Consequences of Prohibition
Drug War Issues
Politics & Advocacy
A marijuana sales bill is moving in Vermont, a bill to have state-run pot shops is filed in New Mexico, Idaho's governor signs a naloxone access expansion bill, the Sinaloa Cartel lives, and more.
Even in Idaho, there's a need for naloxone. Now, access to the opioid overdose reversal drug is expanded. (Creative Commons)
Vermont Legal Marijuana Sales Bill Advances. A bill that would set up a system of taxed and regulated legal marijuana commerce in the state has passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 4-1 vote. SB 54 would establish a Cannabis Control Board to issue licenses for cannabis manufacturers, retailers and testing facilities. Sales would be taxed at 10 percent, and local municipalities would have the option of imposing an additional two percent tax. The bill now heads to the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, which must approve it before it goes to the Senate floor.
New Mexico GOP Senator's Marijuana Legalization Bill Would Feature State-Run Pot Shops. Sen. Mark Moores (R-Albuquerque) and three cosponsors filed SB 577 Thursday. Like another bill already filed, the measure would legalize marijuana in the state but would have the state operate retail marijuana shops. The measure is currently before the Senate Public Affairs Committee.
Medical Marijuana
Georgia Bill Would Let Dispensaries Sell CBD Cannabis Oil. A bill filed Thursday would fix the state's CBD cannabis oil law so that patients could actually obtain the drug. Under current state law, patients can use and possess it, but have no legal means of obtaining it. HB 324 would allow for the sale of CBD cannabis oil to patients through dispensaries.
Missouri Expungement Bill for Patients Advances. A bill that would let registered medical marijuana patients have their misdemeanor marijuana offenses expunged has been approved by the House Committee on Criminal Justice in a 7-2 vote. The measure, HB 341, has support in both chambers of the legislature and it is believed Gov. Mike Parsons (R) would sign it.
Harm Reduction
Idaho Governor Signs Expansive Naloxone Access Bill into Law. Gov. Brad Little (R) has signed into law HB 12, which expands access to the opioid overdose reversal drug in the state. It will go into effect on July 1.
International
El Chapo May Be Gone, But the Sinaloa Cartel Carries On. Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman may be buried deep in the federal prison system, but the Sinaloa Cartel is still in business—and business is booming. The cartel, now under the leadership of second-in-command Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, continues to make massive drug shipments to the US, as recent huge, multi-drug busts at the border attest. "It’s still a major, major force in the Mexican criminal underworld," Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope said. It still controls worldwide contacts that can ship Colombian cocaine around the world and import precursor drugs into Mexico to be cooked up and exported north. Zambada has overcome a succession fight after El Chapo's arrest and is now firmly in control.
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
Comments
Prohibition solves nothing and creates 2 huge problems
I don't particularly want to minimize the problems resulting from hard drug use. But prohibiton turns users into designated 'enemies of society', a rebel status that some people will predictably embrace, at the expense of respect for law and good police-community relations. It gives black market dealers a huge incentive to recruit new customers, as any prohibitionist should be honest enough to admit. Prohibiton makes honest drug education impossible, unless drug educators are prepared to admit how much hypocrisy the law is showing. And the racial aspect of enforcement, coming down so much harder on blacks than whites, is the last thing a country with our racial history needs.
But the 2 huge problems I'm referring to are the empowerment of the worldwide black market, on a scarcely imaginable scale, including the iceberg of corruption and money laundering, controlling whole countries, and using the most ruthless tactics to maintain power, with countless innocents caught in the middle of that.
And the vast amount of street crime, including murders, committed by addicts needing to pay black market prices.
Few people believe the war against hard drugs can be won anymore, and most know about how much destruction the war is causing, but our so called leaders can't be bothered to think about possible alternatives. Just let it roll on on automatic pilot, who cares? It's safe where they do their power thing.
Marijuana Legalization and Fascism
Trump and the Republicans are fascist authoritarians; they care not one little bit for the well-being of the citizenry.
Additionally, and as it so happens, Trump is a Putin operative. Collusion? Fuck yes collusion, right out in the open, so let's cut the crap. He doesn't much bother to hide it. Thus, the Republicans -- Trump, McConnell, Ryan, Rand, Murkowski... the whole lot of them -- are criminal traitors to the United States of America.
Now, if you are a Trump supporter, maybe you don't care about all that.
But fascism and marijuana legalization are mutually exclusive. Marijuana legalization, by definition, requires a functioning democracy; and that is something which fascism does not permit.
Fascism is here, now. It's only a matter of degree now, a matter of consolidating power. Republican "Alternative facts" (otherwise known as propaganda and/or lies) are NO BETTER THAN REEFER MADNESS. Putin does not approve of marijuana legalization, and neither does Trump, and neither does the GOP!!
Fuck Trump. And fuck his numbnut, dumbass, racist, asshole supporters.
If The Resistance fails, authoritarian fascism follows; then, marijuana legalization itself fails.
Get on the Big Blue Wave for 2020! Register to vote now!!
https://www.vote.org
Add new comment