The number of marijuana possession arrests at SDSU totaled 15 in 2009, quadrupled to 64 last year, and have reached 184 in 2011.
That marks a 1,200-percent increase over three years, with this year’s total outnumbering the last four years combined.
Dan Tuchscherer, a Community Assistant in Jackrabbit Village, said Residential Life is following the marijuana trend closely. A significant percentage of those arrests occur in university-operated housing.
“CA training has been intensified,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of specific training to deal with pot, and all CA’s are extremely proactive when dealing with marijuana.”
In South Dakota, marijuana’s distinct odor is enough to constitute probable cause for a police search. SDSUPD Detective Cora Olson said the odor is increasingly reported in residence halls.
“We’ve gotten a lot more calls regarding marijuana lately,” Tuchscherer said. “It’s basically right in front of our faces.”
The city of Brookings has seen an increase of marijuana arrests as well. Brookings Police Chief Jeff Miller said these are not due to increased enforcement.
“Marijuana isn’t as high a priority as harder drugs like methamphetamine or heroin, but we enforce all the laws, he said. “And if it’s against the law, it’s against the law, and we will enforce it.”
Possessing less than two ounces of marijuana in South Dakota is a misdemeanor and carries a fine of up to $1,000. Possessing more than two ounces is a felony and carries with it a fine of up to $10,000 and a mandatory 30-day jail sentence.
South Dakota has voted against adopting medical marijuana twice in 2006 and 2010.
Students for a Sensible Drug Policy founder Melissa Beadle offers her speculation to the spike in arrests, saying it’s a matter of police priority.
“There are harmful drugs out there, but marijuana is not one of them,” she said. “Instead of busting rural meth labs, cops are out there busting college students for pot.”
Beadle led an effort in Brookings to legalize the use of medical marijuana during the 2010 referendum that South Dakota voters rejected at more than 60 percent.
SDSU Sociology Professor Eric Guthrie said that the rise in arrests could stem from a gradual shift in views on the drug on a national level.
“Ideas of right and wrong are fluid and change with time,” Guthrie said. “But the national trending line has pointed towards legalization.”
Olson and Miller did not wish to speculate on the exponential increase in arrests.
“If you find out, let me know,” Miller said.
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I’m all for marijuana to be law enforcement’s lowest priority, as I think it’s a fairly harmless drug. But come on. People smoking pot in the residence halls deserve to be busted because that is a supremely stupid thing to do. Make some friends with people who have houses, young stoners.
If we had a society w/limited government and individual liberty (like our constitution declares), then this wouldn’t even be a story, nor would the U.S. have the highest incarceration rate in the world, as well as the highest overall number of persons incarcerated (about 2.5 million.)
It takes an ultra-authoritarian mindset to accept that the state is even allowed, let alone has a duty, to criminalize nature and exercise violent suppression of those who are found to be in possession of some type of plant or fungus material.
Ironically, these same people are the ones most likely to obnoxiously profess a believe in “freedom” and declare everyone else as “hating America” who don’t share their illogical, unscientific, thoughtless, and contradictory views.
+1
The laws against marijuana protect the freedom of other citizens. I don’t want to get in a car accident with you and become paralyzed because you were driving “legally” stoned.
Don’t like it? Get the law changed. As said, only a supremely stupid person smokes weed in the dorms. If we could stop incarcerating the stoners, we could build more prisons to hold the people we truly need to be locking up: drunk drivers; spouse beaters; child molesters; rapists; etc.
Let’s keep everyday citizens from crowding our courts and jails contributing to the money pit that is the War on Pot. Groups are organizing all over the country to speak their minds on reforming pot laws. I drew up a very cool poster for the cause which you can check out on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/01/vote-teapot-2011.html Drop in and let me know what you think!
I’m loving the photo illustration here.
I think your poster is exactly what’s wrong with a big part of the legalization movement today. Instead of presenting a clear, concise, intelligent argument against the oppression of personal freedom, it’s frat boy stoner BS. “Wooooo, brah! Let’s get baked!”
hahaha that poster… wow…
[Joe Blow: The laws against marijuana protect the freedom of other citizens. I don’t want to get in a car accident with you and become paralyzed because you were driving “legally” stoned.]
Did you even think about how absurd that statement was b4 you posted it? For the sake of your cognitive abilities, if you ever hold a position requiring any degree of critical thinking, I would hope not.
What’s absurd about it? Is there a way to measure how stoned a person is akin to a breathalyzer? Does it not affect their cognitive abilities when making decisions behind the wheel of a car? I hope you never hold a position requiring critical thinking because you support the legalization of psychoactive drugs!
I just don’t see why anyone would want to smoke that nasty crap. May as well go pull a thistle out of the ditch and smoke that if you don’t care about your body.
to Darren: You are very uninformed about the science of the subject. Moderate use of cannabis (which doesn’t have to be smoked, btw), even over decades, has no detectable adverse affects on one’s physical or mental health.
I just don’t see why you choose to be ignorant of science, but in a free society you are free to do as you’d like so long as you do not violate the person or property of another. Also, in the most obese nation or earth (more or less), how hypocritical for you to be condemning marijuana as “not caring about your body.”
To JoeBlow: If I were to say the following, “The laws against alcohol protect the freedom of children not to be molested by a drunk adult. Therefore, alcohol should be illegal unconditionally;” can you not see the complete absurdity? Further, who has advocated inebriated driving be legalized? And yes, officers absolutely can (and routinely do) perform tests to determine one’s motor skills.
P.S. You are also fine with legalized drugs, at least the two which happen to be the most statically destructive by virtually all quantifiable measures (e.g. primary cause of premature deaths, healthcare costs, fatal auto. accidents, lost workplace productivity, vandalism, disorderly conduct complaints, rape and other forms of sexual assault.) Go look up the definition of ‘drug’ if you do not know it off the top of your head.