4 ms·

> There is a lot of money, and plenty of high-paying jobs with full pensions, that are kept afloat by the criminalization of drugs. This is the heart of it.

heavyset_go 6y ago
There's a reason that my local PBA is losing their minds over the potential for drugs like marijuana becoming legal, and it isn't because marijuana is harmful. It's because 60% of the town's budget goes to funding law enforcement salaries, benefits and pensions, and the majority of arrests in this area are for marijuana possession.
- idoh 6y ago
  PBA = police officers’ union (for those like me who didn’t know)
- wombatmobile 6y ago
  But does it necessarily follow that law enforcement budgets will be cut if weed is legalised? Ideally, how might the budget be reconfigured constructively with the same dollar amount to make a better community?
  - pessimizer 6y ago
    Why would we keep breeding the same number of horses after switching to cars?
  - toomuchtodo 6y ago
    > Ideally, how might the budget be reconfigured constructively with the same dollar amount to make a better community? Attrition of police officers with those remaining for only when force is required, while bolstering social worker and community outreach services and funding. Non violent emergency calls go to social response. St Petersburg, Florida is making a go of this. Budgeting details in the link below. https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-pinellas/st-petersburg-police-chief-mayor-announce-plans-to-re-imagine-department https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-pinellas/st-peters...
  - x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago
    It's not so much a question of law enforcement budgets as it is municipality budgets. Many of these smaller pass-through towns make significant money harassing travelers (speed traps) and through seizures of property. If MJ is legal, they can no longer use things such as "I smell marijuana" as a pretext for exacerbating a traffic stop or stacking more charges.
    - wombatmobile 6y ago
      How do you quantify the revenue derived from that?
      - kombucha111 6y ago
        You can literally look it up or file a FOIA request.
        heavyset_go 6y ago
        To this end, MuckRock[1] is a non-profit SaaS platform that can assist you in filing requests for public records. [1] https://www.muckrock.com/ https://www.muckrock.com/

heavyset_go 6y ago

There's a reason that my local PBA is losing their minds over the potential for drugs like marijuana becoming legal, and it isn't because marijuana is harmful. It's because 60% of the town's budget goes to funding law enforcement salaries, benefits and pensions, and the majority of arrests in this area are for marijuana possession.

idoh 6y ago
PBA = police officers’ union (for those like me who didn’t know)
wombatmobile 6y ago
But does it necessarily follow that law enforcement budgets will be cut if weed is legalised? Ideally, how might the budget be reconfigured constructively with the same dollar amount to make a better community?
- pessimizer 6y ago
  Why would we keep breeding the same number of horses after switching to cars?
- toomuchtodo 6y ago
  > Ideally, how might the budget be reconfigured constructively with the same dollar amount to make a better community? Attrition of police officers with those remaining for only when force is required, while bolstering social worker and community outreach services and funding. Non violent emergency calls go to social response. St Petersburg, Florida is making a go of this. Budgeting details in the link below. https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-pinellas/st-petersburg-police-chief-mayor-announce-plans-to-re-imagine-department https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-pinellas/st-peters...
- x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago
  It's not so much a question of law enforcement budgets as it is municipality budgets. Many of these smaller pass-through towns make significant money harassing travelers (speed traps) and through seizures of property. If MJ is legal, they can no longer use things such as "I smell marijuana" as a pretext for exacerbating a traffic stop or stacking more charges.
  - wombatmobile 6y ago
    How do you quantify the revenue derived from that?
    - kombucha111 6y ago
      You can literally look it up or file a FOIA request.
      - heavyset_go 6y ago
        To this end, MuckRock[1] is a non-profit SaaS platform that can assist you in filing requests for public records. [1] https://www.muckrock.com/ https://www.muckrock.com/