The cops in Verona, Virginia have a problem.
It’s been nearly three months since the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office made its biggest marijuana seizure in the department’s history when it grabbed 1,840 pounds of packaged dope hidden inside a truck at American Safety Razor’s industrial division headquarters in Verona.
However, the marijuana, each 23-pound bale triple-wrapped in tinfoil, brown shipping paper and plastic, remains stacked inside a locked evidence room at the sheriff’s office, the space permeated by the pungent odor of the illegal drug.
They can’t figure out what to do with it. They used to bury it in a landfill, but this much might encourage “gophers.”
Sheriff Randy Fisher said he tried to offer the marijuana to a federal agency for training purposes, but noted “they have all they need.”
No kidding.
Fisher said he’s now leaning toward incinerating the entire stash, but he declined to name where and when that would take place.
I’m suggesting the middle of the public square at about 8 pm on Friday night. Invite the entire town to watch. Note the reduction in violence that weekend.
While it’s an amusing predicament, there were some ridiculous statements by police that also caught my attention:
While acknowledging that many users who smoke marijuana don’t go on to abuse harder drugs, [Police Chief Jim] Williams noted it’s still considered a gateway drug.
“It seems to me not too many people start snorting cocaine first. It’s usually marijuana or alcohol,” he said.
So… are you saying that alcohol is a gateway drug? Or that the term “gateway drug” doesn’t really mean much?
Chief Doug Davis of the Waynesboro Police Department agrees marijuana is a gateway drug, and said he would support neither legalizing nor decriminalizing it.
“I don’t see where the difference is,” Davis said. “I think, like alcohol, it needs to be controlled.”
What? (I think my head exploded trying to make sense of that.) Marijuana is just like alcohol and should be controlled, therefore marijuana should remain illegal and unregulated, while alcohol is legal and regulated.
Howard Wooldridge in the comments nails them:
Chiefs Davis and Williams prefer that criminals ‘control’ the sale of MJ instead of the Commonwealth controlling it by putting it in a ABC type store. Again, we -the cops -would lose 99% of the money, when such a thing happens.
Illegal doesn’t mean unregulated, illegal means overregulated.
@Distributed Scrutinizer — I disagree. Illegal means that there is no regulation in terms of age, quality control, place of distribution, who is selling, when/where it can be used, or anything else. Illegal merely means prohibited. There is no real regulation or control. In fact, it is a ceding of control to the traffickers.
One of the things that we, as legalizers, can do to help people see the need for reform is to help them understand that legalization is not the act of giving up control, but rather of taking it back.
Pete you nailed it legalization is taking control. It would reduce teenage use dramaticly similar to how regulating tobacco and alchol does. Theres a reason why 40% of seniors have tried it because drug dealers don’t ID. My head exploded also when i read that quote. Had to reread it several times. Still baffled by it.
Just a suggestion for what to do with that 1800 lbs of confiscated marijuana,have it tested for harmful chemicals and if it is clean,use it to start up VA’s m/m program.
Pete makes a great point about giving back control. The quotes blog my mind as well bobreaze.
Give an idiot enough rope.
Thanks for nailing them Howard.
That “controlled like alcohol” line made me think of this pdf I read some time ago (link).
It explains some kind of “compartmentalised thinking” I believe it was called, which lets people hold mutually exclusive ideas by storing them in different “drawers” of the mind, without contact with each other. Thereby they can use the word “control” in one sentence with two radically different meanings.
When I first read the text, the thought that came to me immediately was: “Finally I understand. So THIS is what Orwell had in mind when he coined the term “doublethink”.”
May I offer my services by suggesting that the Verona, Virginia cops make a donation to the “Make Kozmo filthy rich” fund. 😉 I’d be more than happy to help them out.
um im not as smart as all of you guys/girls but yea petes right and so is bobreaze if we took control or tryed to make people see like um open there eyes maybe we could ligaliz itand yea kids dont get ID for buying some cause well dealers kinda dont care its about making money you know and if anything alcohol is the thing that needs to be illegal well if you ask me weed is saffer but smoke and drive people you feel me