A really interesting long article in the Washington Post about where, how, and why prosecutions continue for marijuana users. The West Virginia panhandle, and Fairfax, VA are two hotspots for weed busts.
Federal funding for drug task forces are certainly part of the reason why these enforcement priorities continue. It's easy work to find people smoking weed.Here in West Virginia’s northern panhandle, marijuana possession arrests soared by more than 2,000 percent in the first decade of this century. It was the biggest arrest-rate jump of any locality in the nation, although in a county of just 30,000, that amounts to only a few dozen cases. Raids like the one at Neeley’s house are a vital weapon, says Mark Simala, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent who runs the task force from an unmarked office building in this struggling mill town — a place he calls “ground zero for the drug war” because traffickers use the area as a path from Pittsburgh, about 35 miles away, to cities in the Midwest.
And a lot of it is still old school local cops who haven't accepted the complete failure of the drug war.
A good read overall.