Seven arrested in Paso Robles drug raid

Many years ago, I took a debate class at a community college and our assignment was to debate the pros and cons of plea bargaining. One of the major arguments in favor of plea bargaining was that it saved time and money for the courts if they didn’t have to expend a prolonged effort in prosecution, a trial, and a longer sentence requiring prolonged housing on the County’s dime.

My debate partner did research in the percentage of ALL criminal charges brought in Los Angeles County courts which involved marijuana. The percentage was 56% of all criminal charges brought in Los Angeles county were marijuana related.

My fellow bloggers have cited me in the past for being math challenged, but I’d have to be an idiot not to add the numbers produced every year by the Governor’s published Annual Budget, that the only people making money out of keeping pot illegal are the numerous state agencies which reap the benefits of all those fines, fees, and grants in order to keep that business going.

The county, state, and Federal agencies receive more and more funding to “combat the problem.” More and more government employees are needed to “police” these specific offenders; prosecute them; house them; house their kids; deal with the psychological trauma of separation and isolation.

And it seems that, as less pot becomes available, the greater the availability of addictive, hard-to-kick drugs. Every year, I hear about growing numbers of people addicted to drugs like the ones mentioned in this article.

I’d love to have the County’s number crunchers, who really have a handle on how much money is spent on drug-related convictions–just the drug-related charges–by every state and county office in San Luis Obispo County. I wish they would look at it like an auditor or accountant would look at the books of a corporation and figure out how much money gets poured into it, how much money these departments actually bring in because of it, and what would happen financially to each department if they had to exist without these funds.

I mean, if we made just pot legal, would the departments not be able to survive on the remaining government revenue? What would happen if we made ALL drugs legal, and just dealt with the fallout by putting all that money into medical care and low-income housing? Which would cost more? Building another prison, or building low-income housing? Is there a direct relationship between removing pot from the market and increase usage of more dangerous drugs and alcohol?

I don’t believe the “Feds” are as antagonistic to the idea of legalizing pot as this County seems to believe. Why is there no public forum free to the public where representatives from these Federal agencies can come and debate and inform the public about what is going on.

Or maybe the “Feds” should stop using drug sales (either allowing it to happen or actively feeding it,) to fund revolution in other countries. Living in SLO is nice, but sometimes I feel like I’m living on the moon. How come the only time there is dialog with the “enforcers” is when it’s from the back seat of a squad car, or when you’re face down on the floor with your hands cuffed?