Please enjoy the following information about Cannabis and Crime in Duval County, Jacksonville, Florida.

As you read these statistics try to imagine how many law enforcement man hours could have been devoted to solving some of the Theft, Robbery, and Motor Vehicle Theft cases.

Why do our leaders continue to waste our resources on non violent drug offenders while Theives and Batterers and Robbers are allow to roam at large. For Example one operation by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office called Operation X-Men resulted in spending eight months of law enforcement resources to investigate yet netted only 16 arrests mostly for Marijuana and Ecstacy. Imagine if these officers would have spent eight months trying to solve some of the unsolved motor vehicle thefts and murders?

Number of Jacksonville Sheriff's Officers
(full time law enforcement employees including corrections, internal affairs, etc Oct.2001)

2,549
Total Number of Drug Arrests in Jacksonville during 2001
(not including summons and Notice to Appears)
8,167
Number of Drug Arrests for Marijuana in Jacksonville during 2001
2,189


The below chart is compiled from data located in the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Uniform Crime Report

Type of Offense
Number of Offenses known
by JSO in 2001

Number of Arrests
in 2001

Unsolved
Larceny(Theft)
28,826
4,946
83%
Burglary
9,903
1,258
88%
Vehicle theft
5,132
756
86%
Aggravated assault
4,830
2,152
56%
Robbery
2,195
424
81%
Murder
75
55
27%
Total
50,961
9,591
82%
Drugs/Narcotics
<100 ???
8,167

 

HOW BIG OF A PROBLEM ARE DRUG DEATHS IN NE FLORIDA?

Number of Drug-Related Deaths, by Drug Involved, Duval, Nassau, and Clay Counties, 2001*

Drug Type # of Deaths
Cocaine only 35
Cocaine in combination with other drug 73
Heroin only 1
Heroin in combination with other drug 12
Oxycodone only 3
Oxycodone in combination with other drug 27
Hydrocodone only
28
Hydrocodone in combination with other drug 24
Methadone only
7
Methadone in combination with other drug 38
Methylated amphetamine only
0
Methylated amphetamine in combination with other drug 6
Marijuana 0
Ecstacy 0

* Statistics provided from Whitehouse Office of Drug Control

Total Deaths in Duval, Nassau and Clay Counties in 2001: 10,326
(Per Florida Office of Vital Statistics)


Total Drug Related Deaths in Duval, Nassau and Clay Counties in 2001: 254

Drug Deaths Percent of total: 2%

In relation to other more serious and preventable causes of death, drugs are a drop in the bucket, yet every year, millions of local tax dollars which could be spent to provide adequate health care to those without health insurance or spent on AIDS research, or spent on forcing corporate polluters (a huge cause of death and disease) to clean up their act, is wasted in the local war on drugs effort.