Actual Incidents Up, But Per-capita Numbers Continue Slide From '90s RALEIGH -- State justice leaders celebrated yet another drop in the crime rate Monday by rolling out a rainbow-colored bar chart showing downward trends for rape, murder and other offenses. But cheery, colored graphics could be replaced with a lot of gloom if the economy continues its slowdown, Attorney General Roy Cooper warned Monday. While the actual incidents of many major crimes, including murders, robberies and arson, rose in 2000, the rate of crime per 100,000 people dropped in every big category. [continues 348 words]
Marijuana Arrests, Use Increase A treatment expert in Ames says marijuana smoking rose when meth use 'became more dangerous.' Marijuana arrests in Iowa increased 41 percent from 1995 to 1999, according to state crime statistics, and treatment centers say more clients are using the drug. Janet Zwick, director of the state Division of Substance Abuse and Health Promotion, said the percentage of clients who reported marijuana use jumped from 11 percent in 1994 to 20.9 percent in 2000. "We've seen sort of a gradual increase in marijuana use," she said. [continues 566 words]
The Oscar-winning movie "Traffic" has rekindled America's debate on current drug prohibition policies by highlighting their failure and destructiveness. Although about $50 billion a year is spent to fight the failed drug war, illegal drugs are more widely available today than at any time in history. As a result of current policy, drug gang violence plagues our inner cities, our courts and prisons are clogged, nonviolent young offenders have their lives ruined by imprisonment, and ordinary citizens, as usual, pay the enormous tab. [continues 242 words]
For the past 20 years, we have been involved in a complicated, costly and largely ineffective war on drugs. In spite of Just Say No, DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and the prosecution of drug offenders, drug abuse is still a big, messy and expensive problem. It is a problem best solved with the legalization and regulation of marijuana. Neither the health risks nor the effects of marijuana are more severe than those of alcohol or tobacco. A Johns Hopkins University study published in the May 1999 American Journal of Epidemiology reported "no significant differences in cognitive decline between heavy users, light users and nonusers of cannabis" in the 1,318 participants studied over a 15-year period. [continues 876 words]
Number of Americans arrested since 1970 on marijuana-related charges: over 13 million Estimated U.S. deaths in year 2000 attributed to TOBACCO: 400,000 ALCOHOL: 110,000 PRESCRIPTION DRUGS: 100,000 SUICIDE: 30,000 MURDER: 15,000 OVER-THE-COUNTER PAINKILLERS: 7,600 MARIJUANA: 0 "One of the problems that the marijuana-reform movement consistently faces is that everyone wants to talk about what marijuana does, but no one ever wants to look at what marijuana prohibition does. Marijuana never kicks down your door in the middle of the night. Marijuana never locks up sick and dying people, does not suppress medical research, does not peek in bedroom windows. Even if one takes every reefer-madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could." [continues 2590 words]
Number of Americans arrested since 1970 on marijuana-related charges: over 13 million Estimated U.S. deaths in year 2000 attributed to TOBACCO: 400,000 ALCOHOL: 110,000 PRESCRIPTION DRUGS: 100,000 SUICIDE: 30,000 MURDER: 15,000 OVER-THE-COUNTER PAINKILLERS: 7,600 MARIJUANA: 0 "One of the problems that the marijuana-reform movement consistently faces is that everyone wants to talk about what marijuana does, but no one ever wants to look at what marijuana prohibition does. Marijuana never kicks down your door in the middle of the night. Marijuana never locks up sick and dying people, does not suppress medical research, does not peek in bedroom windows. Even if one takes every reefer-madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could." [continues 2272 words]
Twelve Months in the Life of Marijuana Prohibition One of the problems that the marijuana reform movement consistently faces is that everyone wants to talk about what marijuana does, but no one ever wants to look at what marijuana prohibition does. Marijuana never kicks down your door in the middle of the night. Marijuana never locks up sick and dying people, does not suppress medical research, does not peek in bedroom windows. Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could. --Richard Cowan, former head of NORML, now editor of Marijuana News. http://www.marijuananews.com/ [continues 1960 words]
"One of the problems that the marijuana reform movement consistently faces is that everyone wants to talk about what marijuana does, but no one ever wants to look at what marijuana prohibition does. Marijuana never kicks down your door in the middle of the night. Marijuana never locks up sick and dying people, does not suppress medical research, does not peek in bedroom windows. Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could." –Richard Cowan [continues 3296 words]
Washington County FAYETTEVILLE -- Temporary funding for the Washington County Drug Treatment Court was secured Tuesday through a $48,500 state grant. The county will be reimbursed for the operating costs of the drug court by the Arkansas Health Department's Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention, the Quorum Court Finance Committee was told. The grant only funds the court through April 30, said Hattie Lee, the county's grant administrator. "This is it," she said. "This is all that we know is out there for drug court." [continues 398 words]
MOUNT LAUREL - Vanessa Veloz approached the podium in Harrington Middle School's auditorium Thursday - but not to lead a holiday sing-along or promote a parent-led fund-raiser to the 500 seventh-grade students gathered there. Instead, Veloz introduced herself as Inmate 19814. She is serving a seven-year sentence for drug possession at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, Hunterdon County. "Drugs will make you think they're your greatest friend in the world. But the only thing they will bring you is suffering and death," Veloz said. [continues 523 words]
Crime in the United States fell again in 1999, the eighth consecutive decline, with the murder rate dropping to 5.7 per 100,000, its lowest level since 1966, according to an annual report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation being released today. But experts cautioned that the decline may be nearing an end because murder rates in the nation's largest cities showed the smallest decrease in 1999, and it was these large cities, of more than one million in population, that had led the increase in murder in the late 1980's, during the crack cocaine epidemic, and then also led the drop during the 1990's. [continues 403 words]
Crediting technological crime-fighting advances and tougher sentencing, Governor Whitman on Tuesday released statistics that show crime in New Jersey is at its lowest level since 1972. At the same time, she cited the state's booming economy for lending a huge assist in suppressing the number of reported crimes in 1999, the fourth year in a row in which the figures dropped. "I never mention the numbers without citing the strong economy," Whitman said upon releasing the Uniform Crime Report figures. [continues 588 words]
High Point, N.C., has not had a drug-or gang-related murder in the past 18 months, after a stunning surge in homicides in the years before that. In Natchez, Miss., the number of murders dropped to one in 1999, after reaching a dozen a few years before. And in Oceanside, Calif., where there were as many as 25 homicides as recently as 1995, there were 7 last year. These drops in murders are an important indication that the decline in the nation's murder rate since 1991, long driven by decreases in homicide in the big cities, is now starting to take hold in small cities, suburbs and rural areas across the country. [continues 747 words]
I want to take a minute at the start of a new era and underline some of the successes Charles County enjoyed in the fight against crime in 1999, and reiterate that as Charles County's primary law enforcement agency, we look forward to working with county residents to build on those successes in the new year. First off, Charles County enjoyed a significant drop in nearly every category of crime, as measured by the Uniform Crime Report. Though final figures are not available as I write this, we know that last year the county experienced the fewest homicides since 1986, underscoring our commitment to stop violent crime. ... [continues 423 words]
FOOTNOTES: 1 Katherine Seligman, Legalization Sought for Cousin of Pot, San Francisco Examiner, May 9, 1999, C1 (quoting hemp activist Jack Herer). 2 Ethan Nadelmann, Should Some Drugs Be Legalized?, 6 Issues in Science and Technology 43-46 (1990). 3 Ethan Nadelmann, Thinking Seriously About Alternatives to Drug Prohibition, 121 Daedalus 87-132 (1992). 4 Ethan Nadelmann and Jan Wenner, Toward a Sane National Drug Policy, Rolling Stone May 5, 1994, 24-26. 5 Id. [continues 3269 words]
Fbi Figures Show 9 Percent Drop In Seattle Crime in the United States dropped dramatically last year, the seventh consecutive year it has fallen, according to preliminary figures released by the FBI yesterday. The number of violent crimes and property crimes each fell 7 percent in 1998, creating the largest annual decline since crime began to decrease in 1992. In Seattle, the drop was more dramatic, with the overall crime rate and violent crimes dropping by 9 percent, said FBI figures. [continues 538 words]
WASHINGTON, - Serious crime in the United States, which rose to record heights with the advent of crack cocaine in American cities in the 1980s, has dropped for the seventh year in a row. In a report released Sunday evening, the FBI says preliminary figures in the nationwide Uniform Crime Report show all serious crime decreased 7 percent in 1998, as opposed to 1997. The drop reflected a 7 percent decline in both violent and property crime. Varying decreases were reported in all the nation's regions. [continues 353 words]
In the editorial "Marijuana as medicine" (Inquirer, April 10), you acknowledge that marijuana is not addictive, dangerous or a gateway drug. Given this, it's clear that there is no legitimate basis for marijuana prohibition. But you reject the notion that marijuana should be legalized simply for the purpose of getting high. According to the latest edition of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report, federal, state and local law enforcement arrested nearly 700,000 Americans on marijuana charges during 1997. FBI data indicate that 87 percent of marijuana arrests are for "possession" only. The figures for 1998 are expected to be even higher. The continuing legal persecution of Americans who use marijuana is an injustice - an injustice you apparently support. Walter F. Wouk, President Capital Region Chapter National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Cobleskill, N.Y. reply2@midtel.net [continues 5 words]
TRENTON -- A day after Gov. Whitman ousted Col. Carl A. Williams as the head of the New Jersey State Police for saying that the drug trade is handled mostly by minorities, a top black leader and Democratic legislators demanded that she delay the nomination of her attorney general to the state Supreme Court until his office completes a review of the force. She refused to take that step but continued to fault Williams' comments as being insensitive. In an interview, she declined to discuss whether his remarks were factually correct, but said they damaged the credibility of the state police. "I'm not arguing with what he was saying. I'm arguing with how he said it, and when he said it, and the way he said it," Whitman said in an interview in her office. [continues 1188 words]
New statistics released Sunday by the Justice Department are helping criminologists resolve a contentious mystery -- why violent crime has dropped seven straight years after an upsurge in the 1980s. The statistics, showing that robbery fell a stunning 17 percent in 1997, suggest that while there are many factors behind the decline in crime in the 1990s, the crucial ones may be the withering away of the crack market and police efforts to seize handguns from criminals and juveniles. The two crimes that have fallen the most sharply since 1991 are homicide and now robbery, the two most often committed with handguns and most associated with the crack cocaine epidemic in the late 1980s, criminologists say. [continues 931 words]
Statistics released yesterday by the Justice Department are helping criminologists resolve a contentious mystery -- why violent crime has dropped for seven consecutive years after an upsurge in the 1980s. The statistics, showing that robbery fell a stunning 17 percent in 1997, suggest that while there are many factors behind the decline in crime in the 1990s, the crucial ones may be the withering away of the crack market and police efforts to seize handguns from criminals and juveniles. The two crimes that have fallen the most sharply since 1991 are homicide and now robbery, the two most often committed with handguns and most associated with the crack cocaine epidemic in the late 1980s, criminologists said. [continues 914 words]
WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - One by one, they came to the podium -- lawyers, doctors and business executives -- to confess publicly their years of marijuana use. ``I've smoked marijuana for 30 years, and inhaled too,'' Paul Kuhne, a Tennessee businessman, told a recent conference called by the National Organisation for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) to explain the difficulty of smoking marijuana and being a social conservative at the same time. Kuhne came to the conference to defend medicinal marijuana. His wife, who died recently, also used marijuana, he said. [continues 897 words]
Potheads Taking Up Arms In The War On Drugs The tactics used by activists to voice their dissent against the prohibition of marijuana have changed very little since the 1960s. Despite the fact that the drive to legalize cannabis began in an environment that spawned such violent, armed groups as the Weather Underground and the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), today's hemp advocates are firm adherents to the peaceful protest. Each year a myriad of non-threatening marches, candle-light vigils, demonstrations, and sit-ins are held in the hope of ending the herb's illegal status. Although the tireless efforts of these many tie-dyed warriors are to be commended, the war against America's pot smokers keeps escalating. [continues 2152 words]
Politicians of both major parties point with pride to declining crime rates,as shown by official statistics,as evidence that their enlightened policies are working.There are reasons,however,to doubt that those statistics really reflect reality. By the time they are compiled, the statistics are older than is usually acknowledged. The data in California's 1997 crime report, for example, were compiled by local agencies and reported in 1995. Yet they are sometimes used to tout the wisdom of policies put in place after their compilation. [continues 675 words]
While the mean streets of big cities may be dangerous for civilians, it's the rural areas that appear the most deadly for police officers, according to FBI statistics. In a study of American police officers killed in the line of duty between 1988 and 1995, the fatality rate for rural officers was 12 per 100,000 officers. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, the comparable death rate for officers in cities with populations of 250,000 or more was 6.5 per 100,000. [continues 121 words]
No single explanation stands out for drop in crime rates It is a mystery that police, prosecutors and criminologists can't seem to solve: Why have crime rates been going down? The recent improvement in the economy, shifts in population, more aggressive law enforcement strategies and tougher sentencing laws -- all have been advanced as reasons for the decline, but none seems to completely explain the downward trend. ``Each of the explanations that pundits and social scientists put forth these days are partially on point, but nobody can definitively argue for one over the other,'' said Gregg Barak, chairman of the critical criminology division of the American Society of Criminology and a professor at the University of Michigan. [continues 1600 words]
In 1937 Congress criminalized marijuana after two hearings that totaled one hour.(1) Dr. William C. Woodward, appearing on behalf of the American Medical Association, testified that "There is no evidence that marijuana is a dangerous drug." He was accused of "trying to throw obstacles in the way of something that the federal government is trying to do."(2) Today, despite six decades of prohibition, marijuana is the third most popular recreational drug of choice in the United States. According to government figures, nearly 70 million Americans have smoked marijuana at some point in their lives.(3) Of these, 18.5 million have smoked marijuana within the past year, and 10 million are regular smokers.(4) The vast majority of these individuals are otherwise law-abiding citizens who contribute to the community and raise families. They are not criminals, yet many of them have become casualties of the War on Marijuana. [continues 226 words]
In 1937 Congress criminalized marijuana after two hearings that totaled one hour.(1) Dr. William C. Woodward, appearing on behalf of the American Medical Association, testified that "There is no evidence that marijuana is a dangerous drug." He was accused of "trying to throw obstacles in the way of something that the federal government is trying to do."(2) Today, despite six decades of prohibition, marijuana is the third most popular recreational drug of choice in the United States. According to government figures, nearly 70 million Americans have smoked marijuana at some point in their lives.(3) [continues 280 words]
