What's new
  • Please note members who been with us for more than 10 years have been upgraded to "Veteran" status and will receive exclusive benefits. If you wish to find out more about this or support IcMag and get same benefits, check this thread here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying to Keep Marijuana Illegal

T

trem0lo

http://truth-out.org/news/item/8854...est-groups-lobbying-to-keep-marijuana-illegal

Last year, over 850,000 people in America were arrested for marijuana-related crimes. Despite public opinion, the medical community, and human rights experts all moving in favor of relaxing marijuana prohibition laws, little has changed in terms of policy.

There have been many great books and articles detailing the history of the drug war. Part of America’s fixation with keeping the leafy green plant illegal is rooted in cultural and political clashes from the past.

However, we at Republic Report think it’s worth showing that there are entrenched interest groups that are spending large sums of money to keep our broken drug laws on the books:

1.) Police Unions: Police departments across the country have become dependent on federal drug war grants to finance their budget. In March, we published a story revealing that a police union lobbyist in California coordinated the effort to defeat Prop 19, a ballot measure in 2010 to legalize marijuana, while helping his police department clients collect tens of millions in federal marijuana-eradication grants. And it’s not just in California. Federal lobbying disclosures show that other police union lobbyists have pushed for stiffer penalties for marijuana-related crimes nationwide.

2.) Private Prisons Corporations: Private prison corporations make millions by incarcerating people who have been imprisoned for drug crimes, including marijuana. As Republic Report’s Matt Stoller noted last year, Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest for-profit prison companies, revealed in a regulatory filing that continuing the drug war is part in parcel to their business strategy. Prison companies have spent millions bankrolling pro-drug war politicians and have used secretive front groups, like the American Legislative Exchange Council, to pass harsh sentencing requirements for drug crimes.

3.) Alcohol and Beer Companies: Fearing competition for the dollars Americans spend on leisure, alcohol and tobacco interests have lobbied to keep marijuana out of reach. For instance, the California Beer & Beverage Distributors contributed campaign contributions to a committee set up to prevent marijuana from being legalized and taxed.

4.) Pharmaceutical Corporations: Like the sin industries listed above, pharmaceutical interests would like to keep marijuana illegal so American don’t have the option of cheap medical alternatives to their products. Howard Wooldridge, a retired police officer who now lobbies the government to relax marijuana prohibition laws, told Republic Report that next to police unions, the “second biggest opponent on Capitol Hill is big PhRMA” because marijuana can replace “everything from Advil to Vicodin and other expensive pills.”

5.) Prison Guard Unions: Prison guard unions have a vested interest in keeping people behind bars just like for-profit prison companies. In 2008, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association spent a whopping $1 million to defeat a measure that would have “reduced sentences and parole times for nonviolent drug offenders while emphasizing drug treatment over prison.”
 

Hazeo

Active member
Veteran
Heytrem0lo,

thank you for posting that piece...

It is rather funny, i never thought about that before...
...okay, that the police and pharma-lobby is against it, isn´t new, but prison corporations and prison guard unions, of course!, why did this never came to my mind.
Okay, the prison-thing is an issue that is relevant mostly in the US, cause the laws against marijuana are so rigorous in most parts.
But that is definitely something to think about, especially if one is a marijuana-lobbyist and trying to free the herb!!! :D


thanks for posting mate!

high regards
Hazeo
 

Blue Socks

Member
They forgot to list: " Illegal Drug Cartels"

I firmly believe these guys are covertly funding the War on Drugs to keep themselves in business. Kind of a Gustavo Fring situation. They work to keep the laws on the books and in turn they get the higher black market prices that illegality brings. I have no proof (maybe one day!) but I bet you some part of those billions that the cartels get is spent lobbying in America to keep drugs illegal.
 

Crusader Rabbit

Active member
Veteran
LEO loves those forfeiture laws. It's turned the police into bounty hunters. How much money and toys they can score on a bust helps determine the allocation of police forces. What a good deal to barge into a room full of stoners and confiscate all their property instead of spending time fighting real criminals who might actually fight back.

A few months ago I was scanning the job listings in Craigslist and noticed an opening as a representative for a forfeiture law consultation firm. Spent some time on a search engine checking this out. There is a whole industry out there advising police departments how to better manage their operations to maximize the forfeiture haul when they confiscate all the assets of the accused. Our drug laws are a gravy train for the prison industrial complex. They will fight to the bitter end to keep it running.
 

Hash Zeppelin

Ski Bum Rodeo Clown
Premium user
ICMag Donor
Veteran
They forgot to list: " Illegal Drug Cartels"

I firmly believe these guys are covertly funding the War on Drugs to keep themselves in business. Kind of a Gustavo Fring situation. They work to keep the laws on the books and in turn they get the higher black market prices that illegality brings. I have no proof (maybe one day!) but I bet you some part of those billions that the cartels get is spent lobbying in America to keep drugs illegal.

There is nothing covert about it. High ranking CIA, FBI, DEA, and US Border Patrol officers have been caught running drugs for cartels. Bank of America, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo have been caught multiple times laundering several BILLION dollars for the cartels. Their punishment each time was ten percent of their profit in fines.

LEO loves those forfeiture laws. It's turned the police into bounty hunters. How much money and toys they can score on a bust helps determine the allocation of police forces. What a good deal to barge into a room full of stoners and confiscate all their property instead of spending time fighting real criminals who might actually fight back.

A few months ago I was scanning the job listings in Craigslist and noticed an opening as a representative for a forfeiture law consultation firm. Spent some time on a search engine checking this out. There is a whole industry out there advising police departments how to better manage their operations to maximize the forfeiture haul when they confiscate all the assets of the accused. Our drug laws are a gravy train for the prison industrial complex. They will fight to the bitter end to keep it running.

The drug war is literally the only thing hold this corporate owned plutocratic semi-police state together. Ending it crucial. I honestly think most of these cops should have their heads chopped off with something serrated rusty, and dull..... or at least reassigned to a non drug task force. really though when you think about it, if you eliminate the drug war we only need about half of the cops we have, and that isfrom a liberal point of view. Make the rest of them become firemen or teachers or something. My view is fire every single one of them. There should be one elected sheriff in a town and a few deputies. If something is bad enough to use law enforcement against they can form a legal posse and go arrest them. wild west style

dexter_poster.jpg
 
Last edited:

GP73LPC

Strain Collector/Seed Junkie/Landrace Accumulator/
Veteran
the common thread in all groups against legalizaation.... THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR

America and it's totally fucking capitalistic culture has many EVIL sides to it...
 

Hash Zeppelin

Ski Bum Rodeo Clown
Premium user
ICMag Donor
Veteran
^It is not capitalism or democracy when only the richest on percent controls 50 percent of the wealth and are allowed to influence elections, and law makers with endless money and lobbyist. What we have is called a corporate plutocracy. In a true capitalistic, democratic republic, the playing field is even. That is not the case by any means these days. Corporations receive more welfare than all social programs put together. Law makers love taking tax payer dollars this way because it ensures that some of it will be put in their pockets.

Corporatism - Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common interests.[1] Corporatism is theoretically based upon the interpretation of a community as an organic body.[2][3] The term corporatism is based on the Latin root "corp" meaning "body".[3]
In 1881, Pope Leo XIII commissioned theologians and social thinkers to study corporatism and provide a definition for it. In 1884 in Freiburg, the commission declared that corporatism was a "system of social organization that has at its base the grouping of men according to the community of their natural interests and social functions, and as true and proper organs of the state they direct and coordinate labor and capital in matters of common interest."[4]
One of the main types of corporatism is economic tripartism involving negotiations between business, labour, and state interest groups to establish economic policy.

Plutocracy (from Ancient Greek ploutos, meaning "wealth", and kratos, meaning "power, rule") is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth.

Aristocracy (Greek ἀριστοκρατία aristokratía, from ἄριστος aristos "excellent," and κράτος kratos "power"), is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule.[1] The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best".[2] In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy. In later times, aristocracy was usually seen as rule by a privileged group (the aristocratic class), and contrasted with democracy

http://markmaynard.com/2010/04/plutocracy-in-america/

Plutocracy in America

The Nation just ran a good piece on American Plutocracy. Plutocracy, for those of you who don’t know, is a political system in which those with wealth rule. Under such a system, opportunities for social mobility are limited, and there’s an enormous disparity between those with money (and power) and those without it. Of particular interest in the Nation article is a graph demonstrating this extreme inequality as it’s evolved over time. Here are the key data points:

The greater the gap between the rich and everyone else, the more dangerously unstable economies become. In 1928, a year before the U.S. economy nose-dived into depression, the top one-hundredth of 1 percent of U.S. families averaged 892 times more income than families in the bottom 90 percent.

In 1980, the last pre-Reagan year, families in the bottom 90 percent averaged $30,446 in income, after adjusting for inflation, $72 more than the $30,374 comparable families earned in 2006. The top 0.01 percent in 1980 took home an average $5.4 million, less than one-fifth the $29.6 million average income of the super-rich in 2006.

In 2006 the top 0.01 percent averaged 976 times more income that America’s bottom 90 percent.

And I imagine that it’s gotten worse since 2006… And, to make matters worse, while income has risen for this group, the top marginal tax rate has fallen precipitously… Here are a few more take-aways from the graph:

In 1944 the top marginal tax rate – the rate on income in the highest tax bracket – hit 94 percent. In that year, taxpayers making more than $1 million, in 2005 inflation-adjusted dollars, paid Uncle Sam 65 percent of their total income in tax.

In 2005 taxpayers making more than $1 million faced a top marginal rate of 35 percent. Their deep pockets paid just 23 percent of their income in federal tax.

And, as a result of the rich making more money, and keeping more money, our nation’s wealth is concentrating in the hands of a relatively small number of people. We are essentially creating an American aristocracy.

There’s a hell of a lot that we need to do as a nation, but, right up there with getting ourselves out of the middle east, and funding alternative energy research, we need to start raising taxes on the super-rich. And we need to do a better job of framing the debate. We can’t allow an unchallenged FOX News make the tax debate about the 47% of American households that pay no federal taxes. We need to make it about the wealthy, who aren’t paying their share, and the companies like Exxon that earn tens of billions of dollars a year and contribute nothing in the way of taxes. We’ve got to stop Glenn Beck and his ilk from making this about “those conniving poor,” and make it about the facts. We need to show people how the effective tax rate on the rich has fallen precipitously over time, and explain how that increases instability. We need to show people why it is that the American middle class is drying up and blowing away.

And I realize that some will read this and say that I’m advocating class warfare. I’m not. I’m not saying that we should take money from the rich and hand it over to the 50% of Americans that have nothing. I’m not a proponent of wholesale wealth redistribution. What I am in favor of, however, is the wealthy paying their fair share, so that we can educate our children, help our fellow citizens when the need a hand, and invest in the future our nation. And, if the Democrats can’t articulate that, we need a new party that can.
 

GP73LPC

Strain Collector/Seed Junkie/Landrace Accumulator/
Veteran
i don't disagree Hash....

i was really just referring to the FUCKING GREEDY BASTARDS in the U.S, for which nothing matters but MORE MONEY at any cost...
 

Hash Zeppelin

Ski Bum Rodeo Clown
Premium user
ICMag Donor
Veteran
there will always be greedy bastards around no matter what system of society. It is just a human folly.
 

Preacher

Member
Sad: the debate always comes down to money.
Sadder: the only way to change which path the authorities follow is to fling the most money at whatever position gets them that money.

The earliest major blow to cannabis prohibition is going to come at the hands of the first person to convince these five groups there's more money in reform.
 

Blue Socks

Member
Sad: the debate always comes down to money.
Sadder: the only way to change which path the authorities follow is to fling the most money at whatever position gets them that money.

The earliest major blow to cannabis prohibition is going to come at the hands of the first person to convince these five groups there's more money in reform.

The wolf and the lamb can never be friends, that's the way it is unfortunatley
 

GP73LPC

Strain Collector/Seed Junkie/Landrace Accumulator/
Veteran
If you see a problem, follow the money and there you will find the cause of the problem...
 

Hash Zeppelin

Ski Bum Rodeo Clown
Premium user
ICMag Donor
Veteran
^my problem is I have no money. what is there to follow now? And that is nobodies fault but mine.

"na na na na na nobodies fault but Miiiiine."

obplant.jpg
 

GP73LPC

Strain Collector/Seed Junkie/Landrace Accumulator/
Veteran
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Hash Zeppelin again. :cry:
 

itisme

Active member
Veteran
All of those are Illuminati controlled.


To HASHZEPs.. Point.

So they launder money, travel with tons of cocaine, and want to brain wash us take our guns......Some call these facts a CONSPIRACY :D HHHmmmmm! Is it an accident that the guy that wanted to brainwash us GOT CAUGHT RUNNING GUNS????

CIA 4 TONS of COCAINE- TORTURE JET
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2007/131207_b_cocaine.htm


Holder Says People Need to be Brainwashed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYyqBxD-3xw


Eric Holder Admits To Congress: Fast And Furious Was Executed ‘Extremely Poorly’
On Fox News’ America Live, Megyn Kelly reported that Attorney General Eric Holder was unable to hold back his emotions during his testimony on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Holder admitted that the program, which was linked to the shooting death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, had been executed extremely poorly. “It was a bad attempt at trying to deal with a very pernicious problem, where guns are flowing from the United States to Mexico,” Holder divulged. “In its conception, in its execution, it was fundamentally flawed,” Holder said about Fast and Furious. “I understand what they were trying to do, but they were doing it extremely, extremely poorly… it’s bad law enforcement.”
RELATED: AG Eric Holder Chews Out GOP Rep: ‘Maybe This Is The Way You Do Things In Idaho Or Wherever You’re From’
“That was a fundamentally flawed program,” Holder continued. “I can agree with some of my harshest critics, there are legitimate issues that need to be explored with regard to the way “Operation Fast and Furious” was carried out. But one thing that has to be understood is once this was brought to my attention, I stopped it. I stopped it. In spite of what other Attorneys General might have done with briefings they got. When this Attorney General heard about these practices I said to them, ‘men and women of the United States Department of Justice, to the field, this ain’t going to be the way we conduct business. Stop it!”
Kelly invited Congressman Darrell Issa to respond to Holder’s testimony. “I asked for people to come before our committee,” Issa fumed. “Others have taken the Fifth. Others we are still trying to get. I told the Attorney General that it is contemptible and I will seek, if necessary, contempt of the House if we can’t get cooperation under the Constitution in our investigation.”
 

medmaker420

The Aardvarks LED Grow Show
Veteran
Just remember that our government is a reflection of the people.

We elect fellow Americans into these positions and we can choose to elect those who will actually follow the constitution and leave us the fuck alone to live our lives as we choose.

We need to stop electing morons like Obama and Romney who will do everything possible to limit our liberties and impose bigger government on us whenever possible.

If herb was legalized at the fed level then it would be up to the states to choose their own drug laws. It would allow people to move to states that have laws they like OR stay and fight for them versus one big ol trump card that the fed can always use to shut state rights up.

Whether people realize it or not, we need people like Ron Paul who actually follow the constitution at all levels of government from local on up to federal doing something as simple as following the constitution. There was a reason it was written and why it worked so well for so long, it only stopped feeling FREE around here once we started walking away from that document.

Just because we are moving forward and into the future does not mean that we need to forget everything this country used to stand for.

There will always be special interests groups but if personal liberties were ALLOWED again there wouldn't be any incentive in dumping millions into scaring the shit out of parents about their kids and pot and other bs scare tactics.
 
T

trem0lo

Just remember that our government is a reflection of the people.

In other words, we get the government we deserve. Unfortunately it tends to grow out of our control.

Ron Paul is correct when he talks about subsidies and government: When you subsidize something, you get more of it. Whether it's welfare or warfare, it rarely (if ever) shrinks.

The drug war is an example of government that's grown so big and out-of-control that it's a ridiculous farce based on lies and half-truths. This lobbying is simply the establishment trying to protect itself; essentially the weeds that have grown up around the drug war trying to keep their jobs.
 
Top