cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Arrests 315 Times Terrorist Detentions Marijuana Arrests 315 Times Terrorist Detentions Posted by CN Staff on January 10, 2003 at 19:46:52 PT By Michael Hess Source: BBSNews In November of 2002 the president of the National District Attorneys Association, Dan M. Alsobrooks, opined in a newsletter that "Attempts to legalize or decriminalize controlled substances, and particularly marijuana, are springing up around the country. Those who support legalization are well funded and highly adept at manipulating the media. And they do not mind deceiving the American public as well." The newsletter continues with numerous other factual innaccuracies. In mid-November, the Whitehouse issued a press release that "World-wide, approximately 2290 terrorist-related arrests were made in 99 countries between September 12, 2001 and October 28, 2002." Mr. Alsobrooks needs to look at the real facts. Almost three quarters of a million arrests are made each year in the US for so-called marijuana "crimes." That's 315 times the total number of terrorist related arrests made in the entire world in about the thirteen month period from 9/11 until the end of October 2002. This would be a very good time to reassess national security priorities. Do we want to be safe from terrorism or are as the figures clearly show, will we sacrifice safety to go after a non-existant threat such as marijuana consumers? It's the black market for the currently illicit drugs which is the root of the problem. There are no beer companies shooting it out on the street corners for "turf." The same is true for tobacco. Disputes are handled in a court of law, not at the end of a gun. The following is a guide, based on year 2000 FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics, that you can use to look up annual arrest numbers for yourself. Take advantage of this enormous resource the US government has put at your fingertips (while it lasts) and simply look for yourself. The six o'clock soundbytes are leaving out important information which may lend a truer perspective when it comes time to vote. Question: Where does that "three quarters of a million marijuana arrests" figure really come from? Answer: They come from the 2000 FBI Uniform Crime Report. This is the title page of that year: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/00cius.htm - we're going to Section IV, "Persons Arrested."Which is here: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_00/00crime4.pdf On page 2, there is Table 4.1. It has total US "Arrests for Drug Abuse Violations." But it relates them in percentages. So we need to look down a little further and we see Table 29 which has the total number of arrests for "drug abuse violations." For 2000 that number was 1,579,566 or the "oft-quoted" one and a half million drug arrests each year that you may have heard bandied about, time and time again. So we flip back to Table 4.1 and see that out of all these "drug abuse violations," for marijuana, a whopping 5.6% of those total arrests have to do with "Sale/Manufacturing" which comes out to 88,455 persons arrested for dealing or growing marijuana in the year 2000. Looking down the list we find that mystical figure which shows the War on Some Drugs for what it really is, a war upon marijuana consumers. For the FBI reports in Table 4.1 that 40.9% of _all_ the drug arrests were for the possession of marijuana. Again dividing 1,579,566 by 100 and then multiplying by 40.9 we get 646,042 arrests for marijuana possession alone. Adding the two together we get a total for marijuana arrests in the US for the year 2000 of 734,497. Or the other phrase you may see many times included in a sentence like this: "There are about one and a half million total drug arrests each year in the United States. About half that, or nearly three quarters of a million arrests each year are for marijuana." Another phrase you might see in relation to these figures is something like this, "about nine out of ten of those arrests are for possession alone." This is derived by taking the 734,497 total arrests and dividing it by the number arrested for "Sales/Manufacturing" and during the year 2000 alone this comes out to 8.3 and change. Speaking only for the year 2000 alone it might be more fair to say that "more than eight out of ten of these arrests are for possession alone" although this is a semantical argument. Reaching back and running these figures for several years and averaging the years together it comes closer to the "nine out of ten" standard response that you may see drug policy reformers use in communicating about drug policy and these marijuana statistics. And perhaps most importantly it might be helpful to put this into perspective in the total crime scheme of things. According to the FBI Uniform Crime Report in 2000 there were a total of 13,980,297 arrests for some type of crime. Almost 14 million arrests total. In Table 29 the list starts out with "Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter" and then lists "Forcible rape" next and continues on down the line of all crimes that resulted in arrest. So this means that "drugs," that terrible scourge that is supposed to be causing all these other crimes, were subject to a little more than 10% of all arrests for the year 2000. One would think that if the answer to all crime was to stop "drugs" that a little more emphasis would be actually on "drugs." Conversely, there were 1,471,289 arrests for "Driving under the influence." So I suppose that there was some other drug influence in these overall statistics... I wonder why alcohol is not outlawed if there are one and a half million arrests each year for DUI? Nearly the total number of all illicit drug arrests? About three million for arrests for illicit drugs and drunk driving total. Out of almost fourteen million crime arrests. Of course, the answer is a lot more simple than that and at the same time vastly more complicated. The evidence has been in for years, and on it's face it's quite clear that the so-called "gateway theory" is a crock. Policy makers might be political animals but they are not stupid for the most part. It's pretty clear that even though about half of the adult population of the US has used marijuana they are not all out commiting crimes against other citizens. Why... Why, that would be anarchy! Or a bill of goods sold to the American public as Reefer Madness re-visited? It is far past the time where we put a licensed someone between our children and all drugs. A twelve year old cannot belly up to the bar in the US and order a shot of whiskey. They will be challenged by a bartender looking for an ID as proof of adult age. That same teen unfortunately can go around behind the bar and down the street on the corner, and buy any of the black market drugs 24/7 with no questions asked and no ID required. It is time to break that black market known as Prohibition II, the sequel. Trade it in for an adult market with strict regulation. It's time to bring back plain old-fashioned common sense. Complete Title: US Marijuana Arrests 315 Times Total World Terrorist Detentions Source: BBSNews (NC) Author: Michael HessPublished: Friday, January 10th, 2003Copyright 1990-2003, Michael HessWebsite: http://bbsnews.net/Contact: michael bbsnews.net DL: http://bbsnews.net/bw2003-01-10.htmlRelated Articles:Gateway Effect of Marijuana Doubted http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14881.shtmlMajor Crimes In U.S. Increase http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13199.shtmlDid The Drug War Claim Another 3,056 Casualties?http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13041.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #2 posted by afterburner on January 11, 2003 at 09:55:40 PT: Stop Arresting and Caging Humans for Using a Plant This would be a very good time to reassess national security priorities. Do we want to be safe from terrorism or are as the figures clearly show, will we sacrifice safety to go after a non-existant threat such as marijuana consumers? It's the black market for the currently illicit drugs which is the root of the problem. There are no beer companies shooting it out on the street corners for "turf." The same is true for tobacco. Disputes are handled in a court of law, not at the end of a gun. No, "there are no beer companies shooting it out on the street corners for 'turf,'" ANYMORE! That ended with the end of Prohibition. However, the drive-by shootings and dope-deal massacres intensified with the increasing hard-line of the so-called "War on Drugs." As a nation we have created a domestic terrorism by continuing to handle drug use as a criminal problem instead of a social or medical issue, encouraging the black market and all its attendent violence.We have seen historically that the persecution/prohibition of cannabis/"marihuana" was racially motivated. Yet, it is common practice in U.S. prisons to racially profile inmates, a practice not acceptable in Canada, as the following editorial proclaims.Guarding the guards Jan. 11, 2003. 01:00 AMOur country, our rules. If you want to do business here, you better get a copy of our rulebook. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035776509946&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795It is time to break that black market known as Prohibition II, the sequel. Trade it in for an adult market - with strict regulation. It's time to bring back plain old-fashioned common sense. ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on January 10, 2003 at 19:56:01 PT Just a Suggestion I recommend that you go to the article for charts and graphs and more information then I could post in the article itself.DL: http://bbsnews.net/bw2003-01-10.html [ Post Comment ] Post Comment