The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying To Keep Marijuana Illegal

[Unknown Beatle]

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.

Next Three

[ms liberty]

1. K&R...n/t

[SomethingFishy]

2. They are losing.

I give it 5 years before more than half the states have legalized. Once Colorado and Washington have their programs up and running and the money starts flowing the GREED will override the STUPIDITY.

[Logical]

5. 4 of us are looking forward to heading to CO next year and doing pot for the first time. Should...

be an interesting experience.

[SomethingFishy]

6. Prices are already dropping...

and quality is going up. I can't wait till they implement retail sales...

[Logical]

8. Well, I will be spending money in your state! Glad to do it. n-t

[DiverDave]

18. Heck, I'm moving there

I have been taking methadone for 4 years for pain.
I am now up to 120mg per day.
I can substitute cannabis for it and get off it for good.
I am so tired of the side effects that I seriously thought of taking the whole bottle.
I didnt, but there was a moment...

[duhneece]

20. Marijuana, the EXIT drug

I know more cigarette, alcohol, meth and heroin addicts who used marijuana as a harm-reduction step in their giving up the drug(s) that were killing them the fastest. I wish no one felt a need for pain pills, alcohol, over-eating, heroin, meth (including the pharmaceutical cousins Ritalin and Adderall), cocaine, etc. but since we ARE human and many of us will feel the need to self-medicate, I've seen marijuana be a very healthy-in-a-harm-reduction way option.

[DiverDave]

21. The pain I have is hardly affected

by it anymore.
Used to work great, much better then oxys or morphine.
The half life is longer.
But like all of them I got used to them.
I really need to get off them, and with cannabis I think I can.

[duhneece]

22. There are people in Colorado who can help you find the best for your condition

I"m sure there are others in other places, too, but I KNOW of one in Boulder CO who talks to me about which cannabis product works best for which conditions. They manufacture supporsitories (not the sexy marijuana-as-tasty-fun treats) for those with stomach & colon cancers and it is amazing that they are getting good as distionguishing what helps what conditions best.
I pray you find something that helps your pain and I KNOW medical marijuana can help you. I feel it in my bones.

[CrispyQ]

26. Zonker moves to Boulder . . .

Marijuana: Doonesbury's Zonker moving to Boulder to become "respected drug lord"



http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2013/04/marijuana_doonesbury_zonker_drug_lord.php

snip...

Over the past few days, Zonker and his nephew, Zipper, have been saying their goodbyes as they head toward our fair state. Here's a hilarious example from April 19:

~toons at link

[Logical]

27. LOL!

[CrispyQ]

30. The edibles . . . oh my!

These are not your college pot brownies. They not only do they taste great, they are powerful!

If a little bit of medicated brownie makes you want to eat more brownie, may I suggest that you have your fave non-medicated brownies on hand. This way, you can eat a portion of your med-brownie & when you go, "Oh, a little more brownie would be nice!" you can finish up with a plain brownie. Unless you're looking for a really fine, fine nap, then, by all means, enjoy the entire med-brownie!

They have brownie mixes, too. Just like Duncan Hines. ~no shit.

You are gonna love Colorado!

Save your money.

[Logical]

31. It will be interesting to get high for the first time.....

Thanks for the information!

I don't think I can smoke it. Never smoked anything. Even once.

I have heard that eating it is harder to control the high. And takes a while to kick in. Is that true.

I am thinking maybe using a vaporizer. Any experience with that?

I am really curious how it will feel. Looking forward to it.

[wildbilln864]

3. and the cancer industry....nt

[msongs]

4. any democrat supporting privatized prisons needs to be drummed out of the party IMO nt

[AverageJoe90]

7. Surprised that Big Tobacco isn't on here.

After all, they were the first ones to jump on illegalization back in the day......thanks for the article, Unknown Beatle.

[Unknown Beatle]

10. You're welcome, AJ90

Big Tobacco has a vested interested in the legalization of marijuana. It would be very easy for them to package it and sell it just like they do cigarettes, so it's no surprise to me that they wouldn't be included in the top five.

[Cha]

11. Well, I learned something. thanks Unknown Beatle

[AverageJoe90]

12. They do, now?(Links, if you may?)

Very interesting if true, because back in the 1930s they were a primary force for it's becoming illegal, along with Big Booze, Big Pharma, and others.

[Unknown Beatle]

14. Here are a couple

http://www.samefacts.com/2012/10/drug-policy/the-tobacco-industrys-longstanding-desire-to-sell-marijuana-cigarettes/

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/11/19/marijuana-industry/

[AverageJoe90]

16. Times sure have changed, huh?

I don't think anyone could have seen that coming a few decades back.....thanks for the links.

[Recursion]

17. RJR and Brown have both prepared joints for when it's legalized

That's actually what terrifies me most about legalization: what Big Tobacco will do with pot.

[spanone]

9. sad that so many would forfeit our liberties for profit

[olddots]

13. Thats why civizations crumble

Hopefully we're not at the end of a cycle .

[TeamPooka]

15. K&R!

[jmondine]

19. Wasn't the lumber and paper industry instrumental in illegalizing it in the first place?

I understand that they saw hemp as a threat to their business.

[Egalitarian Thug]

24. Along with Hearst, the chemical manufacturers were backing it as well. n/t

[Egalitarian Thug]

23. K&R What a shock! n/t

[Initech]

25. The prison industry should be nationalized.

[truedelphi]

28. Launder the monies offered you by the violent drug cartels, and

While your bank gets billions in profits, you know that you as a banking executive will never see the inside of a prison cell.

But keep a medical marijuana dispensary going in Calif's Central Valley, and you will easily find yourself doing a ten year sentence.

Mr Obama, Mr Holder, have you no SHAME!

[Spike89]

29. lobbyists against it maybe, but legal pot would be good for big pharma

For crying out loud, they've managed to turn cod liver oil into a prescription medicine. Aspirin, incredibly easy to manufacture was the base profit center product for a number of the big pharma companies. Big pharma really isn't nearly as monolithic as big tobacco, and there is little doubt that given the green light, at least a few of the pharmaceutical companies would be jumping into the medical pot market. As much as they stand to lose, they have much more to gain. The reality is that the laws aren't stopping people from using medicinal pot now and many places have already semi-legalized medical pot.

If they could, they'd love to have a Bayer, Lilley, Phizer, Roche, Glazo -brand marijuana-based product for every ailment that it works on. A very large chunk of the population doesn't use pot right now because their doctors don't prescribe it, they can't get it at the local Walgreens, and because it doesn't come with a brand name.

On a side note, "cheap" pot just isn't likely to ever become legal. Many pot advocates push the economic benefits of taxing it, and the anti-pot group is likely to shift to keeping the taxes high once they lose the battle to keep it illegal. Tobacco has never really been an expensive crop, nor a black market substance with the attached inflationary price, yet it carries a pretty significant "vice tax". People already know the price pot can command, that price will drop some without prohibition, but government control and taxation will keep it from ever being significantly cheaper than now.