 |
Photo Credit: Theequinest
|
Why we still put hundreds of thousands of people in steel cages for pot-related offenses.
March 7, 2012
John Lovell is a lobbyist who makes
a lot of money from making sure you can’t smoke a joint. That’s his
job. He’s a lobbyist for the police unions in Sacramento, and he is a
driving force behind grabbing Federal dollars to shut down the
California marijuana industry. I’ll get to the evidence on this
important story in a bit, but first, some context.
At some point in the distant past, the war on drugs might have been popular. But not anymore — the polling is clear, but beyond that, the last three Presidents have used illegal drugs. So why do we still put hundreds of thousands of people in
steel cages for pot-related offenses? Well, there are many reasons, but
one of them is, of course, money in politics. Corruption. Whatever you
want to call it, it’s why you can’t smoke a joint without committing a
crime, though of course you can ingest any number of pills or drinks
completely within the law.
Some
of the groups who want to keep the drug illegal are police unions that
want more members to pay more dues. One of the primary sources for cash
for more policing activities are Federal grants for penalizing illegal
drug use, which help pay for overtime, additional police officers, and
equipment for the force. That’s what Lovell does, he gets those grants.
He also fights against democratic mechanisms to legalize drugs.
In 2010, California considered Prop 19, a measure to legalize marijuana and tax it as alcohol. The proposition gained more votesthan
Meg Whitman, the former eBay executive and Republican gubernatorial
nominee that year, but failed to pass. Opponents of the initiative ran ads, organized rallies, and spread conspiracy theories about billionaire George Soros to confuse voters.
No comments:
Post a Comment