5 Special Interest Groups That Help Keep Marijuana Illegal

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/155269/5_special_interest_groups_that_help_keep_marijuana_illegal/


*** snip


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.”

[randome]

1. None of this would have any influence...

...if people demanded reform. There simply aren't enough people who care about it. A few hundred, a few thousand at a rally. It's nothing for the politicians to pay any attention to.

And as for marijuana replacing pain pills in general...uh, no. Most people who don't smoke will not want to start putting smoke into their lungs.

Now for cancer patients, or for those who are in severe pain, it's a different matter, but to state that pharmaceutical companies are afraid that marijuana will replace Advil is ridiculous.

[JackInGreen]

2. Not just that...

but to think that it can replace an opiate as an over all pain abatement system....is a little foolish?
I've shattered a few teeth...smoke a bowl? No. Take 2 10mg Vicoden? Yes.
And tbh...the vicoden ran $5.00 for 30 caps, cheaper than grass by far.

[Fumesucker]

3. The FDA advisory board voted earlier this year to eliminate Vicodin and Percocet..

http://www.homehealthtesting.com/blog/2010/02/vicodin-the-almost-illegal-drug/

but did you know that the FDA voted this past summer to recommend that Vicodin should be eliminated? The advisory panel that made this decision also singled out Percocet (a combination of oxycodone and acetaminophen). As the CNN article on the subject notes, these are just recommendations from an advisory panel – but typically, the FDA follows them.

It’s certainly a controversial matter considering how much press prescription drugs in general, and Vicodin in particular, have received in the past few years. The FDA made its recommendation based on the risk of overdose and severe liver injury, but they could have as easily made the recommendation based on drug abuse, as 9.7% of 12th graders said they tried Vicodin in 2008 (see the National Institute on Drug Abuse for more). Prescription drugs have become the new face of illicit drug use, and the string of tragic high-profile deaths drove that home last year.

[AlbertCat]

7. Prescription drugs have become the new face of illicit drug use

New.... uh huh

Everyone sing along:

She goes running for the shelter
Of her "mother's little helper..."


Or

"I'm Neely! NEELY O'HARA!!!"


Laudanum anyone?



And, people in pain need relief!

[MrScorpio]

10. Bingo! This issue, as with all others, is a numbers game

If you want to win, you simply need to bring more numbers to bear at the voting booth. Sure, state laws are one thing too... That's a start, but it's the federal drug laws that present a much bigger problem. Which of course, brings in the cast of characters listed above.

I don't smoke dope, I never have and I probably never will. I can't stand the smell of that shit. Hovever, I do object to the way that drug laws are enforced in this country... An unfair, racist and classist way. A way that's been in fact from the very beginning.

They provide fodder for the new slavery.

They're the biggest threat to personal liberty that's in existence today.

[Tunkamerica]

15. vaporizers don't put smoke in your lungs.

but, point taken... if you've gone this long without smoking pot you're unlikely to start.

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. Pure evil!

[ananda]

5. And don't forget the CIA, Black Ops, Special Forces..

.. and corrupt international officials.

[bonniebgood]

6. Has Anyone connected the dots yet?

Private Prisons, for profit prisons, (where your elected representatives sits on the board R's and D's) give kickbacks to local police to arrest people of color (ie slave labor) to keep the prisons full. This is precisely the reason why police, no matter how egregious the offense, are ALWAYS found to "JUSTIFIED". Just research that i did 10 years ago. The heads of these private prisons enjoys the income of bankers.

[Tsiyu]

8. K & R and just want to say

I love you, xchrom

[xchrom]

9. TEE-HEE!

[Egalitarian Thug]

11. Two more, energy and agra.

Similarly to dogs, cannabis being so widely useful and beneficial, it could be an argument for some kind of intelligent plan, IMO. Not that I'd ever make that argument, but damn, the more that we (and by we I mean the world outside the U.S.) learn about this genus, the more astonishing it is.

K&R

[felix_numinous]

12. This is where there is cognitive dissonance

with the administration. No one likes being treated like a stupid child, and here the public has to just suck it up and go along with the stupid corrupt program, and it is wrong.

I think we should hold the President's feet to the fire on this issue because he is wrong on this issue. I support the President, but respectfully and profoundly disagree with his drug policy.

[nashville_brook]

13. exactly -- and it's our responsibility to seek change in policy that we don't agree with

our responsibility, that is, if we take this whole political thing seriously at all.

we've got to separate personality and policy.

[provis99]

14. why would tobacco companies be against it?

if it were legalized, they would be the ones making billions of dollars selling it.

[Tunkamerica]

16. did you read the post?

did i miss where it said tobacco companies?

[provis99]

17. obviously you did.`

"Fearing competition for the dollars Americans spend on leisure, alcohol and tobacco .."

[Tunkamerica]

20. you're right. i did miss it.

[Jamaal510]

18. I don't smoke, but this has infuriated me.

To see all five of these interest groups teaming up to keep a drug illegal (that is less harmful than alcohol) is sickening. These people are nothing but real-life villains who either only care about maximizing profits, locking minorities up, or both.

[Horse with no Name]

19. Also the cotton industry.

http://www.hemphasis.net/History/harriedhemp.htm

>>>snip
In 1619, because hemp was such an important resource, it was illegal not to grow hemp in Jamestown, Virginia. Massachusetts and Connecticut had similar laws. During the 1700's, subsidies and bounties were granted in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, North & South Carolina, and the New England states to encourage hemp cultivation and the manufacturing of cordage and canvas. Unfortunately, these actions failed to establish a permanent hemp industry in any of these states.

>>>snip
The dominance of the cotton industry is often cited as a factor in the demise of the hemp industry. In 1829, the Navy started making its sailcloth out of cotton. Ironically, though, 15 pounds of hemp were needed to properly wrap each 500 pound bale of cotton. Unfortunately demand disappeared as cheaper jute and metal hoops became commonplace for wrapping cotton bales. Several botanical prints of the era recognize the importance of hemp and cotton.

>>>snip
But the laws of supply and demand were effectively thrown out the window starting in the 1930's when the market wrecking pogrom that is Reefer Madness was unleashed on an unsuspecting populace. Hemp's association with marijuana undoubtedly caused reluctance in farmers to grow it, while the bureaucratic red tape surrounding the enforcement of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 effectively regulated the hemp industry out of existence, destroying a huge money market in the process!