Trump Administration restarts War on Marijuana

Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 10/04/2018 - 6:05pm

marijuana_laws_US.0.png.jpg

One state after another is legalizing and decriminalizing marijuana, and yet the drug war is charging up again.

Marijuana arrests are rising in the U.S., even as more states legalize cannabis.
There is now an average of one marijuana bust roughly every 48 seconds, according to a new FBI report released on Monday.

Now here's the kicker: the marijuana busts are the exact kind that should be going away.

The increase in marijuana arrests—659,700 in 2017, compared to 653,249 in 2016—is driven by enforcement against people merely possessing the drug as opposed to selling or growing it, the data shows.
Last year, there were 599,282 marijuana possession arrests in the country, up from 587,516 in 2016. Meanwhile, busts for cannabis sales and manufacturing dropped, from 65,734 in 2016 to 60,418 in 2017.

This country is so not a democracy.

Overall, marijuana arrests made up 40.4% of the nation's 1,632,921 drug arrests in 2017.

Drug arrests as a whole also increased last year, up from 1,572,579 in 2016.

There is now a drug bust every 19 seconds in the U.S.

How did this happen?
Start by looking at the White House.

Just last week Trump recommitted to a global War on Drugs.

An NDP MP says U.S. President Donald Trump is using his "bully pulpit" to strong-arm Canada and 129 other countries into committing to a U.S.-led "war on drugs" policy.
NDP health critic Don Davies told HuffPost Canada it was "extremely frustrating" to see the government sign the "Global Call to Action on the World Drug Problem," brokered on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly this week.

"Donald Trump is using his bully pulpit right now to compel countries to sign on to this flawed policy because these countries are in vulnerable positions," he said, noting Canada's position negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Even more symbolic, just a month earlier, the Trump Administration admitted to creating a secretive marijuana committee to spread disinformation about marijuana. No really.

The Trump administration was evasive in August when BuzzFeed News reported on a secretive marijuana committee operated by the White House — detailing memos that indicated the committee’s agenda to propagate negative attitudes toward pot and portray the drug as a national threat.
But now the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has acknowledged the committee’s existence in a letter to a Democratic senator seeking information in light of BuzzFeed News’ report.
...
However, BuzzFeed News first reported in August on several memos sent to federal agencies concerning the Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee, which solely sought negative information on the drug. The memos instructed 14 agencies and the Drug Enforcement Administration to submit “data demonstrating the most significant negative trends” on the drug and identify issues with state legalization ballot measures, in part to prepare a report for President Donald Trump, who has previously supported states’ rights on marijuana.

The committee complained in one memo that the narrative around marijuana is unfairly biased in favor of the drug and said it wanted to turn the tide on increasing marijuana use.

This is straight out of the 1980's. The difference is that this time the president's fans flat out refuse to believe this truth.

Despite law enforcement action, legalization continues to move ahead.

Tags:

marijuana legalization

Vote

Comments

Submitted by ChezJfrey on Thu, 10/04/2018 - 6:45pm

Even more fun

When you consider that the states where it is completely legal, comprise 20% of the entire U.S. population...yet, somehow, marijuana arrests still comprise 40% of all arrests AND increased over the prior year.

Gee, wonder how that happens? Because it doesn't matter what you, as a people want, or pass as law...economics must prevail. How can our justice system continue without paying "customers"?

Submitted by UntimelyRippd on Thu, 10/04/2018 - 6:54pm

this is a phenomenon i call "perversity of markets"

@ChezJfrey @ChezJfrey
If you create a for-profit supply/demand market in incarceration, there will be people whose interest in supplying incarceration will lead them to do anything they can to increase the demand for incarceration.

If you create a for-profit supply/demand market in warfare, there will be people whose interest in supplying warfare will lead them to do anything they can to increase the demand for warfare.

etc.

A more general variety of PoM is that ethical behavior itself becomes a commodity, sold only to those individuals willing and able to pay a higher price for it. The MBAs call it "market segmentation", but any competent philosopher would call it, "evil".

—

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Submitted by Nastarana on Sat, 10/06/2018 - 6:46pm

This is why

@UntimelyRippd in Catholic theology, greed or avarice, as theologians call it, is a deadly sin.

—

Mary Bennett

Submitted by Wink on Thu, 10/04/2018 - 11:16pm

bing! n/t

@ChezJfrey

—

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Submitted by janis b on Thu, 10/04/2018 - 7:35pm

I guess the prisons need their nightly bed quota

to stay in business. Their profit may even be greater than Marriott Hotels. Sickening.

Submitted by divineorder on Fri, 10/05/2018 - 1:07pm

Horrible .

@janis b

Oh yea! One of the MOST powerful political lobby's in USA is the #PrisonForProfit industry. MORE than 65% USA prisons are for profit & they have vested interest in seeing its continuance to grow their stock (most arrests for marijuana). Politcians take MILLION$ from them. pic.twitter.com/NZBsEtdhSz

— Daniel Christianson (@datahoarse) April 21, 2018

—

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Thu, 10/04/2018 - 8:45pm

Utah is voting on medical marijuana

and the attorney general told us that it's still illegal at the federal level. Good grief. It's only for people who have 6 months left to live. This is one reason I dreaded moving back. Another is the institution that is fighting the legislation.

—

Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 10/05/2018 - 8:48pm

The Church that used to be called Mormon

@snoopydawg

has decided that medical marijuana should be approved.

Im hoping that people can see that the church is trying to keep people from growing their own and to keep other restrictions on it.

Though it still must go to a vote, the deal has the key backing of both the church and leaders of the Republican-dominated state legislature, who said the regulations in the hard-won agreement had their seal of approval. Unlike the ballot initiative, the compromise won’t allow people to grow their own marijuana if they live too far from a dispensary. It also doesn’t allow certain types of edible marijuana that could appeal to children, like cookies and brownies.

—

Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

Submitted by apenultimate on Thu, 10/04/2018 - 9:50pm

A Bit Disappointed, Actually

I was hoping that more states would pile on with legalization, but it seems a number have delayed, failed to pass, or dropped their plans.

So, in 2018, we're looking at Michigan and North Dakota trying to fully legalize, and while this will pass in Michigan, in North Dakota it looks to fail if polls are to be believed. Michigan would be a nice add, but late last year, Vermont, Arizona, and Florida were all possibly going to legalize this year.

Missouri and Utah will try to legalize medical pot this year as well.

In 2019, Ohio will try full legalization.

In 2020, Florida and Mississippi will try to legalize medical stuff.

And, that's it for the future for now. Pretty meager.

I'd love to see North Dakota surprise us.

I don't partake myself--tried it once and didn't like the kind of high it gives. But, I do think we should be a nation of freedom, and the war on drugs has done so much damage to this country. I also know of a violent alcoholic who switch to pot and is now very mellow instead. A big improvement for one person's life, at least.

Want to see approvals speed up!

Submitted by Wink on Thu, 10/04/2018 - 11:20pm

Still waiting on NY to

get its act together.
@apenultimate
And waiting. We here whispers, but that's it.
Kinda like Nancy and her, "we wish we could, but we don't have... so, embrace the suck."

—

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Submitted by Wink on Thu, 10/04/2018 - 11:13pm

Only becuz the War on

Drugs is a money maker for the Feds.
Well, 'Deep State' at least.
And of course all of those Privatized prisons.
Lock 'em up! Especially the dark ones, P.o.C. bastids. Lock. 'em. up.

—

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Submitted by doh1304 on Fri, 10/05/2018 - 12:05am

2 thoughts:

repressive dystopias need to deny every escape mechanism or they collapse.(e,g, the Opium Wars)
Note that Canada is using the war on drugs as an excuse to sign the new NAFTA. So, "If we don't do something evil they won't let us do something evil." Typical. I guess even Canada has corruptocrats.

—

On to Biden since 1973

Submitted by ChezJfrey on Fri, 10/05/2018 - 12:45am

Personally

@doh1304 @doh1304 I think the evidence shows a more sinister approach.

1. They actually facilitate the availability of the drugs. We already have proof of such with the CIA helping cartels with the import of cocaine and marijuana, and even weaponry to grease the violence too. See Gary Webb and Barry Seal, Fast/Furious, among others.

2. They ramp up the oppression and depress to a large degree the economic power of a vast segment of the population, to facilitate that portion's desire and likelihood of using a substance to escape their despondency.

3. They ramp up the punishment for the use of the drugs they help supply and fostered conditions for widespread use.

Double whammy.

I think there is also enough evidence they did the same with opium/heroin in the the Afghanistan debacle. Taliban nearly eradicated poppy production in the country, so we have to go in and decimate the Taliban, restore poppy production and even pay farmers to restart production and even protect their crops. Heck, even Geraldo went there and did a segment on it. The data of opium supply by country also correlates the years of U.S. intervention and the fall/rerise of Afghanistan production to support that thesis.

Submitted by eyo on Fri, 10/05/2018 - 9:16am

Legal shmegal, what about the children?

Name the cities in California where legal cannabis is for sale... (jeopardy theme, if not crickets). Legal doesn't mean shit when it's not on the shelves, or no longer affordable. Investors are making cannabis industry the same as the wine-grape plantations. (Edit: to add link to "Insiders Opinion" meh More slavery means good times for the rich, not so much for regular people, who use it like medicine instead of pHarma.

This is where I live, with the good ole boys of Stepford Inc., Sonoma County: Cannabis brought back to city council

Terry Conway commented in favor of increasing the setbacks: “I think that it is important to try and keep this menace, this dangerous and addictive substance, out of plain view of children and the town. I would be in favor of increasing the setback, I would also be in favor of using the most restrictive measurement method — property line to property line.”

I'm pretty sure Mr. or Ms. Conway have not walked the length of the Boulevard lately, or any route to the schools. I mean the amount of garbage, spilled oil, dog feces, etc., it is disgusting. This place is a cesspool if you ever get out of your world-burning car. Did I mention the stench of diesel? Ask any postal carrier how the air is around here most days... not good.

Brown’s veto of medical marijuana donation bill prompts outcry

In August, state lawmakers overwhelmingly approved SB 829, a bill carving out a path to allow cannabis to be donated to medical users tax free.

But Sunday, Brown vetoed the bill, saying it would undermine the the will of voters who passed Proposition 64 in 2016.

“This bill contains provisions that conflict with the strict standards contained in the voter approved Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act,” Brown wrote in a veto statement. “Providing free cannabis to a person with only a doctor’s recommendation undermines these rules and the intent of voters. For this reason, I cannot sign this bill.”

WTF?! "For this reason" I'll never vote for another D as long as I live, not too. ~shrug~ Politicians prefer torture, 4 or out 5 recommend it! LOL

The state is destroying perfectly good crops, clampdown continues. There are still zero dispensaries in Cloverdale, or anywhere nearby because the good ole boys have zoned it impossible (until the southern annex happens and some already rich asshole gets stinking richer). I am not blaming Trump or Sessions for the shitty laws that D voters passed in California, NOPE. Ds and Rs are equally horrible if you ask me, racist in deed.

wah

Submitted by crescentmoon on Fri, 10/05/2018 - 9:34am

Feeding the private prison system.

Submitted by Bob In Portland on Sun, 10/07/2018 - 11:45am

So far things are doing just fine in Oregon

I live near Sandy Boulevard in Portland and Sandy is known as "the Green Mile" with marijuana shops opening in a lot of vacant storefronts. All sorts of different products are being created. The edible market is expanding. There are CBD parlors and people are working on getting THC bars open. All of the politicians at the state level are opposed to any federal interference and so far they haven't given an inch to them. Weed prices for some strains have dropped from fourteen a gram to four a gram.

Out in rural Oregon it's a little different. A number of towns have voted against having retail stores (it's county by county) and have suffered the economic consequences. With legalization comes taxes, and counties that opt out of marijuana opt out of the largesse. Plus, those counties also lose money to drug dealers/entrepreneurs who buy it legally and distribute it to smokers in those counties. Additionally, counties banning marijuana lose out on the taxes, which go to schools and law enforcement. However, since the drug of choice in rural Oregon used to be meth (you can't even buy sudafeds over the counter in Oregon) marijuana has a lot less impact on rural areas. Machine gun toting meth addicts with insufficient social skills pose a much bigger problem.

One problem for law enforcement is that marijuana is easy to grow here (it's easy to grow anywhere, actually) and there is always a surplus which seems to end up in other states.

Of course, since it's easy to grow a lot of people grow it. I started growing and I still have plenty of the stuff I grew three years ago. This year's crop is curing as I type.

So, at least in Oregon, as long as you don't drive recklessly with a joint in your mouth and a bong on your console there isn't much to worry about. At least for now.