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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPolice and Prison Guard Groups Fight Marijuana Legalization in California
Roughly half of the money raised to oppose a ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in California is coming from police and prison guard groups, terrified that they might lose the revenue streams to which they have become so deeply addicted.
Drug war money has become a notable source of funding for law enforcement interests. Huge government grants and asset-seizure windfalls benefit police departments, while the constant supply of prisoners keeps the prison business booming.
Opposition to the marijuana legalization initiative, slated to go before voters in November, has been organized by John Lovell, a longtime Sacramento lobbyist for police chiefs and prison guard supervisors. Lovells Coalition for Responsible Drug Policies, a committee he created to defeat the pot initiative, raised $60,000 during the first three months of the year, according to a disclosure filed earlier this month.
The funds came from groups representing law enforcement, including the California Police Chiefs Association, the Riverside Sheriffs Association, the Los Angeles Police Protective Leagues Issues PAC, and the California Correctional Supervisors Organization. Other donors include the California Teamsters union and the California Hospital Association, as well as Sam Action, an anti-marijuana advocacy group co-founded by former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., and former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum.
https://theintercept.com/2016/05/18/ca-marijuana-measure/
virtualobserver
(8,760 posts)dae
(3,396 posts)to fight legalization.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Mopar151
(10,014 posts)Are they figuring on more, or less business? I know that they seem to be riding the NH "heroin" (fentanyl) "epidemic" for all it's worth, and Colorado reports a significant reduction in opioid problems.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Yeah, except scientists can't make studies to find out whether it's dangerous because it's illegal.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)"It needs to be illegal because it's bad, and we know it's bad because it's illegal!"
They are really scraping the bottom of the logic barrel.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)So we are going to put you in jail and ruin your life to prove it.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Haven't ruined your life yet? Well, let us help!
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)If one doesn't want to go back that far, they can check with DEA Administrative Judge Francis Young, 1988:
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/109464-in-strict-medical-terms-marijuana-is-far-safer-than-many
bemildred
(90,061 posts)If you think about it, you realize that means it really cannot do you a lot harm along the way to the not fatal dose either, it's food-like.
ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)...havin' no plant that can be easily grown indoors or in the Back 40 and has been said can displace up to 150 pharmaceutical, profit-generating synthetic drugs.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)No further inputs needed. And it's a weed, it's not tricky to grow or process, although the MMJ business does its best to fancy it up. And it has a nice smell, floral.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)in our national psyche. It was associated with the "other" and thus dangerous, plus it makes people feel good and enjoy things like sex and eating more, which sure sounds sinful.
The whole WR Hearst hemp versus paper thing didn't help, either.
moonbabygo
(281 posts)use to tell us a story when we started having our own children about my brother who was colicky. She would go to her mother for help. My grandmother (whose from Italy) would go into the field and pick a plant (this according to my mother) and would boil the plant and add to my brother's formula. He when then sleep well. There is nothing wrong with my brother today, he is 62 healthy and was always smart. As time went on we figured it was a marijuana plant. Years later the state burnt down the whole field.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)It's odd that she wasn't known for being more amused, really.
moonbabygo
(281 posts)how lovely that sounds
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)...
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Iggo
(47,597 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)anybody with two brain cells to rub together.
MindPilot
(12,693 posts)If that is the kind of use to which the dues collected from the rank and file are put, no wonder people have soured on unions.
libodem
(19,288 posts)Its their bread and butter.
TrappedInUtah
(87 posts)The only people still opposed to MJ legalization are either profiteering off prohibition, simply ignorant or they just hate the culture associated with the herb.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Justice? This is all about the Benjamins!
shanti
(21,675 posts)who will be running in the GE. the young people are leading the charge this time. if there is no good choice for them, they simply won't show up to vote in november, which is when this initiative is on the ballot.
the last initiative was during mid-terms, almost a guarantee of failure. i was really feeling hopeful that this time, being a GE, it will finally pass. now, not so much...
PufPuf23
(8,858 posts)Oneironaut
(5,547 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)that said, if someone tried to legislate whether or not I could grow rosemary, thyme and dill in my garden, I'd be pissed.
Ruby the Liberal
(26,219 posts)we seem to focus on who is being hurt by them. We would be better served to refocus on who is profiting from them. Then we may be able to adapt sane solutions.
zappaman
(20,606 posts)This will overwhelmingly pass.