News » Attorney General Says Controlled Substances Act Will Be “Vigorously Enforced”





Even if Proposition 19 passes in California making marijuana legal for recreation use on a state level, Eric Holder, President Obama’s Attorney General told a group of 9 former Drug Enforcement Agency heads that the federal government will ensure that the Controlled Substances Act is “vigorously enforced”. While no exact definition of what this enforcement would entail was given, Director of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske told the Associated Press that they are “looking at all their options” alongside the Department of Justice.

The former DEA heads had petitioned the Obama administration to sue to overturn Prop 19 on the grounds that it violates federal law. They feel that “pre-emption was certainly applicable in this case”, perhaps paving the grounds for a legal battle on how marijuana is to be regulated and policed. The position is not surprising – how many former CEOs have jointly come out against the service their company performs?

Kerlikowske, who is the former chief of police of Seattle counters supporters of Prop 19 who feel that the law will free up law enforcement resources by saying that “law enforcement agencies are not spending an inordinate amount of time chasing adults around for small amounts of marijuana.” he said while on a recent trip to California. “The jail resources, law enforcement resources, court resources are not being overburdened with adults going through the system” for personal pot possession. The numbers however, disagree somewhat with that statement – in 2009 marijuana arrests in the state were the highest since marijuana was decriminalized in 1976 with 78,514 in total. Of those 17,126 were felonies and 61,388 were misdemeanors.

In 2005, NORML released a very comprehensive analysis of arrest data. It found that the national cost to the taxpayer per arrest was $10,400. Assuming that this figure has not increased (unlikely) and matches California (also unlikely considering cost of living and other factors), this means that the cost of enforcing marijuana laws in California was $816,545,600 in California alone – and this doesn’t include the additional cost of incarceration, lost tax revenues, and other factors.

[source NPR]

Tags: arrests, Attorney General, DEA, Eric Holder, Gil Kerlikowske, marijuana, Obama, Prop 19, Proposition 19