DEA Agent: Lax Colorado Laws Welcome More Organized Crime
cbs4denver.com - DEA Agent: Lax Colorado Laws Welcome More Organized Crime
DENVER (AP) ? A Drug Enforcement Administration agent says softer laws on drugs mean an increase in organized crime in Colorado. The DEA says it’s a direct result of changes in Colorado’s drug laws.Organized crime groups and the drugs they deal are moving into Colorado at a quicker rate.
“I think they believe it’s a good market and I think the case could be made that it is a good market,” said Jeffrey Sweetin, the DEA special agent in charge of Colorado.
Sweetin said it’s in part because of Denver’s law making marijuana legal in small amounts and a state-wide initiative to legalize medical marijuana.
The DEA says when it comes down to it, statistics show marijuana is the most widely abused drug in Colorado.
Actually, I believe the most widely abused drug in Colorado is Coors Light. Oh, wait, sorry, alcohol doesn’t count, even though it killed 207 Colorado drivers in 2006. And to prove that there is an increase in organized crime, Special Agent Sweetin pulls figures from the Department of Right Outta My Ass.
It’s hard to understand how Denver’s law allowing personal possession has enticed organized crime, since Denver police are ignoring that law and arresting cannabis consumers anyway under state law.
The only enticement to organized crime is the continued prohibition of marijuana that makes it very profitable for criminals to sell. The only way Colorado’s medical marijuana program could possibly contribute to that is due to the fact that there is no legal medical marijuana distribution system, so patients are forced to buy from the black market.
Do you really want to deal a blow to organized crime? Tax and regulate marijuana like we do whiskey and force the criminal in the dark alley to compete with a safe legal liquor store.
Tags: Colorado
April 17th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
I live in south-west Colorado. It wasn’t until March 2007 that I discovered that Colorado had passed decriminalization and medical marijuana laws (in 2000). I never noticed anything had changed, just life as usual. The east-slope must be in a different world.
Or, maybe it’s just me.