Massachusetts worst in country for pot busts.

[MannyGoldstein]

Turns out our Commonwealth cops are asleep on the job: Massachusetts ranks dead last among states in the arrest rate for marijuana posession.

It's grim.

We're last at 18 arrests per 100,000 residents. And we have a long, long way to go to even catch up with second-worst Hawaii, at 106.

Best in the country is, make no mistake, Wasington DC, at 846. Law and order, baby! NY is #2, at 535; the miscreants far above Cayuga's waters probably account for most of that number.

We should have known: electing that difficult woman to the Senate would shred the fabric which holds our society together. We must do better.

Regards,

Third-Way Manny

[MADem]

1. It's not an "arrestable" offense, unless you're carrying a ton of weed on you.

They write you a ticket and steal your stash and send you on your way. It's decriminalized.

I thought you lived in MA-you don't know the law?

http://norml.org/laws/item/massachusetts-penalties-2?category_id=865

Possession for Personal Use
Possession of 1 ounce or less of marijuana is decriminalized and is punishable as a civil offense. If the offender is over the age of 18 they must pay a fine of $100. Offenders under the age of 18 must pay a $100 fine and must attend a drug awareness program. Possession of less than an ounce of marijuana cannot result in denial of public financial assistance or the right to a driver's license.

See:

Mass. Gen. Laws. ch. 94C, § 32L ....

They really should just legalize it.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. That's just terrible.

But New York's laws are even more lenient on these "tokers", and their arrest rate is 2500% higher.

Somehow, NY is able to overcome its handicap; we can, too.

(In all seriousness - I'm wild-guessing that it would be legalized if a relevant case ever hit the SJC. Perhaps they never got a relevant case because their are so few arrests.)

[MADem]

4. NY has stop and frisk, we don't. The S/F laws cause the cops to pull out the weed and then accuse

the person who was (to my mind, unconstitutionally) stopped with the crime of having the weed out in public.

That's all in your link, there.

They need to legalize it and tax it. It would make for a great revenue stream.

[Scuba]

3. Maybe Mass residents don't get high?

Yeah, that's it.

[MADem]

5. You can't throw a rock in Boston without hitting a college or a university!

I don't think that's the answer....

[In_The_Wind]

6. lol

[pipi_k]

7. We do, but...

not in the usual way.

Why do you think we all love our New England clam chowder so much?

Those aren't Bay Leaves and Oregano in that stuff...