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Texas Leads in Jailing Pot Smokers

Grits for Breakfast reports:

Texas incarcerates more people for marijuana than any other state, the Justice Policy Institute (JPI), a D.C.-based think tank, said in a new public policy report. In Texas, "marijuana arrests comprised 56 percent of total drug arrests (48,963 out of 88,053 total arrests). Texas currently has 1,215 people in prison for marijuana as the controlling offense."

...Nationally, nearly half of all drug arrests in 2003 were for marijuana, chalking up $5.1 billion in enforcement, adjudication and incarceration costs for marijuana alone, the group reports. Download the full study here.

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    Re: Texas Leads in Jailing Pot Smokers (none / 0) (#1)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:51 PM EST
    Money well spent, cuz um, uh... 9/11!

    Re: Texas Leads in Jailing Pot Smokers (none / 0) (#2)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:51 PM EST
    Obviously the Pot problem is out of control in Texas. Delay will appropriate another $15 billion for the next season's Texan WOD. Of course it that is after his $3 billion finders fee. When questioned about his extraordinary commission he pointed out how much the money the State is saving now that the ethics committee is on permanent vacation. The provision placed somewhere deep in the recent highway bill passed.

    Re: Texas Leads in Jailing Pot Smokers (none / 0) (#3)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:53 PM EST
    I feel so much safer knowing the state of texas is allocating their criminal justice funds so wisely. I mean, who is more of a threat than pot smokers and dealers? Madness, madness, insane madness.

    Re: Texas Leads in Jailing Pot Smokers (none / 0) (#5)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:54 PM EST
    DA-CAMP turned out to be a very profitable self sustaining little biz. I do not think they need the money. Athough
    Kaiser and other CAMP operatives insist that CAMP operations are not designed to produce revenues. "We're not doing this to make money. Marijuana is against the law; that's why we do this," explained Kaiser. "If they legalize it, we will go on to other things.....From 1984 to 1990, CAMP teams seized more than 100,000 plants each year, funded by grants of more than $2 million annually. Seizures declined beginning in 1990, when almost $3 million was spent seizing 79,441 plants. CAMP's budget began to decrease after 1990, but the agency has learned to do more with less. In 1996, CAMP used a $480,000 budget to cut 94,221 plants. Estimated plant seizures for 1997 total 132,000; the 1997 budget was $556,000....CAMP has taken more than plants; it has also confiscated 2100 firearms, 238 vehicles, a half million dollars in cash, and $32 million worth of private land since 1983. Total operating costs have been approximately $25 million. CAMP is a profitable business, its budget more than paid back by the value of assets it seizes.
    link

    Re: Texas Leads in Jailing Pot Smokers (none / 0) (#6)
    by roger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:54 PM EST
    ¿Can we give Texas back? ¿would they take it back?

    Re: Texas Leads in Jailing Pot Smokers (none / 0) (#7)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:54 PM EST
    Roger- I think you will have to talk to Delay because he bought it some time ago.