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There it is, in black and white. The reason we see so many marijuana busts in the news. We all knew it to be true, but to see a sheriff admit that police use marijuana busts to pump up their budgets is a little startling just the same. Sheriff Tom Bosenko of Shasta County, CA says he’s cutting back on all operations because of budget cuts, except one – marijuana busts.

The reason is simple: If he steps up his pursuit of marijuana growers, his department is eligible for roughly half a million dollars a year in federal anti-drug funding, helping save some jobs. The majority of the funding would have to be used to fight pot. Marijuana may not be the county’s most pressing crime problem, the sheriff says, but “it’s where the money is.”

The policies of the federal government actually make it cost effective for local law enforcement agencies to release people from jail and spend more money on finding weed. Are we even being serious about real crime anymore? Have we given up?

To make sure his office gets the federal funds, Sheriff Bosenko since last year has spent about $340,000 of his department’s shrinking resources, more than in past years, on a team that tramps through the woods looking for pot farms. Though the squad is mostly U.S.-funded, the federal grants don’t cover some of its needs, such as a team chief and certain equipment. So, Mr. Bosenko has to pay for those out of his regular budget.

I’m hoping this is some sort of elaborate joke. There are people being shot and stabbed and raped right now in California and our police officers are tramping “through the woods looking for pot plants.”

How’s this for an idea? Legalize marijuana and tell officers they’ll get $500 for every murderer, rapist, and robber they catch and is convicted. Watch crime plummet.

The pot money is “$340,000 I could use somewhere else in my organization,” he says. “That could fund three officers’ salaries and benefits, and we could have them out on our streets doing patrol.” His overall budget this year is about $35 million.

The U.S. Justice Department is spending nearly $3.6 billion this year to augment budgets of state and local law-enforcement agencies. In addition, the federal government last year set aside close to $4 billion of the economic-stimulus package for law-enforcement grants for state and local agencies. The White House also is spending about $239 million this year to fund local drug-trafficking task forces.

Those last two paragraphs contain almost $8 billion in funding. I realize that money isn’t what it used to be, but you can’t tell me that those 8 billion dollars couldn’t be better spent, as the sheriff said himself.

Shasta County supervisors told Sheriff Bosenko last spring that his budget this year would be about $2 million less than last year’s $38 million.

The sheriff laid off 26 people last July, more than 10% of his staff, among them 11 deputies. He eliminated a major-crimes investigator and cut nighttime patrols to two cars from four.

That slowed responses to emergencies, especially after midnight, when an estimated 20% of drivers in the largely rural county 150 miles north of Sacramento have been drinking. The county has higher rates of assault, burglary, drunken driving and domestic violence than big California cities.

To save still more, Mr. Bosenko closed a floor of the county jail and gave early release to 185 inmates, among them 30 convicted drunk drivers. “Those people will probably go out and drink and drive again and hurt people,” the sheriff says. “The criminals know that there’s very limited offender accountability due to our releases at the jail.”

When we enough of us realize that the federal government’s marijuana policies are putting our lives at risk? I don’t know about you, but that’s simply unacceptable to me. It’s really incredible when you think about it; what is more dangerous: marijuana or a inmate who shouldn’t be released?

- Joe Klare