By Anaridis Rodriguez -- March 1, 2010 Beacon Hill lawmakers will be battling it out over marijuana. The Massachusetts legislature is considering a bill that would regulate and tax cannabis. This comes after Bay State residents voted to decriminalize possession of the drug. Jack Cole is the executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a fifteen thousand member organization representing judges, lawyers and police officers advocating for the legalization of marijuana. Cole is a retired New Jersey undercover narcotics agent. He said the regulation of the drug will not only inject 37 billion dollars into the U.S economy but will also aid officers in policing the streets for more serious offenses. "Our police are spending so much time and energy chasing around these non-violent drug offenders," he said. "They no longer have time to protect our citizens from violent criminals, child molesters, things that really count," Cole said in a WERS interview. Cole said in recent years the war against marijuana has shifted the focus of police departments across the nation. "Police still fail to solve 40 percent of all the murders, 60 percent of the rapes and arsons and seventy five percent of the robberies," said Cole. The Massachusetts Joint Committee on the Judiciary will be holding a public hearing this Tuesday. A hearing where Cole will be testifying on behalf of LEAP, he said the main purpose of his testimony is to make legislators understand the importance of taking the drug out of the black market. He claims regulating cannabis will drastically affect the profit made by Mexican drug cartels and decrease the number of under age children using the drug. "When you legalize the drug you take it out of the underground market where it is controlled and regulated by criminals. They [criminal drug dealers] can decide to sell it to thirteen year-old kids on our playgrounds," he said. Under the U.S Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is a schedule one drug. All schedule one drugs are considered to have a high potential for abuse. The Drug Enforcement Administration estimates there are over 97 million marijuana users in the United States.
By Anaridis Rodriguez -- March 1, 2010
Beacon Hill lawmakers will be battling it out over marijuana.
The Massachusetts legislature is considering a bill that would regulate and tax cannabis. This comes after Bay State residents voted to decriminalize possession of the drug.
Jack Cole is the executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a fifteen thousand member organization representing judges, lawyers and police officers advocating for the legalization of marijuana.
Cole is a retired New Jersey undercover narcotics agent. He said the regulation of the drug will not only inject 37 billion dollars into the U.S economy but will also aid officers in policing the streets for more serious offenses.
"Our police are spending so much time and energy chasing around these non-violent drug offenders," he said. "They no longer have time to protect our citizens from violent criminals, child molesters, things that really count," Cole said in a WERS interview.
Cole said in recent years the war against marijuana has shifted the focus of police departments across the nation.
"Police still fail to solve 40 percent of all the murders, 60 percent of the rapes and arsons and seventy five percent of the robberies," said Cole.
The Massachusetts Joint Committee on the Judiciary will be holding a public hearing this Tuesday. A hearing where Cole will be testifying on behalf of LEAP, he said the main purpose of his testimony is to make legislators understand the importance of taking the drug out of the black market.
He claims regulating cannabis will drastically affect the profit made by Mexican drug cartels and decrease the number of under age children using the drug.
"When you legalize the drug you take it out of the underground market where it is controlled and regulated by criminals. They [criminal drug dealers] can decide to sell it to thirteen year-old kids on our playgrounds," he said.
Under the U.S Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is a schedule one drug. All schedule one drugs are considered to have a high potential for abuse.
The Drug Enforcement Administration estimates there are over 97 million marijuana users in the United States.
