I chose "The $78 million bag" article. It is about how Cook County and the City spend over $78 million on arresting individuals with just possession of marijuana. John Fritchey, county commissioner, has finally realized how ridiculous that truly is. He is bringing up the idea of finally legalizing it to save the city money so it can be spent on something actually useful. The constant arrests cause prisons to get completely packed. About 23,000 arrests are made each year for possession and is the leading cause of arrest made by the CPD. Each arrest takes about 3 police hours in total from taking an individual to the station, locking him up, and completing all of the paperwork. This then accounts to over 84,000 police hours each year. Even the county commissioner, Larry Suffredin, states that each dollar that is spent on these arrests could be going toward more serious crimes. Cook County residents are paying at least $78 million a year to arrest and prosecute people caught carrying pot. And on top of that there is an extra $10 million spend to arrest, prosecute, and jail people for growing and selling.
This is the only article that actually caught my attention. I think its absolutely ridiculous that the government is still wasting millions of dollars on the "war on drugs". And the main drug is just pot. If the government finally just legalizes it, they will realize that millions of dollars that was previously wasted can now be used for something useful. As for the article itself, i feel it provides good evidence to support what is being said.
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