The War on Drugs in Bizarro World, a.k.a. Santa Cruz

Jacob Sullum | September 11, 2007

Last week a 19-year-old called the Santa Cruz police to report a robbery: He had been sitting in his car when he was approached by two men who took his property at gunpoint. Oddly, he was not deterred from contacting the authorities by the fact that the property in question was four ounces of pot he had planned to sell to the men who robbed him. Even more surprisingly, the police did not charge him with drug dealing, correctly viewing his as a victim rather than a criminal. "From our standpoint," a police spokesman told the Santa Cruz Sentinel, "it's more important to address the fact there are individuals out there who are willing to use a weapon to commit robberies."

[Thanks to jimmydageek for the tip.]