As officials debate issues like prison reform, medical marijuana and marijuana legalization, there’s a phrase that keeps coming up: “Nobody is in a California prison just for smoking pot.”
Not so fast, say California marijuana activists. In fact, marijuana arrests in California are up—way up. In fact, according to a new report from Jon Gettman, adjunct assistant professor in Criminal Justice at Shenandoah University, pot arrests rates in California have risen 127 percent since 1990—a faster rate than the nation as a whole, though our state still only ranks 38th in the rate of marijuana arrests.
“There’s a perception that marijuana has been de facto legalized in California,” according to Bruce Mirken, director of communications at the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). “Not so.”
In fact, it appears that law enforcement resources have been moved from other crimes and towards marijuana enforcement. According to a study released last month by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, “The unprecedented shift in California law enforcement priorities towards targeting the demand side of the drug war is clearly demonstrated by the extraordinary increase in the rate of arrests for misdemeanor possession (small quantity, less than one ounce) of marijuana.”
Jon Lovell, lobbyist for the California Peace Officers Association, claimed that legalizing marijuana- as would be called for under AB 390 by Asm. Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, or by an initiative likely to be on the ballot next year- would create a far greater social toll than any savings in law enforcement would justify. He called marijuana carcinogenic, said it would lead to higher numbers of highway deaths, and claimed that legalization would cause an “exponential” growth in use.
Lovell also took on the idea that pot use was sending people back to prison, saying very few people were returned to custody for a parole violation of a positive marijuana test. He declined to take on the issue of whether or not pot was more or less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, saying it is irrelevant when you’re talking about adding another drug to the mix of legal harmful substances.
“The reality is, we are stuck with those products,” Lovell said. “Do I personally drink? No. Do I personally smoke? No.”
He added, “Enforcement has been working. Drug use among younger people has dropped.”
Nationwide, marijuana arrest rates have nearly doubled since 1991, a rise of about 6.5 percent a year. The number of marijuana users, about 25 million nationwide, has remained virtually unchanged.
Meanwhile, many states—including conservative red states like Mississippi and Nebraska—are experimenting in decriminalization. Gettman found that in the areas of California that have decriminalized marijuana saved $857 million in 2007.
Gettman also found that blacks were three times as likely as whites to be arrested, despite using it at only slightly higher rates. Marijuana laws that give vastly different penalties depending on the amount the person is arrested with influence people to buy small amounts over and over again, he found, pumping up the price on the black market.
The map below shows 2008 California marijuana arrest rates by county, according to Gettman’s report. The report covers all types of marijuana arrests, from simple possession to growing and distribution. As the map shows, different counties around California has taken very different approaches, whether they’re conservative areas, or parts of northern California known for marijuana use and cultivation.
Gettman notes that 80 percent of the 74,000 arrests were for simple possession, and in only 23 percent of these was the person taken into custody. Gettman said that he does not smoke marijuana himself.
Lovell said it is “disengenious” to call these cite-and-release incidents “arrests,” even though technically, they are. He also questioned Gettman’s numbers.
“I don’t believe him,” Lovell said. “He just has no credibility with me. Not that he’s dishonest. But he has a passion. The tobacco industry said for years that tobacco doesn’t cause cancer.”
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Goaded by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senate Pro Tem Darrel Steinberg, the legislature finally passed a comprehensive water package last week. The five bill package includes an $11 billion bond to pay for a Delta fix and a variety of other projects.
The package is also notable for what it doesn’t contain—money for a peripheral canal or surface storage (read: “dams,” see below). The administration said it already has the authority to build a canal, which large water wholesalers like the Metropolitan Water Authority and the Westlands Water District said they would pay for.
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The Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce held their annual Perspectives on Oct. 15. The annual conference always includes a diverse set of A-list speakers—past headliners range from Rush Limbaugh to Mikhail Gorbechev—and this year was no exception. View 5 photos »
Top text: In this week’s author’s corner, we feature an interview with Ian Shive, a nature photographer and author of the new book, “The National Parks: Our American Landscape.” Here are some shots from the book, including a couple from National Parks inside California. View 5 photos »
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In California this year is was marked by a high-profile dispute over funding domestic violence shelters. This summer, when he finally signed a record late budget, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger used his “blue pencil” to eliminate nearly all state funding from domestic violence shelters, part of about $700 million in cuts he made. Several shelters closed, and supporters feared dozens more would follow them, especially with local governments and charities tapped out by the financial crisis. View 5 photos »
The 42nd Annual Native American Day Celebration was held Sept. 25 at the Capitol. While previous recognitions have occurred at the Convention Center or Cal Expo, in recent years the event has occurred at the Capitol. It included numerous performances and informational booths, including displays by California Indian Legal Services and the National Indian Justice Center. Many of the groups that participated in native dress do not want to be photographed; the performers shown here gave permission. View 5 photos »
On A1 this week, we look at how the California Latino Water Coalition was created at the suggestion of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. That is the scenario outlined in a pamphlet printed by the Coalition earlier this year. In the “How We Began” section, it states that Schwarzenegger met with several Central Valley mayors “On March 21, 2007, at City Hall in the rural Fresno County community of Selma.” It goes on to say “It was Mr. Schwarzenegger who suggested that a Coalition be formed.” View 5 photos »
Various groups, agencies and officials around the state have been marking Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. The holiday marks the independence days of numerous Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, all on Sept. 15, as well as Mexico on Sept. 16 and Chile on Sept. 18. View 5 photos »
Last week, we ran a feature about how oil production works on Platform Irene. This rig is at the center of a controversial proposal to allow the first new oil lease in 40 years in state waters.
This week, we’re taking a look at what life is like for the guys on the rig—and yes, they are almost all guys. There are anywhere between 17 and 50 of them on the rig at a time, in shifts running one to two weeks. They sleep in cramped rooms with up to six guys on bunks. At any time, the rig could come alive with the sounds of moving equipment, generators or a helicopter landing on a platform just above their heads. For entertainment, there’s a big screen TV hooked up to a satellite dish and a bookshelf filled with paperbacks. Not that there’s that much time to kill. While onboard, workers are typically on the job for 12 hours a day. On the plus side, the views are pretty darn nice.
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Long before Texas and Alaska were known as the country’s big oil states, California was the center of the industry. This turn-of-the-century boom in Central and Southern California was brutally portrayed in 2007’s “There Will Be Blood.” My own drive down to Santa Maria two weeks ago took me past numerous oil derricks, some still operating, most not.
In 1969, a huge spill off the coast of Santa Barbara cooled the state’s enthusiasm for drilling. Some mark the event as the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Production continued in federal waters over three miles out, but no new state leases have been approved since then.
Now Texas-based Texas-based Plains Exploration & Production Company (PXP) has proposed using one of their platforms in federal waters to tap deposits further towards shore, in state waters. PXP has been pushing for the deal for months, putting together a proposal that would shutter some existing platforms early, donating land to the state for open space and even lining up the support of some environmental groups. Irene currently pumps about 7,000 barrels of oil a day from several wells slant-drilled under the ocean to the northwest. It estimates these new wells would up Irene daily production to 30,000 barrels a day.
But the bid hit a brick wall in the State Lands Commission in January. Even more environmental groups oppose the idea—including the Sierra Club, still listed by PXP as a supporter. Opponents claim key provisions of the PXP proposal are not legally enforceable, an interpretation backed up by an analysis from the Attorney General’s office. A GOP sponsored bill would have a created an alternative process for approving the project, but it went nowhere.
These photos come from a tour of Platform Irene I took on Sept. 2, paid for by PXP.
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California state government held a massive “garage sale” at a state warehouse on August 28 and 29. The event took in $1.6 million for the state. While there is an auction for surplus vehicles and some other items every six to eight weeks, this is only the second time they state has held an event like this. This first was in 2004.
“This is not something we do on a regular basis,” said Eric Lamoureux, communications director for the Department of General Services (DGS).
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Thousands of people gathered in Sacramento last Friday for the second Tea Party. The consensus was that Friday’s event was smaller than the huge “Tax Day” Tea Party on April 15, but it still drew a big crowd for the entire day.
While the first event was mainly a tax protest against the Wall Street bailout, this event focused on a wider range of issues of concern to conservatives. The Democratic “Obamacare” healthcare proposal in Congress was probably the most-widely discussed, followed by AB 32, the global warming emissions law signed by the governor in 2006 and now in the midst of implementation. Coming in a strong third was water concerns about the Sacramento Delta—and a desire to remove environmental regulations many protestors said were killing farms and putting fish over people.
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Last week, we looked at the “Million Boat Float” protest against a peripheral canal and other proposals that were part of a Democratic package of five bills debated in a joint hearing last week. This week, we’re taking a further look at some of the action around water. View 4 photos »
No, there weren’t a million boats. But opponents of a peripheral canal proposal were out in force around the Capitol on Sunday and Monday as part of a “Million Boat Float” against a plan to revamp California’s water system. A package of five bills went into print earlier this month that have the potential to revive the long-discussed idea of a “peripheral canal,” hundreds of miles long, that would transport water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta down to thirsty water users in Los Angeles. The protests came before a Tuesday joint Senate and Assembly hearing on the package.
Many are particularly concerned about SB 12 from Senator Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, which would create a body called the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Stewardship Council. Some are already comparing this as-yet non-existent body to the Coastal Commission, a powerful group that is often at odds with landowners along California’s coast.
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Last week, the state’s Natural Resources Agency released a new report full of recommendations for adapting to climate change. It corroborates what a lot of climate scientists have been saying—that the most dire consequences for our state could come in the form of water: too much on the coast, not enough inland.
The report calls on the state to reduce water use by 20 percent by 2020, in order to mitigate the likely loss of water from snowpack and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, among other sources. Other key areas of the report include planning for sea level rise in coastal areas and preparing for fire seasons that are likely to grow far worse.
The agency has scheduled two public meetings seeking comment on the report. The first is today, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Sacramento at the Food and Agriculture Building, 1220 N. St. Participants can also call in via a conference number, 1-877-536-5793, pass-code 344390. A second meeting will be scheduled in the Los Angeles area later this year.
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