Why do feds get tough on marijuana but ignore hard drugs like crack & cocaine?

Question

Please do not insult my intelligence by saying that they do not. I would like to hear from a law enforcement official or from a lawyer/judge what it is about marijuana that makes it so much worse than heroine, EX, cocaine, crack, etc.

I don't drink, no other drugs, just pot that I get from my family. I don't harm anyone and no one gets hurt. I have no problems with my life.

My father does cocaine because drug tests don't pick it up on urine samples. He also abuses alcohol, has saught both drug and alcohol treatment numerous times, and will likely die when his kidney/liver explode from being pushed to the brink for the last 40 years. His alcohol drove him to physically abuse my mother, mentally abuse me, and use his influence to create theatrical lies about me to the rest of my family in order to cut me out of the will; all because I would not accept his habits, and he saw it as a challenge.

I will restate the question: Why do feds grab up all the marijuana but leave the harder drugs on the streets?

As a "pothead" I am downright outraged at all these commercials about how terrible smoking cigarettes is, about how "this is your brain on drugs", and all this other garbage... as if I needed a reminder of truly "bad influence" that federal law enforcement simply does not seem to grasp, and I am not alone.

Do your freakin job.

Answer 1

Oh, I didn't know you had access to arrest records and sentencing reports. The reason why marijuana gets so much more publicity is that everyone that gets busted with it, whines about how it should be legal and cries about the minor misdemeanor punishment they will get. Possession of crack or meth or heroin will most assuredly get you arrested on the spot, a scenario that will not always happen with marijuana    

Answer 2

You mistake the harmlessness of pot and assume the greater harm of other drugs.  Smoking marijuana is, while not addictive, just as much an escape as the use of any other drug.  It does not solve problems.  It makes them seem to go away for a while.  The smoke from a joint is just as irritating to the lungs as the smoke from a cigarette.  Although pot is not as bad or as strong as the others, it is still illegal and the laws against it are no more enforced than the laws against other drugs.

Answer 3

i simply agree with you and i mainly think f.b.i are more after the big time dealer with money cash and property values to sell ?   they burn pot but not cash ?   i wonder if they keep some of the big cash for them self ?  i,m sure the rest of the money is to support the f.b.i operation ?   other drugs are to small and cost alots to catch ?  which one would you catch ?   small fish or big fish !  

Answer 4

One reason the Federal authorities pursue and prosecute marijuana cases is because it remains illegal under Federal Law, where as many States have decriminalized small amounts of marijuana.  This is a conflict of law issue.

Cocaine and other narcotics are pursued more commonly by local law enforcement.  But large quantities usually end up in Federal court.  

Answer 5

remember, the cops have the best dope.

Don't smoke myself, but most of the people I know who do are very smart. They also tend to radical left politics. So, if the government arrests 'em they can take away their right to vote (as a felon) and dismiss their ideas as the ramblings of a druggie.

Answer 6

You're right...I have never seen police arrest someone for "hard drugs" nor have I ever seen anyone in federal court for possession or distribution of hard drugs.

Oh wait....Except for all these people I see being arrested for that, not to mention our local federally funded drug task force that focuses only on methamphetamine.  

Answer 7

Well my guess is that because it is so widely used that there is many more cases that they can claim to have prevented or something along those lines.

Answer 8

All drugs should be legalized- period.  The majority of violence associated with the drug trade is because the drugs are illegal in the first place, causing their prices to be much higher than they would without the criminalization.  This leads to crime to try and obtain the large amounts of money needed to purchase the drugs.

As it happens, we have a part of our American history that we can look upon for evidence of what happens when a mind-altering substance is criminalized.  It's called prohibition from the 1920's.  Alcohol was made illegal, prices skyrocketed, organized crime skyrocketed and it was a miserable failure.  Fast forward 60 years to Reagans "War on Drugs" and we see the exact same thing.

A HUGE part of the jobs created in law enforcement are due to drug law enforcement.  It is useless to ask law enforcement to objectively evaluate drug laws because so much of their job security is based on the fact that the drugs are criminalized.  That isn't to say that they aren't brave men and women doing a valuable job, it simply states that many don't have much objectivity on the issue.  Also, it is the voters, the politicians, the prosecutors office, etc. which set the agenda for the police.  So much of the blame can be placed on those parties.

I won't even get into the financial costs to our country of criminalizing drugs or the fact that criminalizing them is violating citizen's personal liberties.  That would take too much time.

(For the record, I don't use drugs.)

Answer 9

The real reason is that people believe pot is the gateway drug. I am not saying I do or do not agree with that because I have seen it both ways. I have seen people smoke for years and never graduate to harder drugs, but I have also seen people start with pot and move on the bad stuff. With officials looking at it this way they think they can stop the kids from getting into coke, etc., by stopping the pot.

Answer 10

You answered your own question:  marijuana is easily detected, some of the harder drugs are not.  Add to that the fact that it is usually the more affluent who can afford coke and you have a good second reason:  money talks.  Drug agents know that the affluent can hire better attorneys and their cases can be bargained down to misdemeanors, thrown out on many possible technicalities, and just like everyone else, they want success, which means a winnable case.