11/14/2019
Recently, the Bloomington Police Department lamented the impending legalization of cannabis. “Arresting someone for drug-induced DUI is much more time consuming than alcohol-related DUI,” grumbled Sgt. Aaron Veerman. “It could take hours and hours to transport a suspect to the hospital for a blood draw…and eventually to jail.” One councilperson even suggested the tax revenue from cannabis should be used to offset these alleged costs.
I couldn’t disagree more. I don’t think a dime, a penny, that 9/10ths stuff they get you with at the gas station, not even a haypenny of cannabis tax revenue should go to the Bloomington Police Department. And here’s why.
The overwhelming majority of issues we’ve gotten from prohibition has been from highly unjust & draconian policing. If your house burns down, you don’t give the insurance money to the arsonist. We’ve been listening to law enforcement’s opinion about cannabis for over 40 years. What recommendations did we get? Mass incarceration, broken windows policing, stop-&-frisk, a failed war on drugs, pre-text stops, an almost 1000% increase in the use of SWAT raids (largely on low level cannabis dealers), militarized police, & entire communities terrorized and devastated by the overzealous enforcement of prohibition.
One of the main reasons for ending prohibition is precisely to repair the damage done to communities by law enforcement and that is where cannabis tax money should go. So, spare us the lamentations of the Bloomington Police Department or any police department when it comes to this issue. Regarding cannabis, police are better seen & not heard.
At the same time, Bloomington City Council should stress to law enforcement a complete deemphasis on wasting resources on cannabis enforcement. Even though cannabis will now be legal, there are still plenty of ways to come up against the criminal justice system. In Canada, after alleged progressive Justin Trudeau legalized cannabis, he placed former Toronto police chief Bill Blair in charge of the marijuana file; enforcement of pot laws has skyrocketed. Now, if someone is selling pot outside of the school fence during recess, yes, prevent that from happening. But, if you have some adult teenagers smoking pot or even selling it, leave them alone! Let ISP waste their resources in dealing with it, but I think a majority of residents are long-passed exhausted with draconian cannabis enforcement.
