Katelyn Baker
Well-Known Member
A chance to take a more realistic approach on marijuana laws quietly passed last week.
An effort failed 6,000 signatures short last week of gathering enough names to put a measure on the November ballot that, if approved, would have had police issue citations for possession of small amounts of marijuana.
The city's police chief says his force has the option of issuing citations instead of arresting now but that what is need is coordinated policies with other parts of the law enforcement system.
Issuing citations would be a more enlightened approach than the more than 1,000 arrests that were recorded for possession in 2015 in the city.
Is such a change getting soft on drugs? Would this open the door for potheads and Mary Jane addicts? That's what some on the City Council thought earlier this year. I don't think so, but I understand that it takes a great leap of faith to do anything else but to continue something that hasn't worked.
A local group of citizens who advocated for an ordinance that would change how marijuana possessions are treated by police didn't even get the courtesy of a vote in February when the issue came up.
The only other option for advocates of an ordinance change was to gather enough signatures on a petition to the measure on the November ballot.
After months of the effort, supporters gave it up last week. They had garnered about 3,000 signatures. They needed almost 10,000.
Kyle Hoelscher, leader of the local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says the group will refocus its efforts on the Texas Legislature. One goal would be to lower the penalties for recreational marijuana use.
Too bad the local effort failed. The change would have been a small step to rethinking just how we want to deal with the drugs that plague Americans. We've been waging a "war on drugs" in the United States since the days of Richard Nixon.
As Dr. Phil would ask, how is that working out for you?
We've incarcerated hundreds of thousands of Americans, left countless families bereft of parents, scarred the careers of a whole generation of young people, by putting so many low-level lawbreakers in prison cells with the hard-core we've immersed them in criminal worlds, all to no purpose.
But we have accomplished this. We've made millionaires out of drug merchants. We've enabled the growth of criminal organizations that encompass private armies, transportation networks that span international borders and corruption that has threatens the viability of nations.
Thousands of families in Mexico alone have lost family members to kidnapping, abductions and lawlessness. It is Mexico and other Latin American countries that have paid the steepest price for America's "war on drugs."
Of course there is the money. I reject the notion that the possession of a small amount of marijuana is a victimless crime. It doesn't take the accumulation of many small amounts to total tons of marijuana and that means millions, if not billions, of dollars. It is those dollars that feed the murder and the terror that pervades much of our southern border.
In a perverse way, clamping down on illegal drugs actually raises the price. It's the law of supply and demand.
But if we started down the path of citation instead of arrest, of decriminalizing its possession, channeling its users into health programs, if we started to drain the swamp of illegal drugs of a great deal of lucre, then we might begin to shrink the drug monster.
Issuing citations in Corpus Christi for possession of small amounts, less than four ounces, of marijuana may not greatly damage the economics of illegal drugs. But the change might begin to alter the balance of how we treat drugs, not as a criminal problem but as one that is about public health.
In Corpus Christi, in 2015, police made 1,100 arrests for misdemeanor possession of marijuana. Now, using marijuana isn't the smartest move anyone ever made. But the reality is that many people, especially young people, are users.
These young people may be doing something stupid as young people are prone to do. They may be harming their health. They may be thoughtless about their job prospects; always remember that there is a pee cup out there somewhere in the future.
But they are not criminals who deserve arrest.
Nick Jimenez has worked as a reporter, city editor and editorial page editor for more than 40 years in Corpus Christi. He is currently the editorial page editor emeritus for the Caller-Times. His commentary column appears on Wednesdays and Sundays.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: It's Time To Rethink Criminalizing Marijuana Possession
Author: Nick Jimenez
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Caller Times
An effort failed 6,000 signatures short last week of gathering enough names to put a measure on the November ballot that, if approved, would have had police issue citations for possession of small amounts of marijuana.
The city's police chief says his force has the option of issuing citations instead of arresting now but that what is need is coordinated policies with other parts of the law enforcement system.
Issuing citations would be a more enlightened approach than the more than 1,000 arrests that were recorded for possession in 2015 in the city.
Is such a change getting soft on drugs? Would this open the door for potheads and Mary Jane addicts? That's what some on the City Council thought earlier this year. I don't think so, but I understand that it takes a great leap of faith to do anything else but to continue something that hasn't worked.
A local group of citizens who advocated for an ordinance that would change how marijuana possessions are treated by police didn't even get the courtesy of a vote in February when the issue came up.
The only other option for advocates of an ordinance change was to gather enough signatures on a petition to the measure on the November ballot.
After months of the effort, supporters gave it up last week. They had garnered about 3,000 signatures. They needed almost 10,000.
Kyle Hoelscher, leader of the local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says the group will refocus its efforts on the Texas Legislature. One goal would be to lower the penalties for recreational marijuana use.
Too bad the local effort failed. The change would have been a small step to rethinking just how we want to deal with the drugs that plague Americans. We've been waging a "war on drugs" in the United States since the days of Richard Nixon.
As Dr. Phil would ask, how is that working out for you?
We've incarcerated hundreds of thousands of Americans, left countless families bereft of parents, scarred the careers of a whole generation of young people, by putting so many low-level lawbreakers in prison cells with the hard-core we've immersed them in criminal worlds, all to no purpose.
But we have accomplished this. We've made millionaires out of drug merchants. We've enabled the growth of criminal organizations that encompass private armies, transportation networks that span international borders and corruption that has threatens the viability of nations.
Thousands of families in Mexico alone have lost family members to kidnapping, abductions and lawlessness. It is Mexico and other Latin American countries that have paid the steepest price for America's "war on drugs."
Of course there is the money. I reject the notion that the possession of a small amount of marijuana is a victimless crime. It doesn't take the accumulation of many small amounts to total tons of marijuana and that means millions, if not billions, of dollars. It is those dollars that feed the murder and the terror that pervades much of our southern border.
In a perverse way, clamping down on illegal drugs actually raises the price. It's the law of supply and demand.
But if we started down the path of citation instead of arrest, of decriminalizing its possession, channeling its users into health programs, if we started to drain the swamp of illegal drugs of a great deal of lucre, then we might begin to shrink the drug monster.
Issuing citations in Corpus Christi for possession of small amounts, less than four ounces, of marijuana may not greatly damage the economics of illegal drugs. But the change might begin to alter the balance of how we treat drugs, not as a criminal problem but as one that is about public health.
In Corpus Christi, in 2015, police made 1,100 arrests for misdemeanor possession of marijuana. Now, using marijuana isn't the smartest move anyone ever made. But the reality is that many people, especially young people, are users.
These young people may be doing something stupid as young people are prone to do. They may be harming their health. They may be thoughtless about their job prospects; always remember that there is a pee cup out there somewhere in the future.
But they are not criminals who deserve arrest.
Nick Jimenez has worked as a reporter, city editor and editorial page editor for more than 40 years in Corpus Christi. He is currently the editorial page editor emeritus for the Caller-Times. His commentary column appears on Wednesdays and Sundays.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: It's Time To Rethink Criminalizing Marijuana Possession
Author: Nick Jimenez
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Caller Times
