Madison NORML

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Pubdate: Jan. 18, 2006

MEN ACCUSED OF SELLING POT OVER MEAT COUNTER

Two employees of a north side corner store have been arrested after police say they sold marijuana over the counter to an undercover officer.

The Milwaukee Police Department Vice Control Division had information that the men were selling "a lot" of marijuana in small quantities over the counter at Hopkins One Stop, 4703 N. Hopkins St., said Lt. Ray Gibbs.

An undercover officer made a successful buy at the store Monday afternoon and the men were arrested, Gibbs said.

"They actually were just selling marijuana over the meat counter," Gibbs said.

The case has been referred to the Milwaukee County district attorney's office, which could charge the suspects with delivery of marijuana and keeping a drug house, Gibbs said.

The truth is, Milwaukee would be a more peaceful place if regulated cannabis outlets, be they meat counters or coffee shops, legally dispensed to adults the herb that made Milwaukee and quite a few other places famous. Regulated sales are certainly an improvement over the current unregulated market, where disputes are settled by violence and pot consumers regularly get ripped off.

The Chicago Sun Times reported on January 3, 2006:

[snip]

The number of homicides in Wisconsin's largest city increased nearly 40 percent during the past year after dropping to a 16-year low in 2004.

Milwaukee police reported 122 homicides in 2005, compared with 88 in 2004.

An increase in the number of homicides in which an argument led to a killing helped fuel the overall rise. That type of homicide jumped from 17 in 2004 to 45 in 2005, police said.

[snip]

Alcohol fuels arguments. Cannabis calms people. It seems that the real crime here is that cannabis prohibition is responsible for some of these murders. The Sun-Times noted police said “people killed each other over dish soap, a dress, a pair of shoes, pork neck bones, whose rap is better and other petty issues”. If these individuals had the legal option of using cannabis as a substitute for alcohol, perhaps some of these arguments may have never happened.