Violent Crimes Associated With Medical Marijuana

The late Jimmy Wheeler, a medical marijuana patient in Washington, created this artwork. Now a proposed patient protection bill will be named in his honor..

There is an idea floating around that Marijuana is a harmless drug that escapes the violent world that is associated with other drugs. When people think of Marijuana, they hardly think of guns, murder, and robbery; sadly, those three things all play a part in the billion dollar marijuana industry. Washington's medical marijuana advocates and law officials are claiming that the violent crimes associated with medical marijuana in the last week are unprecedented. Marijuana is a valuable commodity that people will try and exploit if they see an opportunity to score. Marijuana lives in a gray area within state laws, people think that growers will not call the police if they get robbed even though they are producing an illegal substance. That being the case, growers will fight to the death to protect their crop as is seen in the case of a man in Orting, Wash., near Tacoma, who "died after he reportedly was beaten while confronting people trying to steal marijuana plants from his property", according to the New York Times. On Monday, a man was shot while trying to rob a prominent medical-marijuana activist near Seattle. People are starting to wonder if this kind of violence will only get worse.

Steve Sarich, who runs a group called CannaCare out of his house in the Seattle area, shot one of the five individuals who attempted to rob his home on Monday while also being peppered himself by shotgun fire himself. Police arrested the five the very next day on robbery charges in connection with the shooting. The New York Times reports that, "In both cases, the victims appear to have been chosen because they were known to have relatively large amounts of marijuana in their homes. They say the crimes underscore conflicts in state policy that have become evident since Washington legalized medical marijuana in 1998". Sarich has been demanding that law officials protect the legal growers of medical marijuana; however, many growers are not following the law and growing much more than the allotted amount. Sarich himself had 385 plants in his house after the shooting on Monday; they were authorized to have 50 plants.

Why would the police protect the rights of people who are breaking the law? Sure, there is no reason why people should be robbed, but, how can growers expect to be protected if they break the law - a law that is murky to say the least.

Obama Administration Issues New Policy On Medical Marijuana

The marijuana question and the argument of legalization made a huge stride today in Washington. It seems as though every passing month brings new developments that are in favor of legalization; if people are following state law then they are relatively free of any federal punishment. Obama administration issues new policy on medical marijuana. "The Obama administration delivered new guidance on medical marijuana to federal prosecutors Monday, signaling a broad policy shift that will mean fewer crackdowns against dispensaries and the people who use them", according to the Washington Post. The idea is that federal prosecutors should focus on those growers who exploit state law and traffic drugs behind the veil of medical marijuana.

"It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal", said Attorney General Eric Holder. Obama's new policy raises a lot of questions about what kind of good will come of it; on one hand, every plant grown legally in the U.S. is another dollar that Mexican Cartels cannot get there hands on to fund their war. Obviously, taking money from the cartels is a good thing and may reduce the number of murders that happen everyday along the border. There are those who argue that giving addicts the ability to grow marijuana without the fear of punishment may increase addiction rates throughout the country.

Only time will tell whether the new policy will do more harm than good and there seems to be more people in favor of medical legalization then there are against it. The Mexican cartels should be the main focus of federal agents due to the violence that goes along with their business. the Washington Post reported that, "Tom Angell, a spokesman for the advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, said in an e-mail message that the shift appears to be a "major step" in the right direction". The new development in Washington is in no way an all out legalization of the drug, rather, it is simply put in place to guide investigators toward the more important cases where serious laws are being broken. What is the right answer in all of this remains unclear because the new policy has yet to be put to the test. Is less crime and more addiction the right path to take?

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