LOCAL:

Capt. Joseph Taylor, commander of the Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team said "More than half of the drug arrests made in the city are related to marijuana" The Kalamazoo Valley (Drug) Enforcement Team (KVET) coordinates and conducts operational drug enforcement activities independently and through direct liaison authorities. In 2007, KVET initiated 979 investigations and made 724 arrests. As a result of KVET investigations, $1,075,554 of illegal controlled substances was seized. Half of their time and assets went towards marijuana related crimes. So, According to Capt. of KVET about $537,777 are spent on marijuana offenses a year. Which does NOT include city and state police costs. This figure is limited to KVET operations alone.

Preliminary 2008 Kalamazoo Public Safety statistics show there were about 1,600 controlled-substance arrests made and that nearly 60 percent of those involved marijuana charges. Nearly 90 percent of those charges were misdemeanors.

MICHIGAN:

Every County in the state passed Prop 1 with a majority of their populations support.

Michigan can't afford business as usual. With 50,000 inmates and a $2-billion-a-year prison budget, it is one of only four states that spend more on corrections than higher education.

Effective re-entry programs help break the cycle of crime that has made prison records a norm in too many urban communities.
Drug convictions including marijuana here in Michigan made up 41.7% of its total crime

NATIONAL:

The largest group representing physicians in the country is the American Medical Association (AMA), which has over 250,000 members. Traditionally, they have accepted without question the government's position on marijuana, and have always supported the idea that marijuana should continue to be classified as a Schedule I controlled substance (like heroin or LSD). Tuesday Nov. 10 2009, the AMA asked the federal government to reconsider their classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no medical use.

According to the AMA - www.csdp.org/research/1238 - in 2000 there were 425,000 deaths attributed to tobacco, 494,921 deaths due to overweight, 43,354 vehicle deaths, including 16,845 that were alcohol related, 118,539 alcohol-induced deaths, 69,989 deaths to alcohol-related diseases, 140,000 alcohol deaths with previous drinkers included, zero deaths due to marijuana.

In 1971 Nixon declared an all out war on drugs. Now, almost 40 years later, over 1 million non-violent prisoners sit behind bars.

The drug war has claimed 13000 lives in the USA alone in the past two years ---LA times

Each year 0 people are killed because of ingesting marijuana.