Homeless in Arizona

If Sheila Polk had here way the medical problem of an ingrown toenails would be solved instead of by going to the doctor, but by having the cops come out and break your doors down and arresting you.

The reason Sheila Polk wants to keep marijuana illegal is because the "War on Drugs" pays her and her police friends big bucks to arrest people for victimless marijuana crimes.

I just noticed that Sheila Polk seems to have switched gears to avoid saying that marijuana arrests accounts for for more them 50% of the arrests for victimless drug war crimes by saying:

"Right now, only about three percent of marijuana users are ever arrested"

I have seen two statistics both which allegedly came from the ACLU. I don't know which one is right.

One statistic said that in the USA 50% of all the arrests are for marijuana.

The other statistic said that 50% of all the arrests for drug war crimes were marijuana arrests.

Source

4/20 Is Not a Day to “Celebrate”

Posted: Wednesday, April 20, 2016 8:00 am

Seth Leibsohn & Sheila Polk

The advocates of legalized marijuana like to party—and they want to upend a great many Arizona laws to increase the means by which they can inebriate themselves. Today, (4/20), they “celebrate” an unofficial holiday, strutting to show how fun marijuana can, and why it should, be legal.

At least they’re consistent. Their “campaign to regulate marijuana like alcohol” makes as little sense as celebrating more and more drug overdoses—for where marijuana is legal, that is what we are seeing, especially child overdoses. This, among other reasons, is why we oppose making more available a drug that steals futures, breaks families, harms businesses, and makes our roads and communities less safe.

We ask the East Valley community to simply and soberly consider the facts. In marijuana-friendly states, the number of children accidently ingesting the drug increased over 600 percent–and the increase is accelerating, according to a recent report in the journal Clinical Pediatrics.

Most of those children swallowed marijuana. Pot-laced candies and chocolates look no different than ones in which the most dangerous ingredient is sugar. If recreational marijuana wins at the ballot in November, you can expect more Arizona children to be exposed to these dangerous candies. Who can rightly celebrate that? Adults are being hurt, too. Emergency room visits attributed solely to marijuana more than doubled in recent years, according to a recent analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association/Psychiatry. [The WORST overdoes from marijuana causes nothing more then a good nights sleep]

Legalizing marijuana doesn’t make us safer, and the initiative likely to be on the Arizona ballot in November only adds to the dangers of daily life.

Today it is illegal for any driver without a medical marijuana card to have marijuana in his system, just as it is illegal for a driver to blow a .08 BAC or above. The proposed initiative, however, would weaken the ability to prosecute any marijuana-impaired driver by prohibiting prosecution based on a per se limit, thus encouraging marijuana-impaired teens to get behind the wheel. [That's an absolute LIE. None of the initiatives that have a chance at passing allow teenagers to use marijuana. Nor do any of them allow driving while stoned.]

Beyond this, marijuana violations would be punished far less severely than similar alcohol violations. For instance, the use of a fake ID to purchase marijuana would be a petty offense rather than the Class One misdemeanor it is for alcohol. [Again that is a LIE. Most of the penalties from the MPP (Marijuana Policy Project) initiative, which Sheila Polk usually attacks are FELONIES, compared to most liquor violation being misdemeanors. On the other hand most of the AZfmr violations are petty misdemeanors with a $300 fine]

That’s guaranteed to put more impaired drivers on the road and more innocents in emergency rooms.

And there is this perverse effect they fail to recognize: Legalization doesn’t free more time for police and prosecutors to focus on serious crimes. It makes it harder. [Again that's a lie!!! Cops tend to focus on marijuana users because they are long hanging fruit and easy to arrest]

Right now, only about three percent of marijuana users are ever arrested, and usually because they’ve done much more than smoke a joint. There are far more arrests for alcohol violations today –because alcohol is legal and readily available. If we “regulate marijuana like alcohol,” the number of marijuana arrests will increase. Police will be forced to spend more time on it.

As Colorado and Washington have shown us, the black market for marijuana doesn’t end with legalization. Rather, illicit sales will become more difficult to prosecute and will further tax law enforcement as increased marijuana growth and sales create a greater market, legal and illegal. This is only the beginning. The initiative would also allow adult households to grow up to 12 marijuana plants, enough to produce thousands of marijuana joints. We are not talking possession of “small amounts.”

For that matter, with marijuana edibles such as gummy bears and lollipops sitting side-by-side with non-marijuana gummy bears and lollipops, how will personal possession laws be enforced? Drug dealers are celebrating over the youth health policy nightmare legalization would usher in.

We’d rather celebrate the Phoenix and East Valley areas’ one-of-a-kind attractions like the various arts centers and Superstition and McDowell mountains.

Marijuana does not enhance anyone’s enjoyment of the best of East Valley. It only makes all our communities less safe. Why would anyone want a holiday for that?

*Seth Leibsohn is the Chairman of Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy (ARDP.org) and the host of the Seth Leibsohn Show, heard nightly on KKNT/960AM. Sheila Polk is the Vice-Chair of ARDP and the Yavapai County Attorney.