Concentration on hard crime down? The 2006 Uniform Crime Report released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed that 44 percent of all current drug-crime arrests involve marijuana, amounting to a total of 829,625 people arrested. This was reported in a Sept. 24, 2007 news release made by NORML, an organization that works for the reform of marijuana laws. Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of NORML, points out that people are under the impression that law enforcement officers do not target marijuana users; the 2006 FBI numbers speak otherwise. [continues 197 words]
DELAND -- The burglars that hit Benigno Lopez's home north of DeLand this week took their time rifling through his things, even drinking a couple of beers. The burglary Tuesday isn't surprising in the wake of a report this week that Volusia County posted the largest crime rate increase -- 7.5 percent -- of all 67 counties in Florida between 2005 and 2006. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's annual Uniform Crime Report, the increase was driven by a spike in property crimes -- burglaries, larcenies and motor vehicle thefts. And no Volusia city of more than 3,000 residents posted a larger crime rate increase than DeLand. [continues 690 words]
America Needs Greater Focus on Prevention, Not on Incarceration Are the bad old days back? Read the headlines and you'd think so: "Violent crime blazing back in America" and "Big-city murders way up since '04." The Police Executive Research Forum sees a "gathering storm" of violent crime, a "tipping point" in many cities. There's something to this: The FBI's Uniform Crime Report shows violent offenses up 1.3 percent last year, following a 2.3 percent rise in 2005. That's the first significant jump in years, following the astonishing crime reductions of the 1990s that leveled off in the early 2000s. Skeptics say that this may just be a blip, that it would take a decade of such reversals to get us back to the roaring crime rates of the 1980s and early '90s. [continues 649 words]
Every year, American taxpayers fund an estimated $60 billion for our incarceration system. This system staples together a network of public and corporate-run jails, prisons, pre- and post-release centers, juvenile detention centers and boot camps. All together, these facilities hold well over two million human beings, locked away without public oversight or scrutiny. Yet throwing money at the perceived scourge of criminality in the United States doesn't appear to have had the desired effect: Despite the staggering incarceration statistics, violent crime has actually begun to creep up over the last two years, according to the latest FBI Uniform Crime Report. [continues 1652 words]
ASHEVILLE - Police released an array of statistics on drug arrests and seizures Tuesday that Chief Bill Hogan said show the city as a state leader in combating drug crime. Police compiled the numbers after taking criticism that too little is being done to stop drug dealing. "I just think there's been some public commentary whether the police department has been doing enough or not," Hogan said. "We have been aggressive." The statistics police compiled found Asheville in 2005 had the highest drug arrest rate of any of the state's 10 other largest cities. [continues 177 words]
Here is why Solano County should tax and regulate marijuana: Regulation of marijuana would reduce organized crime and access to adolescents, just as the regulation of alcohol has. Teens report they have easier access to marijuana than they have to either alcohol or tobacco, according to a national survey released in 2002 by the national Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. The results marked the first in the survey's history that adolescents said it was easier to buy cannabis than cigarettes or alcohol. [continues 483 words]
A rising number of marijuana arrests in the U.S. may put marijuana-using students at greater risk of being denied financial aid, according to the non-profit Students for Sensible Drug Policy, but many AU students do not know about the legal provision which mandates this. According to a 1998 provision of the Higher Education Act, federal financial aid is to be revoked for a minimum of one year on the first charge of drug possession and can be suspended indefinitely after the third charge. [continues 560 words]
Point No. 1. Regulation of marijuana would reduce organized crime and access to adolescents just as the regulation of alcohol has. Teens report they have easier access to marijuana than they have to either alcohol or tobacco, according to a national survey released on Aug. 20, 2002, by the national Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. The results marked the first in the survey's history that adolescents said it was easier to buy cannabis than cigarettes or alcohol. Similar to the failed prohibition of alcohol, marijuana prohibition creates organized crime to respond to the substance's demand instead of allowing law-abiding businesses to create revenue for the county. [continues 446 words]
The Prohibition Is Not Working, As Records Show IT'S times like these that I wish I had been alive when prohibition was coming to an end in America. I'd like to know if the folks who believed that the attempt to eradicate alcohol in America was not working were labeled immoral drunks. After all, those of us who believe marijuana prohibition isn't working are labeled "potheads" or worse. No matter what they think, the war on marijuana isn't working. It's costing billions and it's giving criminal records to thousands of people who don't deserve it. [continues 519 words]
In 2003 marijuana possessions accounted for 21 percent of all arrests. In a 2004 National Survey on Drugs and Health, it was found that 94,000,000 Americans had at least tried marijuana once, and over 3 million people use it daily. About 2 million people try marijuana for the first time every year. Yet this drug is still illegal. Should we legalize it? As a non-smoker, I don't feel this would solve the problem. If marijuana is legalized, the FDA will regulate it and corporations will sell it. They will use addictive chemicals and possibly increase prices. The answer is to decriminalize it. If marijuana is decriminalized there will be less over-crowding in prisons, less organized crime profit and it will allow for more research into medicinal uses as well as keep corporations from being able to sell it. [continues 587 words]
Will a Crawford County judge just say 'yes' to a pot referendum? A 51-year-old Townville man is counting on it in his bid to make marijuana legal. Charles E. Stiles Jr. said he has gathered 625 signatures in favor of a ballot initiative that would allow adults to grow and use cannabis. When Crawford County elections director Marlene Robertson declined to accept the petition on July 18, Stiles sued her. "(We have) all these people who think we have a chance of maybe making pot legal, and if all I do is tell them 'Gee, I'm sorry,' they're going to be disappointed," Stiles said. "So of course I took it to the courts." [continues 933 words]
Drug Arrests Up, But Uphill Battle Lies Ahead For Thin Police Force HUNTINGTON -- The number of drug-related arrests has increased dramatically, but so has the realization that an uphill battle lies ahead for local police trying to win a war with out-of-town drug dealers. The shooting deaths of four area teens one year ago today sparked parallel police initiatives -- one to find the killers and another to break the back of the drug trafficking that most believe was the root cause of the community tragedy. ADVERTISEMENT [continues 1670 words]
Frustration Grows With Homicides "Law enforcement needs help and until they get it, it's going to get worse. It's not going to get better." Paul Lindenmuth King's College criminal justice teacher Tom Kupetz, a 13-year veteran of the Wilkes-Barre Police Department, recently described a typical shift: "You have six patrol officers and two supervisors. Right now I'm tied up tracking down a guy who's out of state. Say we got another officer who's got to watch prisoners. So now we're down to four guys patrolling the streets. If there's a traffic accident, now you got two more guys tied up. If there's a robbery or another accident, then that's everybody." [continues 1015 words]
A distinguished group of black Americans will assemble in Washington next month to put finishing touches on a blueprint for uplifting their race. Called "The Covenant with Black America," this plan is the product of a brain trust of black leaders -- people committed to fixing what's broken in black America. The 254-page document, a copy of which I obtained in advance of its scheduled late February release, is an action plan to make black people healthier, improve the education of black children, reduce the high black incarceration rate and help black Americans acquire wealth and become economically self-sufficient. [continues 462 words]
Marijuana Crackdown WASHINGTON - More people were arrested for marijuana offenses last year than at any time in U.S. history. More than 770,000 people were cited for marijuana-related violations in 2004, according to the FBI's latest annual uniform crime report. Almost 90 percent of them were charged only with possession. Federal officials said the local police actions reflect the importance of waging a fight against marijuana as part of the overall war on drugs. The FBI report showed that marijuana arrests have more than doubled over the past 12 years. [continues 1185 words]
CRIME SOARS: POLICE BLAME DRUGS, BUT SOME SAY LIGHT SENTENCES ARE AT FAULT AS WELL Rick Singh continues to work at the convenience store where his cousin was shot to death last month, haunted by the bloody images of the robbery. "I saw the video. I have images of it every single day," said Singh, 24. "You never know when somebody will come in and put a gun to your head." Armed robberies in Marion County -- some of them with deadly consequences -- are up 18 percent over the first 10 months of this year compared with same time period a year ago. [continues 1553 words]
Washington, D.C. - Police arrested an estimated 771,608 persons for marijuana violations in 2004, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. The total is the highest ever recorded by the FBI, and comprised 44.2 percent of all drug arrests in the United States. "These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre, who noted that at current rates, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 41 seconds in America. "This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources that diverts law enforcement personnel away from focusing on serious and violent crime, including the war on terrorism." [continues 353 words]
The 2004 Texas crime stats are out. While crime overall remains stable, some categories are showing significant change. Murder rates continue to plummet from all-time highs a decade ago, but drug and alcohol-related crimes are increasing. The good news is that overall crime has fallen significantly since the early 1990s. During that period, Texas invested heavily in new jails. This has reduced the rate of inmates being released early, which is important because 30 percent re-arrest rate for paroled offenders out three years (based on a Legislative Budget Board report last January). [continues 1114 words]
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE - Cape May County Prosecutor Robert Taylor has asked the county Freeholders for more staff to deal with an increase in crime and drug distribution, Taylor said Wednesday. Taylor said the crime rate rose 9 percent in the county last year, and his office needs more investigators for its narcotics task force to catch mid-to upper-level drug dealers. Taylor, who did not disclose the number of staff he is seeking, said he wanted to give the county Board of Chosen Freeholders notice before he proposes a budget in November that will be higher than the current $2.9 million. [continues 195 words]
Study Argues Drug War Focus Has Shifted Away From Heroin, Cocaine A recent nationwide study has identified King County as having the sharpest increase since 1990 in marijuana-related arrests among the country's 10 most populous counties. When King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng sparked a political movement three years ago declaring the "war on drugs has failed," marijuana arrests in King County had risen 418 percent between 1999 and 2002, according to the study results released this week by The Sentencing Project. [continues 895 words]
When police found 8-month-old Romeo Randolph dead in an East Walnut Street residence last month, it wasn't their first call to the area. The area of Taylor, Walnut and Mulberry streets, just east of downtown, ranks as one of the hottest spots in the city, according to Kokomo Police Department statistics. The toddler marked the sixth homicide this year, but the first for that area, which in years past has been marred by crime and drug activity. "At one time, we were prominently on the north end tracking down drug dealers," said KPD Maj. Thomas Edington. "I don't see that anymore. I think the community has diversified more than 10 years ago." [continues 956 words]
A national organization called Students for Sensible Drug Policy sent nearly 50 colleges a fax titled "One Marijuana Arrest Every 42 Seconds" Monday. The press release highlighted statistics from the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report on marijuana arrests, particularly among American youth. Although Yale has strict policies regarding illegal substances, few students are in fact caught and punished for marijuana. University Police Lt. Michael Patten said that, contrary to the national trend as stated in the FBI report, the number of on-campus arrests made for drug possession has decreased in the last year. [continues 526 words]
The November Ballot Will Have Voters Answering the Question: Should Marijuana Be Legalized in Alaska? In the 1850s, Abraham Lincoln kept hammering away on a few basic points about American law and society. One of those often-overlooked points was a fairly simple one: Laws instruct citizens. Even if the citizens create them, over time, laws inform public sentiment and eventually alter social mores. So what do citizens do when their laws send them mixed messages? How do conflicting laws instruct a body politic? [continues 1566 words]
Pot advocates are back with an initiative to legalize dope in Alaska, and it's not as half-baked as it was four years ago. Had he been invited to a recent kickoff party for the Proposition 2 initiative to legalize marijuana, even Wev Shea - former U.S. Attorney for Alaska and notorious anti drug-crusader - wouldn't have felt too out of place. Sure, there were the usual suspects - some dread-locked bongo drummers, the occasional tie-dye-clad college student, a girl wearing a pot garland and a spacey smile - the dopers, as Shea is fond of calling them. [continues 2226 words]
THE LIMITED RELEVANCE OF DRUG POLICY: [ABSTRACT] Objectives. We tested the premise that punishment for cannabis use deters use and thereby benefits public health. Methods. We compared representative samples of experienced cannabis users in similar cities with opposing cannabis policies--Amsterdam, the Netherlands (decriminalization), and San Francisco, Calif (criminalization). We compared age at onset, regular and maximum use, frequency and quantity of use over time, intensity and duration of intoxication, career use patterns, and other drug use. [continues 5070 words]
One of the victims of Terry McLester's crime spree was a shopping mall, quiet and closed for the night. He broke windows, rummaged through a handful of shops and made a big mess. Dothan police found him, hand bloodied from a punch through jewelry store glass. McLester's life in 1979 was a bigger mess. A hot-headed 22-year-old in the middle of a divorce, the self-described "country bumpkin" got drunk and high every chance he had. He was drunk in a prison work-release program two years later when he threatened a convenience store cashier, was convicted of robbery, then sent to prison for the rest of his life. [continues 2066 words]
Recently (see Pulse 11/26/03), I reported on an effort by a group called COHR-- Citizens Organized for Harm Reduction (primarily students at the University of Minnesota Law School) --that has started gathering signatures to put a medical marijuana amendment to Minneapolis voters in the November 2004 election. If passed, the amendment will not immediately start a medical marijuana program in the city. Instead, it would set up a framework for a medical marijuana system in Minneapolis where private distributors would be licensed and monitored by the city to distribute marijuana to certified patients. The system would only take effect upon passage of a state law permitting medical marijuana. [continues 1096 words]
Some Attorneys Say The Columbia Police Are Violating Civil Rights During Narcotics Investigations. "No one should ever open his door to the police." Dan Viets Criminal Defense Attorney. Columbia police don't always need a warrant to enter someone's home. Sometimes, all they need to do is knock. Police call this tactic a "knock-and-talk" investigation, and officers use it to make contact with people they believe are involved in illegal drug activity. According to reports from the narcotics unit, the number of these investigations conducted between 2002 and 2003 doubled from 11 to 22. [continues 935 words]
With the American public's attention firmly directed toward the daily events of the Bush Administration's "War on Terror," the US-led and exported "War on Drugs" continues to exact crippling costs to taxpayers, minority groups, the environment, civil liberties and struggling democracies around the world. While terror alerts rise and fall and states struggle to fund their law enforcement budgets, the total number of marijuana arrests far exceed the total number of arrests for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. [continues 1235 words]
"I DON'T THINK a kid 17 years old, who has a joint, should have a criminal record," outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien told the New York Times last week. I'm no Chretien fan, but on this, I must agree. Who would have thought that when my generation came of age, U.S. marijuana laws would be basically what they were when we were young? Or that millions in taxpayer dollars would be spent to prosecute and incarcerate users? [continues 515 words]
While the world keeps its attention on the wars in the Middle East, there is another war being fought against a different kind of "enemy" here in the United States. It is a war that is perpetuated by a long history of cultural myths and unfounded popular prejudices, but nonetheless millions of Americans have been arrested and prosecuted as accomplices of the enemy in this war. That enemy is the marijuana plant. Despite years of research and evidence to the contrary, many Americans still believe - and our federal government still claims - that the use of marijuana is a serious threat to our country's wellbeing, and even that (as U.S. Drug Czar John Walters recently opined) marijuana is on an equal footing with cocaine and heroin in terms of danger to the public. As a result of such widespread beliefs, our government has continued to wage a costly fight against the private and medical use of the cannabis sativa plant; in college language, smoking pot. [continues 864 words]
Nearly 700,000 for Marijuana, FBI Reports The US crime rate entered its third year of virtual stagnation in 2002 and is dramatically lower than a decade ago, the FBI reported on Wednesday, but the war on drugs continues to scoop up Americans by the millions. According to the FBI's annual uniform crime report, "Crime in the United States 2002," more than 1.5 million people were arrested on drug charges last year, roughly 80% of them for simple possession. Marijuana users made up nearly half of all drug arrests, with some 693,000 pot busts last year, 88% of them for simple possession. [continues 847 words]
The combination of miscommunication, ignored warnings and general hubris -- all in a culture that discouraged internal criticism -- virtually guaranteed disaster. No, this is not a follow-up on NASA and the Columbia space shuttle tragedy. It is a commentary on criminal justice in America. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board, after months of painstaking investigation of the Feb. 1 space calamity, has issued a scathing report of those in charge. A similarly independent body ought to take a look at our criminal justice system. [continues 520 words]
The combination of miscommunication, ignored warnings and general hubris - all in a culture that discouraged internal criticism - virtually guaranteed disaster. No, this is not a follow-up on NASA and the Columbia space shuttle tragedy. It is a commentary on criminal justice in America. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board, after months of painstaking investigation of the Feb. 1 space calamity, has issued a scathing report of those in charge. A similarly independent body ought to take a look at our criminal justice system. [continues 637 words]
THE COMBINATION of miscommunication, ignored warnings, and general hubris - -- all in a culture that discouraged internal criticism -- virtually guaranteed disaster. No, this is not a follow-up on NASA and the Columbia space shuttle tragedy. It is a commentary on criminal justice in America. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board, after months of painstaking investigation of the Feb. 1 space calamity, has issued a scathing report of those in charge. A similarly independent body ought to take a look at our criminal justice system. [continues 646 words]
WASHINGTON - The combination of miscommunication, ignored warnings and general hubris - all in a culture that discouraged internal criticism - - virtually guaranteed disaster. No, this is not a follow-up on NASA and the Columbia space shuttle tragedy. It is a commentary on criminal justice in America. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board, after months of painstaking investigation of the Feb. 1 space calamity, has issued a scathing report of those in charge. A similarly independent body ought to take a look at our criminal justice system. [continues 653 words]
BLUEFIELD - The FBI's preliminary Uniform Crime Report found that overall crime between 2001 and 2002 continued a slow and steady decline across the nation, while the number of murders and rapes increased. Southern West Virginia seems to be following the national trend, local officials said. "I know that we have more pending murder cases than at any time since I have been prosecutor," Mercer County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Sadler said. "It also seems like we've prosecuted more sexual assault cases than we ever have." [continues 471 words]
In response to "Police are enforcing commonly broken laws" (April 22 letter), I was really moved by your commentary on the state of affairs here at Penn State. As you said, the students who are most likely to commit a rape are undoubtedly the ones that have been drinking or "harmlessly smoking a joint." Particularly those pot smokers. After all, a whopping 4 percent of rapes are committed by individuals under the influence of illicit drugs and 30 percent of rapes involve alcohol (according to Alcohol and Crime Report, Bureau of Justice, 1998). The police here are certainly not doing their jobs. Marijuana is illegal, as is underage drinking. For that matter, sodomy is also illegal, but how many people get arrested for that? [continues 173 words]
First, I would like to commend Mike Nolan for taking a critical look at the "war" our government has been fighting for the last 65 years. Since 1937, when marijuana was prohibited, our country has spent half a trillion dollars on the drug war. It has since expanded to fight the use of drugs like ecstasy, heroin and cocaine. What the government has not learned yet is that it cannot legislate morality. Prohibition did not work for alcohol, and it will never work for drugs. [continues 238 words]
Allowing Local Law Enforcement Agencies To Turn In Incomplete Numbers Skews FBI Uniform Crime Statistics. How well has the state performed in reducing one of its biggest public health threats -- the trafficking of cocaine? It's difficult to tell because Georgia does such a poor job collecting and analyzing the data that policy-makers rely on to prioritize goals and concentrate resources. Want to know how many illegal drugs were seized in Georgia last year and where? Forget it. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation doesn't collect that information. [continues 1167 words]
Incoming police director Joseph Santiago yesterday promised an all-out war on drug dealers and buyers during his first day on the job. "Drugs have the biggest impact on our neighborhoods and that's where our focus will be," said Santiago. "We're going to do our job so well, make so many arrests, that we create a problem for the rest of the judicial system," he promised. Santiago delivered an impromptu, tough-talking 45-minute interview that included his no-nonsense policy regarding drugs. [continues 586 words]
"House Republicans Thursday unveiled a package of bills to combat drug abuse and vowed to make America virtually drug-free by 2002."- Reuters, May 1998 Welcome to America, 2002, Land of the Virtually Drug-Free where President George Bush insists that casual drug users are financing terrorism, while his niece is caught with crack cocaine in drug rehab. Where one person is arrested approximately every 44 seconds on a marijuana charge. Where 77% of Texas drug convictions are found to involve less than one gram of a drug. [continues 3852 words]
As I write, the panic over the Washington-area sniper appears to have ended with the arrest of a truly bizarre father-stepson combination, but, until it was over, the saga held us agog for the better part of a month. Like the exploits of Jack the Ripper in the darkened East End streets of late-Victorian London, the almost-daily attacks filled us with terror, kept us glued to the news outlets of our day, and, during the weeks of uncertainty and rumor, dramatically changed people's daily routines. [continues 2715 words]
Alabama Ranks Third Nationally In Homicides Mobile is the 14th deadliest city in the nation, and Alabama's homicide rate ranks third among all other states, according to new crime statistics from the FBI. Despite its high ranking, Mobile -- which tied with Flint, Mich., with 11.6 homicides per 100,000 people -- did not top the list in Alabama. Birmingham - -- with 11.9 homicides per 100,000 people -- had the highest homicide rate of any metropolitan area in the state and ranked 12th in the nation. [continues 651 words]
For the first time since 1991, serious and violent crime in the United States increased last year, the F.B.I. reported yesterday. The bureau's annual Uniform Crime Report found that murder, the crime that is best measured because it is least likely to go unreported, rose 2.5 percent nationwide over the figure for 2000. At the same time, robberies climbed 3.7 percent, burglaries 2.9 percent, petty thefts 1.5 percent and motor vehicle thefts 5.7 percent. [continues 772 words]
The RN&R Takes A Skeptical Look At Both Sides Of Question 9 The woman--we'll call her June--hands me her pot pipe, and I'm impressed. This pipe has had so much marijuana smoked in it that the resin has impregnated the pipe's very metal. Instead of shiny silver, the surface is a burnished gold. Other than the color, the pipe's fairly nondescript--about four inches long, small bowl, a screw-on receptacle in the middle of the stem in which a small amount of weed can be placed to serve as a filter and a supercharger. [continues 3041 words]
On a placid Thursday in November, the phones started ringing at the Radnor Township Police Department as Sgt. Sue Cory had never heard before, with reports of a fight and guns drawn outside the Genuardi's supermarket in St. Davids. Radnor police officers jumped in their cars, sirens as loud as could be. But when they got to the store, they were flashed aside by a more imposing set of badges: the FBI's. "A club-drug bust," Cory said. "They were doing a buy, and we had no idea." [continues 1334 words]
After several days of studying a page full of numbers called the "City of St. Petersburg Uniform Crime Report -- Drug Arrests 1998-2001 by District and Midtown Area," after performing all sorts of arithmetic, turning the paper in every direction to see if the numbers changed like speed limit signs at night, and ultimately folding it into an airplane, I reached a couple of insightful, radical conclusions. One, St. Petersburg has a drug problem; two, police arrest a lot of people. [continues 847 words]
I would very much like to reply to Mr. Stephen Pasierb's letter in the Jan. 20 Register, ("Legalization of illicit drugs not the answer"). While I agree that illicit drugs are a great source of profit for "illicit" people, some of the facts you communicated are way off. You are right. Cocaine use is down. Drug users have switched to the cheaper and more powerful crack cocaine and methamphetamine. Seriously though, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that from 1984-1999, federal drug offenses more than doubled. The use of illicit drugs like methamphetamine, crack cocaine, and new drugs like ecstasy and GBH are all on the rise while the use of marijuana has remained constant and the use of cocaine has dropped sharply. [continues 183 words]
States Find That Draconian Laws Don't Cut Crime. The United States, notorious for its massive prison population, draconian sentencing and enthusiasm for capital punishment, is quietly abandoning its appetite for the toughest penal policies in the developed world. States across a nation that fired British politicians of both Left and Right with an enthusiasm for 'zero tolerance', boot camps for delinquent juveniles, electronic tagging and 'three strikes, you're out' laws are giving up on their most controversial penal policies. [continues 656 words]
