I can still remember the change. Right after the election of 2000, there was a new barrage of ass, oops I mean ads, proclaiming pot to be "more dangerous than we thought" and other sundry bullshit. News flash: pot makes you lazy, relaxed, calm and generally not interested in any crime greater than calling the local pizza place twice in one 24hr period. Bush directed his drug enforcers to crack down on pot, over other more serious drugs, early on in his administration. Here are the results:

According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report released today, marijuana arrests reached an all-time high in 2005 -- 42.5% of all drug arrests were for pot. Pot arrests have doubled since the 1990's.

Of those charged with marijuana violations, approximately 88 percent -- some 696,074 Americans -- were charged with possession only. The remaining 90,471 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation offenses even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use. In past years, roughly 30 percent of those arrested were age 19 or younger.

Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of NORML says:

Arresting hundreds of thousands of Americans who smoke marijuana responsibly needlessly destroys the lives of otherwise law abiding citizens," St. Pierre said, adding that over 8 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges in the past decade. During this same time, arrests for cocaine and heroin have declined sharply, implying that increased enforcement of marijuana laws is being achieved at the expense of enforcing laws against the possession and trafficking of more dangerous drugs.

St. Pierre concluded: "Enforcing marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers between $10 billion and $12 billion annually and has led to the arrest of nearly 18 million Americans. Nevertheless, some 94 million Americans acknowledge having used marijuana during their lives. It makes no sense to continue to treat nearly half of all Americans as criminals for their use of a substance that poses no greater - and arguably far fewer - health risks than alcohol or tobacco. A better and more sensible solution would be to tax and regulate cannabis in a manner similar to alcohol and tobacco."

How does marijuana use among the young (age 15 to 34) compare between the U.S. and Europe? The European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction has published an updated chart. Our drug laws don't work. It's time to abandon the punitive policy towards recreational drug use.

How does Europe treat marijuna use? Check out this chart:

Despite the different legal approaches towards cannabis, a common trend can be seen across the Member States in the development of alternative measures to criminal prosecution for cases of use and possession of small quantities of cannabis for personal use without aggravating circumstances. Fines, cautions, probation, exemption from punishment and counselling are favoured by most European justice systems. It is of interest to note that cannabis in particular is frequently distinguished from other substances and given special treatment in these cases, either in the law, by prosecutorial directive, or by the judiciary.

But they may be losing their enlightenment:

Nevertheless, police arrests for drug offences, mainly those involving cannabis and mainly use-related offences, are increasing in several countries - see the EMCDDA Statistical Bulletin for further details.

The report is here.

For all drug use among this age group in Europe, see this chart. For cocaine use, see this one.

To me, there is no doubt whatsoever that an increase in pot arrests has to do with the fact that the vast majority of pot smokers are also people interested in progressive politics, and more likely to be active in some non-Republican cause. Just as I have no doubt that the increase (record levels) in heroin production in the 52nd state of Talibanistan have to do with a desire to keep potential progressive populations enslaved.

Pot isn't horse. Any experienced user or counselor will tell you this. The effects of both are completely different, as, it seems, are our government's approaches to both. It's so, (snark) unexpected which our goverment is choosing to focus upon.

And I'm just going to say it because I've seen it with my own eyes: drug dealers, the real and effective ones, work for your government. To quote a former head of the DEA: "Every major drug operation we've ever investigated, in the end leads back to the CIA." Too foily for you? Come to the hood (and now also to a center of distribution of the ingredients of meth) and find out for yourself.