Demon Weed!

Since I am in the middle of Jacob Sullum's Saying Yes, I found his pointing to today's NORML news release especially timely. I'll just give selected highlights.

• 755,817 people arrested for marijuana violations
• 45% of all drug arrests
• 88% - 662,886 - were charged with possession only

So what's all this costing us? 7.6 billion dollars annually, according to NORML. The US is spending billions of dollars to lock up dope smokers. That's an efficient use of your law enforcement resources, isn't it? I can't possibly think of anything else that might benefit from 7.6 billion worth of law enforcement. Well, except border security.

All other issues you may have with illegal drug use aside, this is a staggering sum of money to spend on arresting potheads. Last time I checked, potheads aren't running out en masse to commit violent crimes. Mostly they sit around the house and smoke dope, much like those of us that sit around the house of an evening and have a drink. Spending billions of dollars to arrest people for smoking demon weed just doesn't strike me as worthwhile. Of course, spending any money at all to arrest someone for marijuana possession strikes me as stupid. Of course, the drug war in general is an idiotic idea pushed by people whose ideology divorced from reality a long time ago.