Posted on 02/09/2021 7:38:56 AM PST by RandFan
You are right. When I worked on the southern border the US Attorneys Office would not accept any case under 200 pounds. Some would be prosecuted by the state and locals, but most just had their pot and vehicle seized and faced a fine to get their vehicle back.
Its difficult to analyze that statement without knowing how much they they were carrying. Was in a baggy or a pickup full.
Very few are prosecuted for small amounts (should be zero) most all are trafficker's, distributors, transporters and dealers.
In states where its legal they are in direct competition with the state tax collection.
I’d bet this cost the tax payers hundreds of millions...
Its difficult to analyze that statement without knowing how much they they were carrying. Was in a baggy or a pickup full.
Very few are prosecuted for small amounts (should be zero) most all are trafficker's, distributors, transporters and dealers.
Those are recorded separately from possession: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/arrest-table
Its legal where I live. I have a pot candy an hour before bed, make me sleep like a rock and I don't snore. It taste like and looks like, well candy, can't tell the difference, no pot smell or taste.
Funny story: About 6 months ago I flew to Texas to visit a friend for a week. I had my candy in my carry on. While passing through the dreaded TSA they of course picked up an anomaly in my bag and sent me to secondary for a search.
I watched as the TSA agent search my bag, he went strait to where my candy was. He pushed my candy aside and seized my tooth paste.
The war on drugs was epic con job and the only thing it did was increase the size and scope of government at ALL levels.
Throwing your own people in cages for this kind of thing is what a lunatic would do.
It is still a federal crime. The part that gets me and all these people using pot and lying on applications to buy another gun. I don’t think we should have any restrictions generally speaking on gun purchase of possession, putting them in the hands of drug users, the same as alcohol it’s a bad idea. I know I’m older than a lot of folks, but I never use drugs, and I do not appreciate their use. So I have no sympathy for the people who are arrested, tried, convicted, north in jail for drug possession, drug sales. Actions have consequences.
I know it from having been a judge, prosecutor and defense counsel for 35 years, both in and out of the military. The civilian world is much more forgiving than the military, and in my considerable experience in all aspects of criminal justice, over 90% of people charged with a minor possession offense have the charge dismissed after successfully completing a diversion course. So no, the Bravo Sierra isn’t coming from this particular front. My response was to the writer’s horrendous overgeneralization of the ACTUAL effects on most offenders.
Yes, pot users are morons and stupid. While their ruining of their own lives is their own business, the risk and damage to society and individuals by their actions is a matter for all of us to contend with. There is no upside to pot use.
FR being a conservative not a libertarian site you will find not all of us support legalized drugs
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-long-term-reveals-regular-cannabis.html
The records are misleading because most first time or small time time offenders are given the option of pleading down to simple possession. They were arrested on higher charges. That's the way the system works.
Raise the fines?
And Soviet dissidents knew their actions could have consequences; did that make the laws under which they were imprisoned wise or just?
Are those risks and damages qualitatively different from those related to alcohol use? Should that drug also be banned?
Nor do all of us oppose legalization.
Alcohol and tobacco are harmful too; the conservative response is to require sellers to disclose risks and let adult buyers make their own decisions.
Surely there is some upper limit on how much you can have and still plead down to simple possession.
I was all for legalizing pot in Colorado to see the results, to test the various theories. The results have been been devastating.
Our teen-aged runaway problem has 100 folded, easily. Teens are leaving home in other States to come here so they can smoke pot.
Crime has gotten so bad that the once yuppified 16th Street mall in downtown Denver is a no-go zone at night and barely passable during the day.
The once power Mexican mafia that controlled pot distribution was driven out with legal pot only to return even a stronger force with cheaper pot. The liberals taxed pot to more than 4 times the illegal pot prices.
Even though legal pot growing for personal consumption is very reasonable (12 plants per person), illegal grow houses are springing up in neighborhoods. The cost of legal pot is ridiculous and illegal pot is now being sold much, much cheaper.
Edibles were cute when they first came out but have made their way into school kid’s backpacks. Is that a Gummy Bear or an edible shaped like one?
The taxes on pot were supposed to go to schools and social affairs. It didn’t. The taxes have been squandered, as expected.
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