Criminalization Creates Criminals

I got into a very small, very interesting conversation on Twitter yesterday. Someone simply stated that “smoking doesn’t make me a criminal.” I replied that, technically speaking, smoking marijuana does indeed make you a criminal.

It may not make you a bad person, but the law is the law.

And that’s a problem for more than just our selfish reasons. Sure, the desire to smoke legally, without fear of having your kids and possessions taken away would be really nice (and much deserved). But there’s a bigger issue here.

And that’s the state of our country in regard to the perception of our law enforcement.

They Aren’t Bad Guys

If you think about it, cops aren’t bad guys. They are just guys doing a job. I don’t mean this in a negative way, but they are little more than pawns in the legal system. So yeah, it sucks that they pull you over and give you a ticket, but they are just following orders.

That’s closer to the truth of the situation than it is the reality. In reality, we collectively hate cops for knocking down our doors, hauling friends and family members to jail and breaking up families. We hate that they take us down for responsibly taking part in an action that doesn’t hurt anyone around us, but helps to relive the stress of our daily lives.

We Abide By The Law (Well, Except That One)

Right or wrong, marijuana use is illegal. But it’s a law that is broken by millions of Americans every day, and substantially more at least once in their lifetime. But other than that, most marijuana smokers are rather law-abiding. They pay taxes, they take care of their families and they help their neighbor with their lawn (even though we work all week and really don’t want to deal with it on a nice Saturday morning).

Sure, we speed sometimes, or throw a piece of garbage out the window, but generally we don’t kill, rape or beat people up all the time.

It isn’t difficult to find a resident of your local county jail who has no priors, no history of violence or criminality, but has found himself sleeping in a small bunk for up to a year for possession. Now he’s a “criminal.”

Bad Timing

Do you know why airplane crashes are such a big deal on T.V.? Because they are so rare relative to successful flights. When an accident finally occurs, it’s a big deal. But, it looks bad when you see a few of them in a few month’s time. In reality, flying is still pretty safe, but too many pictures of burning debris strewn about the ground and you start to consider walking as a means of transportation.

This is the same thing with cops, and the timing is pretty bad. With the advent of camera phones, we are seeing more and more instances of “cops gone wrong.” From harassing EMTs to beating the hell out of 15 year old girls, cases of police brutality are all over the Internet.

However, though I have no numbers to back this up, I feel like this is a case of perception rather than reality. I feel like there are way more “good” cops than bad. Just as there are way more “good” marijuana smokers than bad.

A Dis-Respect For The Law

Tie these 3 thoughts together, and you have a large group of people that begin to dis-respect the law on a larger level, thus promoting further illegal activity, however minor.

We are constantly playing in an underground industry, forcing us to deal with people to whom we wouldn’t otherwise even converse. We have to hide our stash when driving, and are constantly looking in the mirror to see if the “fuzz” is onto us for that joint in the ash tray (Hint: don’t keep your joint in the ash tray, or any other location in plain view).

We start to regard cops as “them” instead of “us.” I don’t like murderers. I would like to think of cops as on the same side as I. But I can’t help to think of the harassment cases when I see a cop on the side of the road. I can’t help think “that dick is just waiting to bust some guy with a joint.” And that’s a real problem.

It’s Time To Come Together

I know this sounds cliche, but for as long as we divide this country into opposing sides on so many issues we only hurt ourselves. When we finally get marijuana legalized, millions of people will have few excuses to look at cops as enemies. The underground trade of marijuana distribution will diminish, lowering crime rate all around (I do have numbers for this statement, but I want to keep this post as a “thought provoker” than another war of statistics).

We will be able to free the time our cops usually spend taking some guy into jail, filling out paperwork and stressing tax dollars just to hold him. That time could be used to find the guy that took my buddy’s license plate. Or perhaps spend a few extra man hours on the thousands of kids that go missing every year. Or maybe solve that rape or murder case.

In the end, our cops are just doing their jobs. But right now, a large chunk of that job is hurting everyone involved whether you use marijuana or not. And in the end, by keeping marijuana illegal we aren’t getting rid of criminals, we are creating them.