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Detroit police scooped up over 1100 pounds of marijuana in their latest efforts at cleaning the streets of drugs Fox 2 News reported Wednesday, 1-27-10.
One of the homes busted, on Sturtevant, yielded 220 pounds of pot. The other raid occurred on Tireman, north of Dearborn Heights, on Detroit's westside, and involved 908 pounds of pot.
"On the street, a pound of marijuana fetches about $1,200. If sold by the gram in $10 "dime bags," a pound of pot can bring in $4,500, according to Detroit police," Fox reported.
With the new police chief, Warren Evans at the helm, efforts at drug enforcement have been stepped up in Detroit over the past several months. In that time, "Detroit police have seized more than 50 pounds of cocaine, about 1,500 pounds of marijuana and $750,000 in drug money, something Evans credited to increased drug enforcement efforts," according to Fox 2 Detroit.
Clearing the streets of drug dealers leaves open opportunities for others to step in, and you can bet the dealers will be replaced before the ink dries on the warrants for the current busts. More often, they just change venues, or go mobile.
No one was arrested in these raids, but expect to see some people scooped up for the crimes.
However, the issue of busting marijuana dealers at this time, or any time in Detroit's buckling history should not be a priority. There are much more important drug dealers, and criminals to pursue, like heroin, and cocaine dealers, prescription drug mills, murder, and armed robbery suspects, and/or other criminals.
Hopefully, Detroit is not on it's way to the days of Reefer Madness when Anslinger and Hearst were on a crusade of ridding the U.S. of marijuana's scourge. Medical marijuana dispensaries are already being blocked in some metro Detroit communities.
The ease teens have in the ability to get drugs initially does not come from drug dealers, however, at least in the beginning, or before they become addicted, and need to find other sources. Most teens who experiment with drugs get them from firends, relatives, and the medicine cabinet. Drug dealers come in later on if, and when a person becomes addicted to these harder drugs.
Education, prevention, intervention, and treatment are still the most important aspects in reducing demand for any drugs, but we have fallen short in those efforts. All schools should have in place a drug curriculum starting in 3rd grade minimum, and continuing on through high school.
Parents, you are on the front lines as well in providing your children with the information they need to make reasoned choices regarding risky behavior. Studies have shown that the more you talk to your kids about risky behaviors, they have up to a 50% less chance of getting involved in negative behavior.
If you or a loved one needs help with any type of drug problem, contact these sites depending on where you live. SEMCA (Wayne County residents), CARE (Macomb County residents), PACE (Oakland County residents), Drug Free Detroit (City of Detroit residents). For those residing outside the State of Michigan, contact SAMHSA for assistance.
In the flow...
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(Photo of U.S. Government marijuana farm at University of Mississippi Wikimedia Commons)
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Comments
Who cares! They'll be another semi willing to deliver a load by the morning. Just legalize marijuana already. Do you think your protecting anybody from these silly outdated drug laws? Legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana.
A complete waste of manpower and resources.
Marijuana is medicine, and it will always be around.
using resources and jail space for pot is absurd.
Drop the pot enforcement and go after coke and heroin and the other vicious killer drugs--
make pot legal and direct the resources and enforcement at those.
what a concept
...and as a result, another very grateful dealer stepped in and started supplying the demand.
When do the idiots that support prohibition finally get a clue that this nonsense isn't working, can't work in a free society, and is just plain wrong? You can't even argue that the end justifies the means because the means don't produce the end you claim it will.
The time has come; Legalize and regulate.
I googled "Marijuana" in google news after reading this.
It looks like coppers are finding at least 5-6 tons daily in the United States... Daily. What a lost cause. Smart people know when something is futile. I would be less annoyed if Obama created an agency to count grains of sand on all of the US beaches.
I think I am going to start talking to as many people as I can about what a waste this is. With enough pressure Washington will have to buckle. There must be billions of untaxed money floating around.
An independent agency did an unemployment projection for the next ten years and it looks horrible. Why not create a new legit industry out of a black market industry that will exist regardless?
Wouldn't that make sense?
WOW! Let's celebrate finally turning the corner on the Drug War. No more drugs, they've got them all!
Oh yeah, no they didn't....they managed to remove .001% of the drugs in Detroit! If anyone thinks this is going to change anything, I would like to invite you to look at the last FORTY YEARS of this exact same sort of bust by the police with WHAT as a result?
Drugs are just as common as they ever were. In fact, they are MORE prevalent than ever before. Who thinks spending $70 BILLION/year to just lose more and more ground is a GOOD thing? Does anyone need to be reminded of Einstein's definition of Insanity?
The black market will never card your kid before selling them dope. And as long as cannabis is illegal, it is NOT a 'controlled substance!'
and that's just what gets caught. Just found another statistic that says 1 out of every 18 pot smokers is arrested in their lifetime.
I wonder if one out of every 18 large shipments gets found?
That is a giant amount of weed. Plus more and more people are growing their own. I don't smoke myself, drink occasionally and am against hard drugs, but these laws are doing nothing but spending our money!
We need a Fiscal Conservative in the white house that sticks to his words. Hopefully the Republicans won't touch any moral conservatives with a ten foot pole.
Fred, I just wanted to correct your 70 billion number.
"Marijuana prohibition costs US taxpayers nearly $42 billion dollars per year in criminal justice costs and in lost tax revenues, according to an economic analysis released this week."
A friend of mine that is a police officer always complains about the status of marijuana. He doesn't even enforce those laws anymore, because half of his time would be spend going to court hearings or arresting people that will keep using it anyways.
It clogs the court system up and it clogs prisons up. Most prisons end up releasing violent offenders early because the prisons are so clogged with drug users. I heard that 1 out of every 7 people in prison is in for Marijuana related offenses.
My son is awaiting his trial scheduled for February. He got a ride home from school with some of the kids in our neighborhood. They got pulled over and the one kid had an ounce. The police charged all of them. Our lawyer thinks we have a chance but my son could end up with a felony on his record. I really hope this doesn't affect school loans in the future. He gets straight A's. Hopefully the judge will take note of that.
I don't think it is enough of a big deal to dramatically alter someones future over. I wish history was a little bit more sane. It seems like our leaders aren't too sensible now or in the past.
I sure hope it was worth it, remember the people who smoke the stuff are going to get tired sooner or later and when they do look out no more peace loving pot heads.
Good job in wasting our tax payer money on protecting us from something that's not even a harm to our society, much less compared with alcohol anyway. Pigs(cops) make me sick with this constant waste of tax payer money on this war against marijuana. Man made beer, God made pot, who do you trust?
I think they should get the ones that are selling the hard drugs and legaize the pot,More people get hurt or die from the hard stuff.
Looks like more and more people are starting to agree that going after pot dealers and smokers is a waste of time and money.
The tax money wasted on arresting, prosecuting, imprisoning, and the forced "treatment" of marijuana users costs the U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars every year, billions that are therefore NOT available for schools, health care, repairing our roads and bridges, and a hundred other vitally important areas. Surely no one believes that imprisoning Americans for using a plant is a better use of our limited resources than educating our children, maintaining our infrastructure, and keeping our families safe from foreign terrorists?
Let's put the drug dealing criminals out of business and free up our tax dollars to meet America's real needs. Let's tax and regulate marijuana, and let's let ordinary Americans grow a little marijuana in their own back yards; maybe $100 a year for a permit to grow a dozen plants. It's a win-win.
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