According to the Inquirer, 53,313 drug tests were administered by the Philadelphia adult probation department in 2018.
The majority of those tests were negative for any drug — but among the failed screens, about half were positive for marijuana alone, according to court data. That’s more than 11,000 tests flagged just for weed.
Now, there are a couple of problems with this, and im sure most of you readers will agree. First, how is it even humane to penalize a person by way of incarceration on something that is legal.
Prohibitionist laws waste billions of dollars criminalizing marijuana users, even for low-level offenses. Black people and Latinos are disproportionately arrested for marijuana even though white people use marijuana at similar rates.
Prohibition fosters an illegal marijuana market that benefits organized crime, drug cartels and gangs. Extremely ill patients are unable to access beneficial medical marijuana treatment. Is it not a waste of tax payer dollars. Trying to make money off of people smoking weed through taxes, but using the same money to lock people up. There are indeed numerous unfathomable instances where the insidiousness of these laws and statutes have been less then favorable even inside judicial settings that promise the courtesy of a fair trail.
For instance; take Common Pleas Court Judge Scott DiClaudio who is still punishing probationers for the use of marijuana without a medical card in PA.
Read the stories of many of Philadelphia‘s citizens caught up in the Probation Trap here
