See the article at Just Say Now with the details.
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Now you see it. They are going to try and change the number they used as 60% cartels got from cannabis to something else. Yet they will still demonize cannabis with the same vigor, but they will try shifting our focus elsewhere on some other ‘scourge’. We all knew this day would come. They still speak out both sides of thier mouths.
It doesnt matter, we all know cannabis is the first step to ending this aweful war. We will start regaining control of our lives and regain some control over our government.
They constantly try to separate the human trfficing and alike from the drug war. Its all smaller parts of the whole problem ,all stemming from prohibition and none of it will be solved until we start somewhere , cannabis re-legization. The end of prohibition will ripple throughout government. The drug war tendrils reach throught out government and corporations alike . When cartel make statements such as thanking our government for thier power and money…how can we remain ‘ignorant’.
Curly used one of my favorites: “Can’t legalize because they would just go on to do something else illegal.”
Oh my gawd. It’s National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.
Pizza and Food again.
Yeah, a lot of people recommend keeping cannabis illegal because if you re-legalize it the drug cartels would get into real mischief so having cannabis illegal actually serves society at large.
What a waste of time. The Drug Czar has no authority. He is just a talking head, a PR person, whose only job is to recite the official government position on drugs. Might as well give that petition to me, since I have as much authority and influence when it comes to government policy as Mr. Kerlewkowski has.
Regarding the estimates of how much of the cartels’ income is from pot. Of course, you know what happened. At one point, they wanted to try to use this as a cherry-picked statistic to get people opposed to marijuana. So they had their people come up with as high an estimate as possible.
Now, however, we’re using their statistics against them, and people are more likely to believe that the 60% figure is a good reason to legalize. So the drug czar is going to want a much, much smaller figure.
I doubt that anybody has a really clear figure — it’s all wild estimates. But we do know that it’s a significant percentage. Whether it’s 60% or 30%, that’s still a big chunk of change to take away from the cartels.
This is the bottom line. Obama is a fraud. Guantanamo still open. Escalation in Afghanistan. No universal healthcare. Expanded Bush spying on Americans. Bailed out wall street criminals while allowing regular folks to continue losing their homes.No justice for torturers. Torture and extraordinary rendition to black sites. Expanding the drug war to my beloved Costa Rica. Continueing raids on dispensaries, and now hiding it to avoid backlash from another broken promise. The list goes on. And on.
It should be abundantly clear that Obama ain’t changing anything. At least Bush was honest about being a piece of shit.
They want to stop everything at the same time. The idea of picking off one problem at a time hasn’t even crossed their minds. It’s the “all or nothing” attitude that causes their continued failure.
Bush was able to engage on all of these levels at the same time. The onslaught was such that it was impossible to keep up with all the dismantling of liberties, department gutting, and appointing of “wreckers” (a term that has it’s origin in Stalinist russia) to head departments.
It constantly amazes me that people say “obama can’t do everything”, and “the president doesn’t have the power”, and “it’s congress’ fault”. The Bush Presidency proved one thing without a doubt: The President gets what he wants. Legal, ethical, contitutional, and moral restraints mean nothing. There is more latitude for Presidential action that anyone ever suspected, and Obama is using his to perpetuate Bush’s legacy. Not to do the things he campaigned on.
props to Daniel Pacheco and SSDp! They got face time w/ the Kzar… and made it count. Damn fine week so far…
and re the 60% number… I believe it was just last year that Arizona’s AG Terry Goddard said that 75% of the cartels money comes from pot sales.
i agree darkcycle….and the list goes on. and hence, no positive changes when it comes to the ‘war’ or anything else for that matter. look, as long as money is the motivator, cannabis will continue to be illegal indefinitely. observe what has happened to those states that have medical cannabis: under the guise of public safety, city councils simply try to eradicate ANY use- medical or not. so even under a ballot measure, passed by the people for the people, your rights under the aforementioned measure is mute. this country is NOT democratic, it’s a ploy to make sure people feel like they have a voice when in fact they certainly do not. with the obvious disregard for education from our ridiculously corrupt government, the majority will remain dark-matter stupid and uninformed. couple that with propaganda and poof! the stupidity will continue………..glad i had a chance to live in amsterdam and experience freedom for once!
Sometimes when I watch these drug warriors do their job, I literally yell at my computer screen or TV. This was one of those times. Goddamn bumbling Kerlikowske… he sounded so foolish, but I’m sure to that room full of bought and paid for reporters, he looked like a “hero”. I might just have to stop watching these for fear I might burst a blood vessel.
The amazing thing is, who really smokes the Mexican stuff anyway? I mean seriously, have you ever had any? I can’t believe they make any money, but I guess because it’s illegal, and the cheapest available?
Here it comes:
Link
Everyone with redeyes will be tested. Frakkin police state is here… papers please and a dna sample please.And the people think this is a good thing.
Sometimes, it’s not what’s said, but how it’s said.
Notice the reactions of the staffers. One could interpret their behavior as being a bias against the very democratic process they all, to a person, as civil servants, swore they’d protect.
Even more telling: their very palpable fear. They’re being shown as being anti-democratic, and many of them realized that. To reject the petition is to illustrate just how insular and out of touch the main organization that has the job of ‘educating’ (propagandizing) the public on illicit drugs really is. To do so publicly like that is to show their contempt for the electorate.
Seems a bureaucratic spanking is in order…though a fiscal one would be more satisfying.
I donated to justsaynow.com last month and signed the petition… Looks like I will be making another donation to justsaynow.com. That was awesome to see my name hand delivered to the drug czar.
Pete,is there any news on the budget committee we all watched last spring? They must have approved his budget,or
something by now,without a word about it in the news.
I really thought the panel had signaled that there would be more hearings about the unanswered questions at the original hearing.
If not,the answers to their questions to the drug czar are all in those reports by the statistics keepers,showing even more evidence of a failed policy.
From the article:
“Kerlikowske said that since marijuana comprised such a small percentage of drug cartel profits, legalizing marijuana would not have any impact on their activity.
Daniel cited a statistic mentioned in a report from Kerlikowske’s own office in 2006 (PDF), offered by Kerlikowske’s predecessor John Walters in testimony before Congress, to the effect that “over 60% of Mexican drug cartel profits from the United States are from marijuana.â€
Kerlikowski said that those statistics are “old†and no longer valid, but did not offer any other estimates.
Translation: Our ONDCP web site is full of old crap. We don’t have any ability to defend our old crap and we aren’t clever enough to come up with any new crap, so we just won’t answer any more questions. We will, however, continue the administration’s policy of mocking the (rapidly growing) anti-prohib crowd and fostering false hysteria in an effort to appear “in control”. Now, please fund our budgets.
I wonder how many $/man hours they poured into their “1997” estimate that they are disavowing now that is trying to bite them in the ass.
http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/news/press10/mjrevenue.pdf
The drug laws did not change. But now some where in the bowels of the DEA headquarters. There are 52’000 new folders.But hey. You can’t win a war without a few casualties.