Reefer Madness

 The police chief of Washington D.C. has declared that, “I can tell you that marijuana undoubtedly is connected to violent crimes that we are seeing in our communities.” Chief Robert Contee made these and other remarks last week during a press briefing following a series of recent shootings in his city. One of them occurred right outside Nationals Park as the home team was preparing to take on the San Diego Padres. The game was cancelled amid the fear and excitement. 

Odd that Chief Contee didn't choose to blame baseball. He blamed weed. "When you have something where people get high reward — they can make a lot of money by selling illegal marijuana — and the risk is low, the risk for accountability is very low, that creates a very, very, very bad situation, because those individuals get robbed,” he added. “Those individuals get shot at. Those individuals get involved in disputes all across our city.” 

So here's the deal: Recreational use of pot (marijuana) is legal in the District of Columbia. Selling pot (marijuana) for recreational use is not. Makes perfect sense. So does the solution: decriminalize pot (marijuana). 

The idea that violent crime is being carried out by pot (marijuana) smokers is basically flawed. If the crimes involved large amounts of Pringles, that would make more sense. Instead, the Chief seems to be onto something when he suggests that it's the money that's the problem. People have been shot over tiny amounts of money throughout history. I have it on good authority that our first Secretary of the Treasury was shot and killed by Aaron Burr over a fifteen dollar bar tab. Or maybe it had something to do with those fields of hemp that George Washington was managing. 

Or something like that. Unfortunately, Chief Contee is pointing his finger at the prosecutors who choose not to go after those caught with more than two ounces of grass (marijuana), the legal limit in his city. He says he's "not talking about mass incarceration," he just wants to hold people accountable. Fair enough. How about making it legal and taxing it. Like alcohol. Like cigarettes. Like Washington, you know the state. 

Before somebody ends up getting shot. Again.