Pubdate: Mon, 15 Jun 2015
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2015 Miami Herald Media Co.
Contact:  http://www.miamiherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Fred Grimm

THE OLD ENTHUSIASM FOR POT PROHIBITION HAS GONE UP IN SMOKE

Pot enforcement was a big ongoing story back when I landed my first 
newspaper job 45 years ago. Oh my, how we did love those 
police-combat-scourge-of-marijuana stories.

The Mississippi town where I worked suffered plenty of sure-enough 
serious crime, but robberies and burglaries, even the occasional 
Saturday night juke-joint killing, would hardly turn an editor's 
head. If the local police managed a pot bust, that was front page stuff.

The stories ran alongside photographs of the police chief, the 
arresting officer, the mayor himself, all them stern faced, standing 
behind a table displaying baggies of marijuana, rolling papers, a 
roach clip, a bong the size of an alto saxophone.

For a small-town cop, the message was clear. Chase after actual, 
possibly dangerous criminals, nobody much cares. Nab a couple of 
potheads and shower yourself in front page glory.

It has been tough lesson to unlearn.

All these years later, we're still wasting time and police resources 
and great gobs of taxpayer money in the mindless pursuit of marijuana 
miscreants. As if the criminal justice system was trapped in a 1969 time warp.

The ACLU crunched police records for 2010 and found 757,969 Americans 
were incarcerated for marijuana law convictions. Florida alone had 
57,951 clogging up state and county lock-ups.

The difference now is that the public no longer believes in marijuana 
prohibition. A Quinnipiac University poll released in April indicated 
that 55 percent of Floridians think adults should be allowed to 
possess small amounts of marijuana for recreational use, while 84 
percent would legalize medical marijuana.

Four states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational 
marijuana. Legalization referendums will be on the ballot in at least 
five other states, including California, in 2016. Fifteen states have 
decriminalized small amounts of pot. Twenty-three states allow the 
use of medical marijuana. Last year, 59 percent of Florida voters 
favored a medical marijuana referendum (one percentage point shy of 
the threshold required to pass a constitutional amendment).

Another measure of the public's flagging enthusiasm for pot 
prohibition has been the lack of a ruckus around Miami-Dade County 
Commissioner Sally Heyman's proposed ordinance that would give police 
the option of issuing a $100 civil citation to someone nabbed with 
less than 20 grams of marijuana instead of hauling them off to jail 
on a misdemeanor charge.

The measure, which comes up for a commission vote June 30, also has 
the support of the Miami-Dade Police Department. The cops know 
there's no more glory in the war on pot.

Worse, enforcement in those states that haven't decriminalized pot 
reeks of racial disparity. Although blacks and whites use marijuana 
at about the same rate, the ACLU report found that blacks in Florida 
were 4.2 times more likely to be arrested on marijuana charges than whites.

Heyman's ordinance may be only a tepid step toward getting rid of our 
archaic marijuana laws. But at least it will remind police - after 
all these years - that they have better things to do.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom