Is It Worth It For Marijuana To Be Illegal in Texas?

Yeah, another annoying “legalize pot” article. Actually, I am just basing my opinion off facts. I have always believed marijuana should be legalized, but for reasons other than the facts I am about to present. Those “other reasons” might be written about another day, but today I am going to focus on the statistics. The statistics presented are from 2014, so keep that in mind.

How Often Does A Crime Occur?

This is a question that many people might ask. Unfortunately, it is a very vague question. To gain a better understand, let’s get more specific.

1 robbery occurs every 17 minutes in Texas

1 aggravated assault and 1 car theft happen every 8 minutes in Texas

1 burglary every 3 minutes

1 larceny theft every 55 seconds

Let’s focus on the aggravated assault and car thefts. One of each occurs every 8 minutes. Although there is an aggravated assault every 8 minutes, only over 40% occurs with a weapon. Whether a weapon is used in an aggravated assault case, most of the time, someone is seriously injured. This could mean anything from a broken bone all the way to being put into a coma. Victims in these cases usually need some of the quickest response.

There is a car theft every 8 minutes, but an arrest is only made every 120 minutes (2 hours). That’s like if Jerry and 14 of his friends each go steal a car for themselves and only Jerry gets arrested for it.

So how often does someone get arrested for marijuana?

Since any kind of substance possesion is a victimless crime (unless you OD on something, then you’re outta there), then nobody is going to report it. The only way you will get reported from carrying some sort of illegal substance is if you carry it out in the open like an idiot, but even then the chances someone would report that ‘crime’, are likely low. That being is said, it is hard to pin-point how many criminal offenses of possesion of marijuana (sec. 481.121) are actually occuring. This is unlike offenses of aggravated assault and motor vehicle thefts because people actually report those crimes far more often.

In 2014, 67,196 people in Texas were arrested in Texas for Marijuana, 8% of those were juveniles. This is equivalent to someone being arrested every 8 minutes for marijuana. Remember what else happens every 8 minutes? Aggravated assaults and motor vehicle thefts happen every 8 minutes.

So what does that mean?

It means that the the law enforcement in Texas is spending too much time arresting people for marijuana when the time could be better spent on catching more serious offenders. Many police officers are doing their job because they have a family to feed, but that is why we must push for new leglislation to be presented in the State of Texas that decriminalizes marijuana.

Matt

Sources:

http://dps.texas.gov/crimereports/14/citCh2.pdf

http://dps.texas.gov/crimereports/14/citCh9.pdf

I am interested in working with the left and right wing citizens of Texas to bring forth legislation that would decriminalize marijuana for the sake of the victims of other crimes and for the sake of our inmate population. If interested, please contact me: matthew@matthewfain.com