Should the DEA bust all the legal recreational marijuana stores in the USA?

[doughper]

Why tf not, if tha's wot dey do? I posed the above question in google. Here's some of what I found:

Why not, ostensibly:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohrabacher%E2%80%93Farr_amendment

The Rohrabacher–Farr amendment (also known as the Rohrabacher–Blumenauer amendment) is legislation first introduced by U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey in 2001, prohibiting the Justice Department from spending funds to interfere with the implementation of state medical cannabis laws. It passed the House in May 2014 after six previously failed attempts, becoming law in December 2014 as part of an omnibus spending bill. The passage of the amendment was the first time either chamber of Congress had voted to protect medical cannabis patients, and is viewed as a historic victory for cannabis reform advocates at the federal level. The amendment does not change the legal status of cannabis, however, and must be renewed each fiscal year in order to remain in effect..

Why they are (more than ever!) inevitably:

https://www.blunttruthlaw.com/2022/07/federal-vs-state-approaches-to-cannabis-recent-dea-data-shows-increase-in-enforcement-while-states-move-toward-decriminalization-and-legalization/

One might think that the recent uptick in the legalization of recreational marijuana usage would correlate with a decline in the arrests and seizures related to the leafy-green. According to recent data from the Drug Enforcement Administration, however, in 2021, federal law enforcement agents seized over 5.5 million marijuana plants and conducted more than 6,600 marijuana related arrests. That’s 20 percent more seizures and 25 percent more arrests than those made the previous year. Indeed, the DEA reports that it is “aggressively striving to halt the spread of cannabis cultivation in the United States,” including through its Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program (DCE/SP), which began funding eradication programs in 1979 and has approximately 126 state and local law enforcement agency participants.

I sure as hell am SCARED. And i go to the dispo 2 or 3 times a year to purchase a store- and state law-inhibited quantity of 1 oz or less. And the DEA could shoot me dead in my tracks for it, right there in the damn store. I don't grow, don't sell, don't do nothing but try to use it, sparingly. And it's as shitty a product as the law is enacted and enforced.

 

[SB85]

Law enforcement will be the weapon of the huge corps/politicians to go after the OG market that remains underground [due to bull shit regulations/taxes/price of entry].

 

[doughper]

OG market that remains underground

What is OG market? R u talkin' about black market? I'm really talking about all
the so-called "legal" stores, especially recreational, and mostly excluding medical.

I'm saying the DEA keeps a list of every person who ever bought a gram at a store
and go and bust not only the store but every person who ever bought a gram at
that store. How many's that, CDC says: "... 48.2 million people, or about 18% of Americans,
used it at least once in 2019." I realize that this board has mostly black market growers,
(makes you wonder who's who in here, don't it?) but what I'm referring to is legalized
cannabis, and not black market, OG or UG, or whatever you call it production/distribution.
And corporations, while they're trying to make money off of it, I wouldn't think care whether
ppl are arrested for it or not, as long as they make money. So, probably not. Probably, they
would want it legalized federally (never...NEVER gonna happen).

stuff at the dispensary's is full of PGR's and I would put my stuff up against any of them.

Well, of course. Look at all the pix in here, and the vast knowledge in this board.
But again, this is about legalized cannabis, not home growed. I assume lots of members here
are growers for legal dispensaries, either/or med or rec. Point is, this shit's legal for rec use
in what, now 21 states? And legal med use in what, 36 states. But illegal as all hell in the USA,
or in all states. And i don't see how this new GOP controlled Congress is going to allow it to
continue. They're gonna repeal the Rorabacher-Farr amendment, and hand billions more
to the DEA. look at the climbing arrest rates from last year to this year, what did the article say,
25% more arrests this year than last? And that was with a Dem Congress and Senate. That's no
longer the situation.

 

[SB85]

OTE="SB85, post: 17188790, member: 985518"]
OG market that remains underground

What is OG market? R u talkin' about black market? I'm really talking about all
the so-called "legal" stores, especially recreational, and mostly excluding medical.

I'm saying the DEA keeps a list of every person who ever bought a gram at a store
and go and bust not only the store but every person who ever bought a gram at
that store. How many's that, CDC says: "... 48.2 million people, or about 18% of Americans,
used it at least once in 2019." I realize that this board has mostly black market growers,
(makes you wonder who's who in here, don't it?) but what I'm referring to is legalized
cannabis, and not black market, OG or UG, or whatever you call it production/distribution.
And corporations, while they're trying to make money off of it, I wouldn't think care whether
ppl are arrested for it or not, as long as they make money. So, probably not. Probably, they
would want it legalized federally (never...NEVER gonna happen).

Well, of course. Look at all the pix in here, and the vast knowledge in this board.
But again, this is about legalized cannabis, not home growed. I assume lots of members here
are growers for legal dispensaries, either/or med or rec. Point is, this shit's legal for rec use
in what, now 21 states? And legal med use in what, 36 states. But illegal as all hell in the USA,
or in all states. And i don't see how this new GOP controlled Congress is going to allow it to
continue. They're gonna repeal the Rorabacher-Farr amendment, and hand billions more
to the DEA. look at the climbing arrest rates from last year to this year, what did the article say,
25% more arrests this year than last? And that was with a Dem Congress and Senate. That's no
longer the situation.
[/QUOTE]


They aren't gonna go after the market which is backed by huge corporations who are filling up politician bank accounts

 

[SB85]

The GOP ran both houses under the last president for a period of time and huge backed corporations continued to fund/bring new states into the market.

 

[doughper]

The GOP ran both houses under the last president and huge backed corporations continued to fund/bring new states into the market.

Well, that's true. But under that orange reptile, the states legalized it, with or without the GOP's help.
And neither he, nor the GOP houses could do anything about it. Matter of fact, I think he
(and I hate to admit this) who signed the Rorabacker-Farr amendment at some point during his term.
But what I'm saying now is a GOP controlled house will repeal that amendment and refund the DEA to
bust all the dispos and stores. It was a bi-partisan bill, so hell, who knows. I think the Dem controlled
senate can block it. Somebody around here knows this process better than I do, that's for sure.

One thing's sure, pot arrests were way up from '21 to '22, up by 25% in one year. Shit.

 

[doughper]

Nope, I don't have that grower's spirit and savoir faire. I just want to be able to buy some good quality
cannabis. Thing is if it has nothing to do with politics, then why don't the remaining 29 states legalize it
so they can get some money too? Or am i missing something here? Usually I am. :sigh:

 

[SB85]

Nope, I don't have that grower's spirit and savoir faire. I just want to be able to buy some good quality
cannabis. Thing is if it has nothing to do with politics, then why don't the remaining 29 states legalize it
so they can get some money too? Or am i missing something here? Usually I am. :sigh:

I know Oklahoma will have a vote on the issue early next year. OH is also working on getting the issue before voters. Minnesota is on the path via their state government/hawaii too. I am also expecting the 2024 elections to bring on new markets via ballot.

 

[doughper]

So you're hoping for new markets? You know if you live in one legal state that borders
another legal state, and buy in the neighbor state and bring your gram of smoke home
with you, that's interstate transport of schedule 1 narcotics. Fed crime, you could do 10 years.

If you think about it, legalization could be an entrapment scheme by the DEA and all the states'
law enforcement to lock up 50 million consumers. I know whenever I go to the store
every time they copy a pic of my ID, that must go to the DEA, right? DEA gets that list
somehow. Just wait for the law to show up and haul me off. I mean if you do not think
that is possible, you're not thinking at all.

Now I dunno what they'd do with 50 million convicts, make us into slaves or something.

 

[orangejesus]

If you think about it it could be an entrapment scheme by the DEA and all the states'
law enforcement to lock up 50 million consumers. I know whenever I go to the store
every time they copy a pic of my ID, that must go to the DEA, right? DEA gets that list
somehow. Just wait for the law to show up and haul me off. I mean if you do not think
that is possible, you're not thinking at all.

I think you're severely overestimating the ability of a government agency - and also their priorities.

 

[doughper]

overestimating

Yeah, i'm exaggerating, but you can't say it's not possible, and if it was,
they would do it. Why in the HELL was it ever made schedule 1 in the
first place? Wasn't that the racist, Harry Anslinger who did that? And then
there's Nixon's war on drugs, which was created to lock up and ruin the lives
of brown people, at least that's according to his advisor Erlichman, who in
1994 said:

Fifty Years Ago Today, President Nixon Declared the War on Drugs

Fifty years after then-President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs,” the United States is still mired in the implications of this wrongheaded, racist policy decision. Today, police make more than 1.5 million drug arrests each year , and about 550,000 of those are for cannabis offenses alone.…

www.vera.org

... in a 1994 interview that was published in 2016, the war on drugs itself was designed to target Black people and “hippies”:

The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.

Then there were the terms they created for it back in the 1920s: "weed, pot, boo, marijuana, ad infinitum" to disparage
Mexicans, and migrant workers. It was strictly racism instituted as policy and made into a harsh legal and social trap
to ruin lives and keep good people from advancing in their white society.

So, while I may be exaggerating, the kind of behavior that has existed in our government for almost 100 years shows
there's no limit to their desire to punish and enslave good people who might be different from themselves. RACIST POLICIES!

 

[Antidote Man]

I like how you think, I think like that also. They have the power, although its very unlikely, they have the power

 

[doughper]

They have the power,

They got it cuz we, the ppl, give it to 'em. Why in the hell would the union, AFL-CIO come out
in support of Ronald Reagan, in his 80 campaign? He's about taking from the poor and giving
to the rich, aka, "trickle down economics". Who in the hell votes for that? Rich ppl, sure, but
poor, and working class make up 95% of us, and a labor union supports him? We give them the power!
Why? Gays, guns and abortion, and Reagan, and the rest of the GOP who pander to fear and greed. It's
so EASY to pander to those sins in human beings. It's easy as falling off a log. I don't know
how any candidate can win w/o pandering to those. Then comes fox news, selling more fear and
greed, and propaganda about the left being baby eaters, and journalists and the media being
enemies of the people. Demonization, fear, greed. You can't beat those insinuations. If you try, you
must already be guilty. So, they get the power.

The USA has been a fascist nation since it's inception. It took two hundred years at least to end slavery.
And then the bastards'll tell you the Civil War was NOT about slavery, like they almost believe it. And if
you do believe it, or if you do believe that Biden stole the election from Trump, they gotta be laughing
at you, even tho they're the ones trying to get you to buy that line of bullshit. Because who can believe it
in the first place. But yup, they got the power, and the voters hand it to 'em every election cycle.

Look at this:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/irisdorbian/2022/06/20/despite-more-legal-markets-pot-related-arrests-and-
plant-seizures-are-up-from-last-year-say-feds/?sh=30778dde6969

Despite More Legal Markets, Pot-Related Arrests And
Plant Seizures Are Up From Last Year, Say Feds

Even as more states legalize, 6,606 marijuana-related arrests were made last year. This was a 25%
increase over the prior year when the feds reported 4,992 arrests, according to data compiled by the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In addition to the arrests, the feds confiscated about 5.53 million
cultivated cannabis plants in 2021, a 20% jump from 2020.

Taken from the DEA’s Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program Statistical Report, these figures
are "the highest reported by the agency since 2011," when it made an estimated 8,500 marijuana-related
arrests and confiscated more than 6.7 million plants, said a news release announcing the data.

Where's any good sense, and common decency about any of this? I love that oft-quoted saying of Mencken:

Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

 

[harris hawk]

don't tnink there are enought law enforesement folks _ WHY hasn't anyone done "smash and grab's "_ at dispensaries like all the other stores Guess that is the sign of the times _very sad --- Bob Dylan song "Times they area Changing" 1969

 

[doughper]

DEA'll smash n' grab, fer sure.

 

[Kindbud421]

First thing. They don’t have enough jail or prison cells to imprison us all. They are mostly concerned with those that will grow mass quantities but legally can grow only a certain amount. I am in NNY. Still not legal to grow here cuz the first dispensary hasn’t “opened “ yet. Then 18 mos after that til I’m legal. I still grow! I keep it at the state allowed max for 2 adults. NYS has said they won’t Prosecute cannabis convictions unless you are large scale and no lisence. States that haven’t legalized are waiting for the federal govt to reschedule it so they have a way to deal with the cash influx. States can use the money but can’t bank it due to federal. So it’s almost like laundering. Eventually they will federally reschedule. When that happens it opens the door for all comers. Giants and home growers alike. I’ll stick with 12 plants per grow. I don’t need more than that. I can’t legally store more than 5 lb of processed cannabis in my house anyways…

 

[Kindbud421]

First thing. They don’t have enough jail or prison cells to imprison us all. They are mostly concerned with those that will grow mass quantities but legally can grow only a certain amount. I am in NNY. Still not legal to grow here cuz the first dispensary hasn’t “opened “ yet. Then 18 mos after that til I’m legal. I still grow! I keep it at the state allowed max for 2 adults. NYS has said they won’t Prosecute cannabis convictions unless you are large scale and no lisence. States that haven’t legalized are waiting for the federal govt to reschedule it so they have a way to deal with the cash influx. States can use the money but can’t bank it due to federal. So it’s almost like laundering. Eventually they will federally reschedule. When that happens it opens the door for all comers. Giants and home growers alike. I’ll stick with 12 plants per grow. I don’t need more than that. I can’t legally store more than 5 lb of processed cannabis in my house anyways…

Besides, my buds are better than dispensaries. Fresher, more flavor… they have more variety is the only thing.

 

[doughper]

of course home growed's better than dispo, but it doesn't have to be like that.
why can't dispos get some home grown? but no. anyway, they're not going to
move to schedule 1. See who's taking over the House and the Senate? GOP is.
They're gonna "lock 'em up", for as long as they can. They own the prison
industrial complex, they're more beholden to big money and corporations than
dems. So any dreams for sched 1 reclassification is out. So where are they going
to imprison everybody? Heck, the prison industrial complex would love to give it
a good try. Elon Musk, et al, would be big buyers of shit like that, don't ya think?

It kind of seems tho thatif it were legal, two arguments: 1. corps would take it over
and there'd only be one brand of cannabis available; 2. competition would take place
and legaliization would open it up. Go to stores and get your grower buddy's best product.
But we see how competition works in the internet, and tv cable system. Not well at all.
Lobbies make sure of that.

 

[SB85]

Besides, my buds are better than dispensaries. Fresher, more flavor… they have more variety is the only thing.

It's because commercial bud is more about quantity and chasing bull shit like THC %.

 

[SB85]

of course home growed's better than dispo, but it doesn't have to be like that.
why can't dispos get some home grown? but no. anyway, they're not going to
move to schedule 1. See who's taking over the House and the Senate? GOP is.
They're gonna "lock 'em up", for as long as they can. They own the prison
industrial complex, they're more beholden to big money and corporations than
dems. So any dreams for sched 1 reclassification is out. So where are they going
to imprison everybody? Heck, the prison industrial complex would love to give it
a good try. Elon Musk, et al, would be big buyers of shit like that, don't ya think?

It kind of seems tho thatif it were legal, two arguments: 1. corps would take it over
and there'd only be one brand of cannabis available; 2. competition would take place
and legaliization would open it up. Go to stores and get your grower buddy's best product.
But we see how competition works in the internet, and tv cable system. Not well at all.
Lobbies make sure of that.

The corporations have already took over the cannabis industry. It's much easier for them to do with the plant being illegal at the federal level being as the price of entry is out of reach for the everyday person. Just look at all of these mergers between MSOs that's happening and how many grow farms along with shops they already own/building from coast to coast. The ship has sailed and won't be put back at the docks.