Posted on 09/18/2022 2:30:38 PM PDT by Libloather
Since the marijuana legalization era began in 2012, the federal government has operated under an unwritten understanding that it would not enforce marijuana laws in states where the drug is legal.
So, how is that working out?
The Los Angeles Times looked for answers in rural California and published the results in a new series this month. California legalized the recreational use of marijuana by referendum in 2016. Proponents promised that a taxable and orderly marijuana trade would be the result, a clear improvement over the violent black market trade that had preceded legalization. They promised that the legal marijuana trade would squeeze the illegal trade out of business.
The exact opposite is now happening.
In short, the consequences of federal nonenforcement and reduced state penalties for marijuana offenses are not pretty. The emergence of a regulated marijuana trade has not reduced crime in California - rather, it has spread crime out into the rural areas and turned local politics across the state into a morass of corruption.
Local politicians now take and demand huge bribes in exchange for growing licenses and legislative support for expanding the industry. According to one source quoted by the Los Angeles Times, bribe requests are typically in the low six-figures. Federal law enforcement authorities have at least been somewhat involved in running sting operations and prosecuting corrupt officials. But for every rock they turn over, there have to be dozens they miss.
And that's just the legal trade. Given the relative absence of federal drug enforcement and reduced state criminal penalties as a result of Proposition 64, illegal and completely unregulated marijuana growing operations have sprung up across California. Heavily armed camps filled with violent armed men, often tied to cartels, now dot the countryside. The neighbors are far too scared to ask questions...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
My hired hand of many years fell in with a florida man who moved here. I think my recovering alcoholic fell into medical marajuana. He became in a constant fog. I fired him. Should have done it sooner. Gave him benefit of a few dozens of doubt. He was a bigger liability than I wanted to admit. That scared me when i did admit it.
Sad for him. I need the help but not that kind.
Stoners were easy to recognise in college in the 70s.
Really? Why
All that the 'War on Drugs' did was turn America into a police state. The war was lost and we ended up with a gunned-up, militant, gestapo police.
It is well past time for it to end.
Do you think facilitating, aiding and encouraging doesn’t make the destruction and abuse worse?
How about we just don’t have any laws or regulation at all? Would’nt that be wonderful?
In Wyoming today I watched a man pay $230 for just 2 cartons of cigarettes. The governments are robbing smokers blind
Fallacy: argumentum or reductio ad absurdum.
I see you speak BS. Good for you!
Remember the Guess Who and their great song, “No Time”?
I don’t have time for pig wrestling.
Pot smokers don’t dream.
Any moron could figure out this would happen. Unfortunately people dumber than morons are the ones pushing legalization.
And, specifically, where are the inaccuracies? Need chapter and verse.
Seems to me that there are now TWO organized crime syndicates controlling weed - the “legal, state run” crime syndicate and the criminal crime syndicate.
Yes, I have read extensively about this poison! Said research and my experience of life have convinced me that legalizing marijuana is a VERY BAD IDEA!
I was a Navy drug and alcohol abuse counselor on the early 1970s. To coin a phrase, “It was bad shit then, and it is bad shit now!”
Where, specifically, has the “influence of organized crime” been “reduced by making the growing and selling of weed legal?”
“I think weed is very dangerous, but making it illegal hasn’t slowed its use in the slightest.”
Yeah, if you make it illegal and don’t enforce the law that’s what you get.
But if you enforce it like, say, Singapore does, believe me, it makes a huge difference.
One of the biggest proponents of legal weed was William F. Buckley.
Is that you Harry J. Anslinger?
I am. A recovering alcoholic. I wouldn't support a return to prohibition.
My point was that you are using a logical fallacy in your debate.
As you know, logical fallacies are dishonest ways of winning a debate (they don't actually win, do they) and in very poor form.
Again, the fallacy you used was an "argumentum ad absurdum" ("How about we just don’t have any laws or regulation at all? Would’nt that be wonderful?").
If you think I am a pig for bringing this up or that this is BS, well, I think that reflects more on you than on me.
Oh, and calling your opponent in debate a name--in this case, "pig"--is another logically fallacy. Ad hominem.
Personal attacks in debate don't really work do they?
But as to organized crime, I think you are incorrect. I suggest that you might have a confirmation bias in that you are letting your righteous hatred of drugs color your perception.
Exactly why would organized crime be involved in any "legal" activity (except perhaps the way the mafia is also in the pizza business as a front for tax purposes)?
Why is organized crime involved in "legally" growing weed as an illegal activity?
To your other point, I agree that the state acts like a crime syndicate, but that isn't the issue here. The issue here is the illegality vs legality of weed and why organized crime syndicates would be involved.
You can do your own research, but there have been many cases showing exactly the opposite. Legalizing weed takes the criminal out of the equation because it is no longer illegal.
Now I realize that weed grown in one state can be shipped "illegally" to another state. But there are laws to enforce that. Whether or not such laws are enforced would be beyond the scope of the argument of legalized weed, wouldn't it?
Of course, that is our society's prerogative.
That said, I can remember back in the 1960's when people went to prison for the possession of a single joint. I personally am glad I never went to prison for such an infraction.
Isn't it still illegal re: the harm it brings to others? Where it isn't, laws are certainly needed. But that is another matter beyond the discussion of whether or not weed is legal.
As has been pointed out by others up thread, if society concludes that the illegality of weed is unacceptable, that society may enact laws against it.
I personally think it is similar to alcohol in that prohibition was an awful way of trying to control its usage.
As a former addict, I can attest to the devastating effect of drugs. But making them illegal is not an effective way of preventing abuse.
The greatest weapon against drugs and alcohol is the TRUTH about them.
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