Cops Believe in Safe Access to Medical Marijuana Too

[TheBlackPirate]

Cops Believe in Safe Access to Medical Marijuana Too
October 27, 2015 | By Sergeant Steve Miller (Ret.)

According to new Harris Polling data, 81% of Americans support legalizing medical marijuana. Law enforcement has had an outsize voice in the medical marijuana debate, and we’re here to set the record straight; law enforcement professionals have no place in deciding the efficacy of medicines. That is and has always been decided upon through relationships that exist between patients and their healthcare providers. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) is an organization of criminal justice professionals from all backgrounds who understand that medical marijuana, and drugs in general, need to be viewed from a public health perspective instead of a criminal one.

For many, marijuana is a helpful form of medicine, and for others, it may be the most effective option. We would never purposefully leave pharmaceuticals under the control of a dangerous, unregulated economy because it would be wrong to make sick and disabled people get medicine from drug dealers. Sadly, that’s what we’re doing with marijuana in many places across the country. Patients should never have to get medicine from a source that cannot be verified as safe. We know that local authorities, through compliance inspections, are heavily monitoring medical marijuana businesses. When buying marijuana from a street dealer, there’s no assurance that the medicine is free of toxic molds, pesticides, or far more dangerous drugs. It can also be dangerous because drug dealers can be armed and patients attempting to find medicine from a source on the street could wind up getting robbed or physically harmed in the process.

Arresting patients for marijuana is not only wrong, but it’s an outrageous, costly waste of time. There are dangerous criminals – drug dealers selling to kids, gangs, human traffickers, abusive parents, rapists, and thieves – who should be taking up the valuable resources we have to fight crime. Prohibiting access to regulated medical marijuana only endangers the public more by clogging the justice system with people who don’t deserve to be there and slowing the justice system down for people who most agree belong behind bars.

Patients shouldn’t be treated like criminals. Those suffering from cancer, MS, PTSD, Cerebral Palsy, seizures and other complicated conditions, just working to find relief from their pain and suffering, should never be considered the same threat to public safety as those who do real damage to our communities. We need to be taking a critical look at whether our laws reflect an obvious code of ethics or whether they are promoting an outdated, prohibitionist mentality that victimizes our most vulnerable friends and family.



About Sergeant Steve Miller (Ret.)

Sergeant Steve Miller (Ret.) lives in Canton, Michigan, and spent more than 20 years as a police officer, detective, and sergeant. He is now a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a group of police, judges, prosecutors, and other criminal justice professionals working to end the War on Drugs.

http://www.hopegrown.org/blog/cops-believe-safe-access-medical-marijuana

 

[neversickanymore]

Great news, but given the ridiculous life ruining laws police officers choose to enforce.. not that they enacted them, but still.. why should I respect their retired opinion.

 

[TheBlackPirate]

I have multiple reasons and they are listed here:

-An individuals opinion on an individual topic doesn't discredit the individual on every topic. Furthermore every person is wrong occasionally. People should always accept the fact they could be wrong. Even if we disagree with others we should respectfully consider those peoples opinions with an open mind the same as we hope they consider our own.

-Frequently people who were wrong about the War on Drugs didn't have malicious intentions. They honestly thought making the world free of drugs through prohibition was attainable and was a perfect solution. This is especially true with police officers. Demonizing our enemies as malevolent is an easy pitfall. Frequently those people had good intentions and were simply misinformed. Those different than us make the best allies. Obtaining those allies is desirable and recognizing those with different opinions than us are more similar than different is the first step.

-People learn and improve. Disallowing redemption discourages improvement. Regardless of the persons past, the person is never beyond redemption. Whenever a police officer sincerely accepts they were mistaken about the war on drugs I gladly accept them. Humans can't control the past. The future is our choice. Whenever people choose a new positive path I support the change.

 

[TheBlackPirate]

Also worth mentioning is my observation thus far police officers are the first non-civilian converts. Police officers on the streets witness the racial disparity in our criminal justice system, they notice how the majority of wealth in the United Sates is isolated at the top while an enormous group of people suffer from the recent drug policies, they witness how our society handles the mentally ill, they are familiar with the extremes of mass incarceration, ect. Every day at work police officers on the street experience both sides of life in this country.

Politicians, administrators in the DEA, military administrators, ect. exist in the wealthier minority. Those peoples relationship with the non-upper middles class world is limited. They view the world through computer screens and only participate in the wealthier parts of it. In the process of living life those people almost never interact with the massive groups of people victimized through our societies failed drug policies. In the white washed world they experience the drug polices were effective. They very rarely notice the majority of Americans aren't involved in the wealthier parts of society. They also very rarely notice within the poorer communities victimized through our drug polices (such as the black/mentally ill) upward mobility is practically impossible there.

Police officers notice these disparities first and act of them first. If our society moves forward with what is happening peacefully ameliorating these disparities I expect government officials on the bottom such as police officers are the first involved with this positive change.

 

[TheBlackPirate]

Here's a final tought about this thread.

Apparently other people have similar ideas folks. People in the United States aren't particularly concerned if drug policies only harm poor blacks and other minorities. Let's keep others informed and make progress with this issue.

Part of what has made it previously difficult to emphasize treatment over the criminal justice system has to do with the fact that the populations affected in the past were ... stereotypically identified as poor, minority, and as a consequence, the thinking was it is often a character flaw in those individuals ... and it's not our problem they're just being locked up.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-america-cant-quit-the-drug-war-20160505?page=9

 

[neversickanymore]

All very good points TBP. It was a loaded question and I'm very happy to have retired law enforcement fighting hard for our side. It still erks me that active law enforcement is lobbying hard against beneficial change and this seems to be greed driven. There is enough real crime out there that they aren't going to run out of work. It just seems they like the ease and safety of rounding up and exploiting harmless individuals.

Exclusive: Why Can’t You Smoke Pot? Because Lobbyists Are Getting Rich Off of the War on Drugs