URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v16/n702/a08.html
Newshawk: Herb Couch
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Mon, 12 Dec 2016
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
Copyright: 2016 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC.
Contact:
Website: http://www.timesdispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/365
Page: A10
War on Drugs
POT SHOTS
Virginia lawmakers have shown scant inclination to legalize marijuana, but it might not matter. Law enforcement seems to be doing it for them.
In the past two years, arrests and charges for marijuana crimes have dropped 14 percent – and “it ain’t because less people are smoking marijuana,” one defense lawyer tells the Daily Press. In Newport News, charges have dropped 60 percent – perhaps in part because prosecutors there decided a few years ago not to prosecute misdemeanor possession by adults.
So did Hampton. Its commonwealth’s attorney, Anton Bell, says the city has “bigger fish to fry.” Indeed. The broken-windows theory of crime prevention says strictly enforcing laws against minor offenses contributes to a law-and-order climate that helps to deter more serious ones. But there’s reason to think the theory has been overstated and overused: In past years crime dropped in cities that adopted it – but also in cities that didn’t. And some cities that did adopt it, such as New York, took it too far by launching unconstitutional policies such as stop-and-frisk.
In any event, it’s hard to make an empirical case that shifting attention back to major crimes and away from minor ones will make major crimes more likely.
Given nationwide trends, Virginia’s General Assembly might one day decide to join other states that have legalized pot. By that point, lawmakers might not be shaping social change – but bowing to it.
MAP posted-by: Matt