DEA laments that “media attention” is making it tough to put people in jail for pot

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...aking-it-tough-to-put-people-in-jail-for-pot/

THey can cry me a river tbh, the people have spoken and they want an end to these fascist policies.

 

Illinois just passed a law that lets officers decide weather or not to even charge people for pot possesson. If they do it's only a ticket.

I'm fine with it.

Most cops won't bust an adult for weed.

 

If the pro-pot movement had made compromise and concession a part of their platform this issue would have been resolved years ago.

Fact is when you have a bunch of people screaming "F the fascist police now wheres my bong" there's going to be heavy resistance because it comes off as lawless anarchy.

Pro-pot people could have come out asking for legalization but demanding that harsh punishments be applied to people who violate the public trust by committing crimes either while high or in pursuit of the product.

But they never did any of that, they didn't even come close.

If pot were legal I'd use it but its not important to me so I don't care to support it.

What I do care about is my family driving down the road and getting hit by some degenerate who thought they could drive stoned because nobody on their side of the table ever made a strong stance about being responsible.

Think about gun culture for a second.

Responsibility is a HUGE part of gun ownership.

Its a common theme represented in literature, in products, in youtube videos, you name it, and its written into the laws.

But do we associated responsible behavior with smoking pot?

No, we don't - because nobody is making the effort to do so.

I've always said pro-pot people could win a lot of support if they just addressed this one thing.

 

The DEA generally sends people to prison, not jail, for chronic.

 

Driving under the influence is already illegal, show me one pro pot advocate who supports endangering others. Fact is, prohibition is what has created the social pathologies which causes incidents of violence and theft in the pursuit of any substance.

 

Good point, but it seems pro-pot people are getting the support without making a bigger issue of responsibility. What are you doing about it, by the way? Are you contacting your representatives, making it known that responsible marijuana use is important to you?

 

He said, in no uncertain terms, that he doesn't care about marijuana use at all. Why the hell would he "do something about it"?

Do you REALLY think that the alcohol industry pushes for harsher penalties for irresponsible use? Do you think THAT is how prohibition was ended? Does it bother you at all that legal alcohol causes death of the user and innocents in its path and marijuana deaths outside of combined use account for fewer than trip and falls? Like the quoted poster, I have no skin in the game... but if the illegality of a thing causes more suffering than the illegal thing, I oppose its prohibition.

 

If people want certain acts to be legal then they shouldn't convict people for doing them.

 

Because he also said he worries about his family becoming victims of car accident with a stoned driver, so he obviously cares more than he's letting on.

No, I don't. That was point I was getting to. If he's so worried about his family, he's the one who ought to be contacting representatives, contacting companies within the industry to pressure them to advocate for more responsibility among users, etc. He's coming on this thread basically saying he thinks someone else should make his case for him. I think that's pretty irresponsible in itself.

 

What with CIA longtime involvement in drug smuggling, and with this from the DEA, maybe more people are beginning to see the fraud of the drug war/prohibition?

 

You would have to have a lot of weed to go to prison..... Like a moving truck full of weed.

Even then you would get like 4 years and do 1.5 years of that.

 

There are already laws on the books making driving under the influence of drugs a crime, prescription or illegal.

Why would anyone try and get laws on the books that already exist?

 

It's difficult to calculate the total "suffering" that comes from liberalized weed laws. The issue is not so simple.

 

Freedom is messy. Cheeseburgers and dog tracks cause greater suffering.

 

There is no suffering....

I will say there are a lot of moron potheads out there tho, but there are plenty of responsible professional people out there that smoke pot too.

 

Not how the feds work. It takes very little weed to end you up in federal prison if you get arrested by a federal agent. Now locally, you could have a bale of weed and get $15 fine plus cost LOL.

 

The only way the Feds get involved is if they can prove the weed was transported from point A to point B and it was over state lines.

If I had a room full of weed in my house the Feds wouldn't get involved.

 

Not exactly true. A lot of times the drug sweeps are done by federal, state and local task forces working together. Even then, the feds can pull up cases if they were not involved, not that it happens often unless it was a high profile arrest/operation and they hope the person can flip on somebody. A lady who works for the local courthouse told me one time they were praying the feds would do that but never did because it was freaking everybody out there to have almost a million dollars in cash and a pick up truck load of coke in the courthouse complex during the trial as they really were not set up for securing that kind of load.

 

Back in the day the cops raided me..... I know how it works.

There was no FBI or DEA - I know sometimes they're used but in most cases they aren't. Most counties have their own task forces.

 

Our local PD just stockpiles the list and does it a couple times a year like clockwork as part of a joint taskforce. By the time they get there though, the 16 year old with a joint or 45 year old with some bowl residue is about the best they get. Not sure if it that the newer judges have a higher threshold for probable cause or because the PD really is having trouble finding uniformed officers, let alone undercover ones these days.

 

They didn't find anything in my house besides like (and this is literal here) .25 of a gram of weed. Not even a bowl full.

Not only that but they got their warrant by finding an old bag of pot that had less than that in it in my garbage. Yea, they dug in my garbage...

They do sweeps here about twice a year as well, but it's just the local taskforce.

They stopped targeting recreational pot smokers around here a while ago...

 

It was no secret that the Judge most folks saw first if they got picked up for weed grew his own, so a lot of people who did get busted got off with nothing much beyond court costs. He didn't need much of a reason to toss the case, get on his Harley and drive on out to the redneck bar and shoot some pool. He isn't long retired, so we may end up with a hang em high system again. Remains to be seen.

 

Well, I was only 18 or 19 when they got me and they threw me in jail for 2 weeks with a 50K bond and this was over .25 of a gram of weed.. That is like 1/112th of an ounce

Seems like these task forces like to screw with kids.

Now, most cops do nothing about weed if you're "normal". At the very most they will give you a ticket for anything less than an ounce.

 

Agreed. I just don't think America needs another method of anesthetizing their brain synapses in a deal with greedy money grubbing bureaucrats eager
to increase tax revenue.
A long term study of ALL the costs of weed in a society might find that, just like "cheap" illegal labor, the bargain isn't so great after all.

 

I don't like the taxes either..... Politicians just think they can tax vices because fascists will support said taxes. They demonize a product then tax it... Same goes for alcohol or cigarettes.

Weed shouldn't even be "illegal" in the first place..

If the government can go after something and tax it - they will.