It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Due to ample supplies up north, courtesy of medical and recreational cannabis legalization, cartel farmers can’t make any money off pot anymore, they told the Washington Post this week. The price for a pound of Mexican marijuana has plummeted 75 percent from $100 per kilogram to less than $25.
Farmers in the storied “Golden Triangle” region of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, which has produced the country’s most notorious gangsters and biggest marijuana harvests, say they are no longer planting the crop. ... increasingly, they’re unable to compete with U.S. marijuana growers. With cannabis legalized or allowed for medical use in 20 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, more and more of the American market is supplied with highly potent marijuana grown in American garages and converted warehouses — some licensed, others not. Mexican trafficking groups have also set up vast outdoor plantations on public land, especially in California, contributing to the fall in marijuana prices.
So now we have both the DEA and cartel farmers both screaming bloody murder about legalization — sounds like we're on the right track.
originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
It's certainly about time!!
The ridiculous "Reefer Madness" craze is soooooo yesterday.
I just wanted to S/F you and comment that I see hope down the line, before the mods close the thread.
originally posted by: KnightLight
a reply to: benrl
Awesome. Stop funding killers.
Was I talking about cartels or the DEA?
Who knows these days.
originally posted by: FlyersFan
Legalize. Regulate. Tax.
It would help with the crime rates and drug gangs, IMHO.
(Can I say that ?? I think that's within T&C ... walking softly here)
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.”
originally posted by: SaturnFX
I'm just glad you conservatives are finally on board.
originally posted by: FlyersFan
originally posted by: SaturnFX
I'm just glad you conservatives are finally on board.
I think a lot of the conservatives would take issue with you calling me a conservative ... considering that I think they should legalize, regulate and tax prostitution as well as dope ... etc etc. If it works in cutting down the crime with dope, then it would also work on cutting down the crime with prostitutes being jacked and beaten, etc etc. Not to mention that by legalizing and taxing both, there would be additional tax income coming in for needed programs ...
originally posted by: FlyersFan
originally posted by: SaturnFX
I'm just glad you conservatives are finally on board.
I think a lot of the conservatives would take issue with you calling me a conservative ... considering that I think they should legalize, regulate and tax prostitution as well as dope ... etc etc. If it works in cutting down the crime with dope, then it would also work on cutting down the crime with prostitutes being jacked and beaten, etc etc. Not to mention that by legalizing and taxing both, there would be additional tax income coming in for needed programs ...