Marijuana.com

Lothar121

Drug Expert Says Proposed Law Would Increase Marijuana Use
Nick Bonham | The Pueblo Chieftain | 10/02/2006

Tom Gorman, a former undercover narcotics detective from California, said drug use in America is on the decline and voting to legalize an ounce or less of marijuana in Colorado would drive it back up.

Gorman, local director of the national High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area organization, brought that message to Pueblo last week.

Even though no one attended the night event at Pueblo Community College, Gorman, who now lives in Denver, discussed with Pueblo Police Chief Jim Billings what he sees as the problems of Amendment 44 which seeks to legalize possession of small amounts of pot.

"It's a bad law," Gorman said. "Drug use is down and this could have a reverse effect. I have spent my career trying to comfort families who have lost loved ones in accidents and deaths from people who were stoned."

Even if Colorado voted to legalize pot, federal law still classifies the drug illegal. The problem with the federal law, Gorman said, is enforcement.

"Oh, we have federal law, but it's not going to be enforced," Gorman said. "The federal government doesn't have the manpower. The DEA deals with tons and kilos of marijuana. They won't be able to enforce on these smaller amounts," of marijuana.

Gorman and Billings said that Pueblo is on law enforcement's drug-trafficking radar because of its location on Interstate 25 and its close proximity to ever-growing Colorado Springs.

The last large drug bust came in Oct. 2004 when Pueblo police played a role in toppling an international drug ring. Pueblo and Peyton, near Colorado Springs, were said to be hubs for a drug ring that stretched from El Paso, Texas, to Chicago and New York.

Code named Choque (Spanish for "crash"), the bust confiscated 5,000 pounds of cocaine and $11 million in suspected drug money from a ranch in Peyton. Twenty-nine federal indictments were handed out in the operation, lauded as one of the biggest drug investigations of that year.

Gorman said drug traffickers aren't the sole supporters of Amendment 44.

"It's people who have a real liberal view, who want government to stay out of their life," he said.

According to a handout produced by Guarding Our Children Against Marijuana, drug use among teenagers is down 20 percent from 2002, and drug use has dropped almost 50 percent from its popularity in the 1960s and 70s.

On the Net:

Stop Amendment 44: Stop44.com

__________________

Donate. Write. Make a difference.. Posting Guidelines | Marijuana Policy Project | NORML | DPA | Drug WarRant | Media Awareness Project

 

reggie_the_dog

Is drug use really in decline?

Or are less people admitting drug use?

Perhaps more people are using alcohol.

Nugget Lover

What about the much greater damage caused by alcohol, including drunk driving. Should we make alcohol illegal again because of that?

godfather

Darn those foolish demon children. Darn them to HECK!!!

I suppose "stoned" also can mean "drunk" now.

Buzzby

How does being a narc qualify someone as a drug expert? He might be a Drug War Expert...

This cracked me up! What if they gave an anti-pot lecture and nobody came? I hope this is indicative of how people are going to vote on November 8.

What does this have to do with marijuana? If the cops would stop focusing on marijuana they could interdict a lot more truly dangerous drugs.

Actually, that would be people with a real Libertarian view. Liberals tend to want a lot of government involvement. What's wrong with wanting to keep the government out of your hair?

Too bad nobody showed up to hear the "expert" tell them to vote against Amendment 44.

__________________

 

godfather

Somebody needs to inform them that their "who we are" section at the bottom of the page needs revising. It really doesn't make much sense. It is full of imagination though...

420godfather

...I agree buzz...what does 5000 lbs. of cocaine and 11 million bucks in drug money have to do with herb? IMO, if herb were legalized, the number of daily smokers would decline because it would no longer be "taboo" !

__________________
......420gf......

king cola

Maybe less people are getting caught with marijuana. You have one guy sayin marijuana use is declining and drug czars will tell you that it's on the rise. Then he talks of tons and kilos of pot that the DEA is busy focusing on, apparently theres still a lot of supply and demand for pot in America.

Legalizing a ounce of pot would be for adults, so what does this have to do with anything? The law is certaintly not protecting the kids when they go out and do something that aren't supposed to do such as smoke illegal marijuana and then have their futures ruined because of the law, not because of the pot. Even when a minor gets caught with possession of alcohol, atleast the penalty isn't as bad as it was when alcohol remained illegal under federal law. If pot is legalized, a teenager gets caught with it, arrest them for bein in possession of marijuana by a minor, if an adult is caught giving marijuana to a minor, charge them for giving marijuana to a minor, laws can still be enforced.

This guys answer is continue over crowding the prisons for drug offenders. We don't hear it enough that the prisons are over crowded, more than half the people in there are probably there because of drug use or drug dealing and a few marijuana farmers in jail for growing a plant.

I would like to know if Tom Gorman drinks alcoholic beverages or smokes cigarettes, if hes married does his wife use them? other family members? people he works with? They are allowed to because it's legal but then again you can't critize other people for using drugs even if they are illegal. Not everyone likes tobacco or alcohol and for those people they just choose to stay away from those products. In every town throughout the country not every single person uses those products because they are legal or not, they make their choices.