A thought-provoking piece from NORML Outreach Director Russ Bellville has been published on the Huffington Post. The title really says it all -- "If 'Cops Don't Make Laws, They Just Enforce Them,' Why Are Police Opposing Marijuana Legalization?"

The following is an excerpt, or you can CLICK HERE to read the entire piece:

Since fourteen states have legalized the use of cannabis for sick and disabled people we here at NORML have reported on numerous stories of medical users harassed, arrested, and jailed by police. We have also reported on healthy adults in all fifty states whose lives are turned upside down by an arrest, sometimes losing student loans, jobs, children, pets, dignity, property, and freedom over a single joint, seed, or even a cannabis stem. When we and others bring up these insane injustices to the police who are making these arrests, we often hear the platitude that "cops don't make the laws, we just enforce the laws."

So why do we consistently see representatives of law enforcement opposing medical marijuana, marijuana decriminalization, and marijuana legalization efforts in state legislatures?

SAFER co-founder and Marijuana Is Safer coauthor Steve Fox is now blogging on the AlterNet SpeakEasy. In his first post, he calls out the "Arrest & Prosecution Industry," and highlights a recent effort by SAFER to expose it and its work to maintain Marijuana Prohibition.

Here's an excerpt, or you can CLICK HERE to read Steve's entire post:

Today, we are going to talk about law enforcement. For too long, the media and elected officials have stood firmly behind members of law enforcement, from police officers to district attorneys, as they claimed that they were making our communities safer by arresting and prosecuting individuals for using marijuana. “It’s a gateway drug,” they assert. (Bull-pucky, according to every legitimate study of the matter.) It would send the wrong message to children, they whine. (After which they head home and ask their kids to bring them a beer.)

The truth is that law enforcement officials know the use of marijuana is not a major source of societal problems. Oh, sure, some people might use marijuana too much and this might be considered a social problem – similar to the overuse of video games. But it is not even in the same league as alcohol, which, by the federal government’s own figures, is linked to 25-30 percent of all violent crimes in the U.S. and is a factor in two-thirds of acts of violence between intimates. (The relative harms of marijuana and alcohol on the streets — and in homes — is the theme of former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper’s foreword in Marijuana is Safer.)

Law enforcement officials know this, yet far too many of them continuously and consistently argue that we need to punish adults who use marijuana instead of alcohol. Let me emphasize those last two points. They know that individuals are more likely to be violent if they drink alcohol instead of using marijuana, but they do everything in their power to make sure the only legal option for adults is alcohol. So they clearly don’t care about public safety. What on earth could their motivation be?

Plain and simple. They are motivated by self-interest. Their very jobs depend on a steady stream of arrests and prosecutions. And marijuana users are their cash cow, with arrests totaling a staggering 847,863 in 2008. As long as the marijuana arrests keep coming, so do their paychecks. Keep this in mind the next time you hear a law enforcement official explaining why we need to “protect our streets” from this “dangerous drug.”

The following is an excerpt of SAFER Executive Director Mason Tvert's latest piece on HuffingtonPost.com. CLICK HERE to read the entire article, and please help us share it with others by commenting on it, Digging it, posting it on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.

Businesses Should Stay on Marijuana's Good Side

By Mason Tvert
February 5, 2010

A recent brouhaha between Starbucks Coffee and marijuana legalization advocates raises an important question for the broader business community: Can major national companies be successful absent the patronage of marijuana consumers and others who support marijuana policy reform?

Not too long ago, it was absolutely necessary for businesses to maintain an appearance of opposition to marijuana use and legalization. But the times they are a-changin', and it is beginning to seem like many major companies are striving to maintain an appearance of NOT opposing marijuana use and legalization.