Started By
Message

re: Police arrest more people for marijuana use than for all violent crimes combined

Posted on 10/12/16 at 1:25 pm to
Posted by Barf
EBR
Member since Feb 2015
3727 posts
Posted on 10/12/16 at 1:25 pm to
quote:


Because they look simply at drug arrests and don't mention if any of these people are charged with any other crimes at the same time


Should it matter? Should one crime compound the sentencing of another? Is robbing someone worse if you do it with a joint in your pocket? What about someone who was convicted of assault from a bar fight when they were 18, is that person now a violent offender? I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just trying to follow the logic.

One thing we do know is Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman admitted that harsh drug sentencing was created because they could not make being black or being anti war illegal. Black people and hippies were the biggest hurdle for the Nixon campaign in the 1960's so they targeted those groups via mandatory minimum drug sentencing. This much we know as fact.

I agree that the article is not the best piece of journalism in the world but it poitn out the fact that a mechanism exits to use a minor drug possession offence as a catalyst to lock someone up for the rest of their life.
Posted by upgrayedd
Lifting at Tobin's house
Member since Mar 2013
135768 posts
Posted on 10/12/16 at 1:31 pm to
quote:

Should it matter? Should one crime compound the sentencing of another? Is robbing someone worse if you do it with a joint in your pocket? What about someone who was convicted of assault from a bar fight when they were 18, is that person now a violent offender? I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just trying to follow the logic

I think it's important due to the fact that the article essentially frames it as possession being sole factor for arrest, which I think is unlikely. Frankly, I think that article is dishonestly lacking. It bugs me when people look at end results but never look at the factors leading to the results.

quote:

One thing we do know is Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman admitted that harsh drug sentencing was created because they could not make being black or being anti war illegal. Black people and hippies were the biggest hurdle for the Nixon campaign in the 1960's so they targeted those groups via mandatory minimum drug sentencing. This much we know as fact.


Yeah, I think that's where we really started going off the rails. The fact that the DEA recently decided to keep MJ on the Schedule I list is a complete travesty.
first pageprev pagePage 1 of 1Next pagelast page
refresh

Back to top
logoFollow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to get the latest updates on LSU Football and Recruiting.

FacebookTwitterInstagram