General public Is Concerned about Marijuana Legalizing

Hartford, C.T. - there is some misunderstanding: while there are those who simply shelter their activity under medical marijuana, few people go into custody for possessing small amounts of pot, so it is appropriate to ask why is the state expending millions to arrest and prosecute rehabilitation users and give them a criminal previous convictions?

The Connecticut General Assembly should succeed Massachusetts' lead and readjust possession of less than one ounce of marijuana from a criminal misdemeanor to a transgression. Gov. M. Jodi Rell is searching for considerable methods to save money. There is one.

As the Office of Fiscal Analysis announced, there were 9,928 marijuana custodies in Connecticut in 2007, displaying 7 percent of aggregate arrests statewide, and somewhere one-third of those incorporated in possession of less than an ounce of pot. Moreover the OFA stated that there is the way to accumulate $11 million in reduced police, court and attorney costs by means of turning those small-possession incidents infractions, the same as getting a speeding ticket. Consequently, with fines ranging up to $121, it could generate $320,000 in revenue. A small-time marijuana user can now be sent to prison for a year and fined $1,000.

As the experience indicates, only insignificant part of those who got jail time were captured for inconspicuous amount of marijuana and had guilty of no other crime, usually they have already been not first offenders. That is a rough penalty to pay for recreational use. That is why legalization is considered to be the most reasonable and logical decisions, which will give an opportunity to eliminate the criminal defendant from the marijuana business, reproduce tax revenues and render accredited regulation to avoid lacing of the drug with other substances. But until possession remains a federal crime that activity is impossible to fulfill.

Publicity expresses greater interest than the politicians about the problem. Barack Obama when being a president conducted the first online chat on Thursday, during which the predominant majority of asked questions was whether marijuana should be legalized, taxed and regulated to end the massive black market supporting it. As far as the president is concerned, that is not a good direction to create the economy.

In the nation's federalist system the states often serve as incubators of new and different ideas. Time will tell how decriminalization works. If it doesn't reproduce junker man distraction, maybe then it will be time for a discussion on legalization.