Lamenting he is "a voice crying in the wilderness" as society moves to a marijuana culture, the former police commissioner of New York, Los Angeles, and Boston, Bill Bratton, called it "a mistake to rush headlong into" legalization.
"I still strongly oppose it," told "The Cats Roundtable" on 970 AM-N.Y. "I think there are too many unanswered questions. We still don't have effective capabilities [in] law enforcement to deal with the issue of driving while impaired by the use of marijuana. It is as addictive as any other drug. We don't really know the full effect of that drug on the development of children . . . young people will be getting their hands on it."
While he did acknowledge there might be some tax benefits to fund social programs, Bratton told host John Catsimatidis there will be far more abuse.
"You can tax marijuana all you want – it is still going to be illegally grown, illegally sold," Bratton said.
"It's my belief we're opening up Pandora's box," he added. ". . . Oh well, I think I'm a voice crying in the wilderness, unfortunately."
Bratton also acknowledged some medicinal benefits of the drug, but that, too, came with abuse in our society, including homeless and societal vagabonds begging for handouts outside of pot shops.
"Amazing the number of very ill people that California had once it became available for medicinal use," Bratton told Catsimatidis. "I'm sorry, but I think it's a mistake to rush headlong into it, and that's exactly what we're doing."
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