Thursday, May 27, 2004

Drug War Skirmish Statistics for West Michigan

West Michigan’s Drug Enforcement Task Force released some vague statistics recently which were shared with Michigan residents in The Grand Rapids Press. According to the article, drug arrests were up eight percent, giving the enforcers something to crow about.  Caw, caw.  Let’s consider some of the statistics quoted in the article.

642 individuals were arrested, and, according to the article, 99 of those 642 individuals were labeled as “high level dealers.” So, approximately 15.4% of those arrested were “big time.” So, what did the West Michigan Task Force confiscate from these 99 high level dealers, and the other 543 bit players?

600 pounds of marijuana, which adds up to an average of less than a pound per person, if we take the total number of arrests and divide it by the poundage of pot confiscated, plus two thousand plants, which really don’t count because they never made it into the supply chain.  They also seized 3700 grams of coke and 1100 grams of meth.  Notice the large numbers quoted, in grams.  3700 grams of coke is equivalent to 8.15 pounds of coke, and 1100 grams of meth is equivalent to 2.32 pounds of meth.  That’s “high level” dealing, I guess.

But it was the following information in the article that really caught my eye.

"The bulk of last year’s arrests—436 in total—were for low-level drug offenses, such as possession of less than 10 pounds of marijuana or less than 7 grams of cocaine. Some of those arrests eventually led to catching dealers further up the distribution chain, Porter said."

What the above actually means, is, 436 individuals who were arrested, in all probability, had less than an ounce of pot or a gram of toot.  What a waste.

The drug war is a complete and abyssmal failure which has only resulted in ruining more lives than drug use itself.

“Drug officers net sixth straight year of increased arrests."

Posted by John Venlet on 05/27 at 12:38 PM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Page 1 of 1 pages