Police Chief Bennie Holder's
personal favorite =AD a $38,000 Chevy Tahoe.

More recently, federal officials froze nearly $30
million that had been seized by police in tiny
Bal Harbor (population 2,574), after the
department was found spending the money on a
$100,000 35-foot boat with three Mercury
outboards, a $7,000 police chiefs' banquet, a
$15,000 laser virtual firing range and an
=93anti-drug beach bash,=94 with a reported price tag of $21,000.

In the Broward County town of Sunrise, millions
in soon-to-be-forfeited cash led narcotics
officers to lure international drug buyers into
suburban restaurants so the department could
confiscate $6 million in just two years. Much of
the money went for police overtime in
coordinating the seizures, with one narcotics
detective in 2012 bringing home a combined salary
and overtime of $183,156 =AD more than his chief of police earned.

Law enforcement should be about protecting the
public, not pocketing profits. The Niagara of
forfeited money flowing into sheriffs' offices
and police departments distorts the police
mission =AD and, in the case of Florida's Amendment
2, has blinded some law-enforcement
administrators to the compassionate benefits of medical marijuana.

No amount of money justifies turning otherwise
law-abiding patients into criminals or forcing
sick people into the illicit drug market, where
their dollars support drug cartels and criminal
gangs. The only risk posed by Amendment 2 is to
the police administrators' bottom lines.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom