Sadly, pot dealing Long Beach looks less like this and more like downtown Kabul
It?s the oft-heard cry of the pro-marijuana set: ?legalise or decriminalise cannabis and all the crime will go away.? Well, California has tried it and some people don?t agree. Particularly the poorer, non-Caucasian folks who have to live where it?s sold. You know, the people that liberals are supposed to care about?
News has just broken that?Los Angeles is moving to crack down on ?pot shops? that have opened up since California effectively decriminalised marijuana in 2010. There are roughly 900 marijuana dispensaries operating in the city ? outnumbering Starbucks in some neighbourhoods. I lived in West Hollywood for a fair bit last year and never spotted a single one in this rich, white enclave. Head to Venice Beach or Long Beach and it?s like you?ve walked onto the animated set of Yellow Submarine.
Jose Huizar, a Councilman for Long Beach, is concerned about the number of dispensaries that have appeared near schools, hospitals and other sensitive areas in his district. Ordinances have been introduced to control where they are built, but Los Angeles has failed to enforce them (partly because the status of the drug in California conflicts with Federal law). The result is that the pot shops have introduced yet more crime into already troubled neighbourhoods. You don?t have to have Rick Santorum?s prissiness to recognise that places that sell mind altering substances tend to ?lower the tone.?
The reason is that wherever you find business associated with vice, you get criminal activity. The production of hard core porn is legal in Los Angeles, but it still has a strong association with organised crime because the folks who make those movies, or buy them, tend to like drugs, booze and violence, too. The famous 1986 Meese Report, commissioned by the Reagan administration, found a ?substantial? link between crime syndicates and pornography, while it?s axiomatic that people who ?star? in porn often work in prostitution, too (and not always willingly).
Even if a narcotic is legal and taxed, there will always be people prepared to offer a purer quality substance at cheaper levels. In fact legalisation creates a whole new black market dynamic as non-licensed sellers compete with the government ? look at the global phenomenon of blackmarket cigarette sales.
And that?s what?s happening in Los Angeles right now. Despite the existence of marijuana on prescription (which, to be fair, Huizar advocates) and the pot shops, it will always be cheaper and easier to score drugs on the street. Add to this the fact that by their very existence the pot shops advertise the use of drugs, we?re going to see an upswing in interest among adolescents and vulnerable people.
That?s why Huizar doesn?t want people pushing (sorry, ?selling?) marijuana in his neighbourhood. And it will always be among the poor that we?ll see a concentration of outlets if this substance is legalised. Think about it, where are all the hard core porn shops in Britain? In Tunbridge Wells? Chipping Norton?
Here?s the sting in this tale. The marijuana sellers have found a brilliant way to protect their industry: they?re going to unionise. It?s a genius move because whatever you do, if you?re in a union then liberals have to love you. It won?t take long before Joe Biden?s down there at the Strawberry Fields Co-op, Long Beach, on the picket line with a loud hailer crying, ?Let ma people go!?
If only the bankers on Wall Street formed a union ? those crooks would be untouchable.
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