McCarthy: Decriminalizing Pot A Bad Idea
(CBS) -- While President Obama seems to be supporting some decriminalization of marijuana, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy says it's a bad idea.
President Obama told the New Yorker: "We should not be locking up kids or individual (marijuana) users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing."
The New York Times says that's a "pretty strong endorsement of decriminalization."
What does Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy think?
"There are some issues around marijuana that people don't realize. It's about the money. It's not about what happens to the individual as far as crime is concerned."
McCarthy says "decriminalization puts us in a corner where there's no sanction for something that's still looked at as illegal.
"And if they're making money," McCarthy says, "there's going to be violence associated with it."
He says we need to make up our minds: Is it going to be legal or not legal?`