cannabisnews.com: Drug Bust Shows Rules of Supply and Demand! 





Drug Bust Shows Rules of Supply and Demand! 
Posted by FoM on April 16, 1999 at 10:53:32 PT
Source: Press Connects
If police seize 135 pounds of processed marijuana and arrest 22 people, there must be a large demand for the drug. It's a demand that won't go away and will probably be refilled.
Police seized enough marijuana Wednesday to get every man, woman and child in Binghamton - and a good number of their pets - stoned. So if you don't use drugs, you can likely look at your neighbor, the kid on the next block or the high-paid professional in the suburbs.Much of society might see drug trafficking and addiction as a problem limited to the poor, but Binghamton University criminologist Kevin Wright said nothing could be more wrong."Poor people tend to consume in public, while rich people tend to consume in private," Wright said. "If you look at the people on the street and in jail, they're usually poor people."If you look at the drug rehabilitation programs, though - especially the private programs that tend to cost a bit more money - it's not just poor folks anymore," Wright said.One place - and it's only one place - to find marijuana users is Binghamton University. Investigator Donald A. Chier said the number of drug-related arrests on campus - primarily for marijuana - has more than doubled in three years, to 71 arrests in 1998 from 34 in 1996. But "I can't honestly say it's because there's more drug available," he said."It's not like we just started prosecuting marijuana cases," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Miroslav Lovric, pointing to the 1994 prosecution of the Petcash brothers, a Harpursville family convicted of having distributed up to 1,400 pounds of marijuana through the Southern Tier.Lovric estimated that the retail value of the Petcash stockpile totaled almost $4 million. "Things now are no different than they were four or five years ago," Lovric said.Doug Stento, the coordinator of the Drug-Free Schools Program in the Binghamton City School District, said if there's an increase in demand for marijuana, "We're just not seeing it.""Alcohol is still the drug of choice" among young people, he said. "There may be a slight increase, but I haven't seen a huge upswing in marijuana use."Not that it's difficult to get, Stento added, and children are another market. "We've kind've let our guard down in the prevention area."A 1996 study of Broome County teen-agers showed that 30 percent of the 2,092 students surveyed had used some form of drug, other than alcohol, illegally. Of those kids, 26 percent of the 11th-grade boys and 20 percent of the 11th-grade girls used drugs either at least a few times a month or as often as every day. That survey is being updated, and new numbers should be available later this year.But the tendency continues into their college years, Binghamton University students said Thursday."A good majority of students use drugs, at least recreationally," said Andrew Farber, 20, a BU junior from Great Neck. "I think we don't hear about it as much as it exists.""You can go to any party, and it (marijuana) will generally be there if you're looking for it," said 20-year-old junior Mike Pasirstein of Parsippany, N.J.Wright said one survey concludes "graduating (college) seniors nationwide show a decrease in marijuana use." Wright added that this information is telling because the general consensus is that if younger people are using drugs less, then drug use is usually declining.Further, his own research does not conclusively indicate whether marijuana use has increased in relation to other drugs. What, then, could be behind the number of drug busts that have occurred recently in the Southern Tier?History shows marijuana is just one drug of choice in the Southern Tier: In 1994, 28 people were charged in a six-year, $8.5 million cocaine ring, culminating in the firebombing of Dell's Palaz in downtown Binghamton, killing the occupant of an upstairs apartment. A $1.6 million-a-month cocaine pipeline was broken in 1996 with the arrest of 22 people in connection with the James Pope cocaine ring. Over the course of the investigation, the amount sold would have been worth about twice as much as the City of Binghamton's $50 million budget. Twenty-eight people were arrested and $30,000 worth of crack cocaine was seized in Operation Western Roundup in 1997. Police stopped a three-year, $50 million cocaine ring with the arrest of 87 people in Operation Golden Road in 1997. The next year, another 94 people were arrested in Operation Golden Road II, again with cocaine."There has not been any change in our view to marijuana prosecution," Lovric said. "As we identify organizations and law enforcement works cases, we will prosecute them (offenders) especially when it comes to organizations or groups involved in transportation, and wholesale and retail distribution."Joseph F. Romani, a senior Broome County Assistant District Attorney who prosecutes a bevy of drug cases, said his office has consistently prosecuted marijuana cases. "I tend to see more 'hard' drugs like cocaine in my caseload," Romani said, "but whenever there is any drug possession or sale activity we know about, we will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law."Wright said much of the time, energy and money that is being spent on drug eradication is not being spent wisely. "If this (the current) strategy worked, we should see drug availability decreasing; instead it is increasing," Wright said. "If the strategy was working, we should see the price of drugs going up, but it's going down."Wright, who is against legalization, said more money needs to go into drug rehabilitation and prevention."If this was working, I would be all for it," Wright admitted. "I think law enforcement is doing a fine job, but enforcement is just not working."Staff intern Deandra Joannon contributed to this report
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on April 18, 1999 at 10:59:34 PT
Never ending war on people
Since I haven't been able to move around the Internet I'm glad I'm able to read your post. Evil always tries to win but it can't! Light always overpowers the dark! If you made any other comments I probably will miss them because of this hacking problem I'm having! Stay safe and we shall overcome! Thanks FoM!
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Comment #1 posted by Dr. Ganj on April 17, 1999 at 22:31:32 PT
          Never ending war on people
"but enforcement is just not working" Wow, is that ever an understatement!What is it going to take? Lock as many people up until we are bursting at the seams? Well, we're getting pretty close.The drug war is really getting old, and tired. I do sense that people are getting fed up with having all their rights being taken away, and change is coming. Maybe the year 2000 will make people think differently. Let us hope our rights will be returned to us soon. But remember, our rights won't be given, they'll have to be taken. By that I mean we're going to have to vote our way out of this mess.One last thought, if arrested, don't give up your rights as a defendant, take them to trial. Make them spend plenty. That way, in time, it'll break the system. Be strong, and know you have to live with yourself. Don't bargain with evil.Dr. Ganj 
http://www.famm.org
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