Reply #15: so they'll go after pot smokers...but cut the budget for Drug Trafficking

[maddezmom]

Police Critical of Cuts to Anti-Drug Network
Updated: Friday, Jun. 24, 2005 - 6:09 AM

BALTIMORE (AP) - Local law enforcement officials decried budget cuts proposed by the Bush administration to a national network of drug-interdiction task forces, including one that provided more than $12 million to the Baltimore-Washington area this year.

Members of the Maryland State Police, Baltimore Police Department and the Charles County Sheriff's Department joined a bipartisan group of senators and representatives on Capitol Hill Thursday to protest President Bush's recommendations to cut funding for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area programs by more than half.

Under the administration's budget, funding would be reduced from $227 million to $100 million for the coming fiscal year.

Thomas H. Carr, director of the Washington-Baltimore regional program, said he has been told that the cuts would mean the end of his $3.5 million drug treatment program for nonviolent offenders offered at 12 sites, including Baltimore City and Baltimore County.

http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=25&sid=535239