Police Unions
Marijuana is a cash cow for the police. The Wall Street Journal recently reported “law-enforcement agencies in those states (where cannabis has been legalized) expect to lose millions in revenue gained from assets seized from growers and dealers.”
And it isn’t just seized assets the police need drugs for… The American Civil Liberties Union recently ran an article that stated “when the federal government doles out hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to law enforcement each year, they require reporting on arrest numbers, including marijuana arrests. This creates a powerful incentive for police to aggressively go after people with small amounts of marijuana – it’s an easy way to get a lot of arrests.”
Between seized cash and goods, and federal funding tied to arrest numbers, the cash faucet that marijuana brings law enforcement can be a very big motivator for police departments. After all, every 37 seconds someone in America is arrested for possession of Marijuana… (I bet those prisons love that).
