But pot legalization is as much about rolling back the police state the drug war has brought with it. It has been, along with central banking, the biggest expander of real corruption in America over the past two generations, turning peace officers into law enforcement and militarizing the police to fight an ever-escalating war to stop a black market.
There are still plenty of pot-related arrests, raids and budget line-items in small towns all across this country. And that vector of corruption would end so we can begin working on some of the others.
For sure cannabis legalization was envisioned and has functioned as a tool of racial and social suppression. Ending it is a good start but I wouldn't expect it to have much impact on the cartels though as they have already shifted their business model to other products. We really need to legalize all drugs if we want to put a dent in them.
I agree and I think we are all on the page in that the drug war has been used as a tool of control by the powerful against the vulnerable people. I'm for taking away as much of that said power away from those who would use force against anyone. I would love to trust the police again but time after time these drug raids and endless busts show me things need to change before I can feel safe around them though. A good start would be changing the proactive policies they have and have them only respond to citizen complaints rather than them stirring up / looking for trouble in poor neighborhoods.
just remember that for every abuse of power you hear about there are millions of other cops not abusing their power. And we have all these cameras these days, the police will be only as corrupt as we allow them to be. The police didn't make drugs illegal or enact gun control. They only enforce the stupid racist laws that the legislatures we elect make. I lived in a neighborhood where there were loads of gangs and drugs being openly sold, the police started hanging out more and all of that went away, it improved the neighborhood a lot. Poor neighborhoods are where people openly sell drugs and where 99% of the murders happen, that's where the cops should be. People who claim that is racist are pushing division and lies.
I have police in my family, my dad was NYPD and my cousin was NYPD Emergency services (i..e.Quanitco-trained sniper). And I can tell you the corruption is deep because of the systems in place.
Of course not all police are corrupt, but the systems, the experiences and the economics perverts everyone's perception over time. And that is what we have to change.... the systems into which we put good men who decide to become public servants.
That's our responsibility and we can and should support the roll back of them. It's not going to get better by doubling down on enforcement... it's enforcement that creates the corruption. Trust that people are better than that, because they generally are.
If cops didn't have drug and gun laws to enforce, like if a young man was allowed to ride around with a bag of weed and a pistol, then they would not have much to harass people about and could focus on actual crimes. And of course then there would be far fewer police needed and then far less police misconduct and corruption.