Posted on 03/10/2014 11:59:43 AM PDT by Kaslin
You knew it was coming.With the legalization of pot in Colorado and other states, it has been discovered that over the past few months, purchases of marijuana in pot dispensaries have been paid for with cash from welfare benefits.
The purchase of marijuana is strictly a cash business so it was obvious that ATM machines should be made available inside the dispensaries for easy access to money.That’s fine except that there is no distinction between a credit/debit card and an EBT card.
Taxpayers have given this money to people that are “in need of assistance”, not to people who need to get “high”.In one month in Colorado 19 different marijuana retail stores had a least one welfare recipient walk in, use a Quest card and withdraw money from an ATM machine inside the store.It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what they were buying.Welfare clients used state-issued debit cards in stores with names like “Medicine Man”, “Starbuds” and “MMJ Uptown”.Gee, can’t imagine what they sell.
An investigation showed that a majority of people use the money for rent, household supplies and items for their children, but the Colorado Department of Human Services admits that there are those that abuse the system.
According to National Review:
At least 64 times, public-assistance benefits were accessed at businesses selling marijuana. A total of $5,475 in public benefits was withdrawn at ATMs in establishments that sell pot. This figure includes medicinal dispensaries, recreational stores, and at least one place that combines the two. Some of these establishments sell groceries as well as pot, so there is no way to know exactly how much welfare money was spent on marijuana.
The amounts withdrawn ranged from $20 to $400, averaging $85.55, according to the transaction records. In Colorado, the average household receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits includes one adult and two children, and the maximum monthly benefit for them is $462.
Unfortunately, Colorado lawmakers failed to pass legislation that would prohibit the use of EBT card withdrawals inside of marijuana shops, medical-marijuana dispensaries and strip clubs, but last year they did pass a law stopping EBT transactions at gun shops, bars, liquor stores and gambling establishments.When Colorado Amendment 64 was passed to legalize marijuana, the Republicans wanted it to be treated the same as alcohol.This new bill that was defeated by the Democrats in the State Senate basically opens the door for your tax dollars to be used by welfare recipients for weed and lap dances.
Arizona Congressman Paul A. Gozar (R) just this past week has introduced legislation called the “No Welfare for Weed” Act (H.R. 4142).It would prohibit the purchase of marijuana products using TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) or SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits.SNAP EBT cards can be used if marijuana is sold from a vendor who also sells food.
Congressman Gosar explains it this way:
"Regardless of your feelings on States’ Rights, 'medical' marijuana or recreational marijuana, people shouldn’t be able to get high using hard-earned taxpayer money. The sole purpose of this bill is to prohibit marijuana from being purchased with SNAP and TANF benefits. These programs are meant to provide subsidies for food and other basic living essentials for the neediest families. Unfortunately, there are always unscrupulous people looking for ways to game the system, which makes this commonsense update to federal law necessary. Taxpayers expect and deserve a lean, efficient government. Accordingly, I will do everything in my power to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse whenever possible, including preventing the use of federal welfare benefits to purchase weed."
Entitlement fraud is rampant, we all know it, and government is too big to even get a handle on it.So now our hard earned tax dollars are not just being redistributed to some people who don’t want to work, but know how to work the system, but now we are paying for them to get “high on OUR dime!”
Hopefully Congressman Gosar’s bill will pass and some restraints will be put on this rampant abuse.If not, then we all may as well join a “Choom Gang”!
The position of the libertarian is that there would be no SNAP or EBT cards, or even the benefit programs.
If people didn’t work, they’d starve. And the problem would be solved.
“So before they die they can still vote and also rob people and burglarize houses to get their fix money... the math just doesn’t add up.”
They should knock themselves out. Hopefully after a few “self defense” cases, someone will buy a clue.
Vaporizers, by definition, put vapor in your lungs - just like e-cigarettes.
In which case, the homeowners can shoot them.
And thus, we decrease the problem in a permanent fashion, at a very low cost to the taxpayers.
The solution to this and other problems isn’t “more laws.” The solution to this and other problems is to kill more useless people.
Conservatives ought learn something about evolution and natural selection. It works wonders for cleaning up the gene pool.
So?
There is no way to distinguish what money drawn from an ATM is spent on and I don’t think there is a realistic way to prohibit installation of the machines anywhere.
Further, how are we to distinguish why someone is self medicating.
Even further still, if they want to blow their assistance on idiocy like MJ or booze, then they should starve for being so dumb or be investigated if they are abusing the system paid for by the extorted patronage of the citizenry.
Because the way to deal with 5000 bucks being spent on weed by people getting government money is to institute a comprehensive system of urine tests involving lab work, collection facilities, technicians, administrators and enforcement agents. That'll save us that five grand, easy!
If you are lucky enough to be home and not at work paying your fair share. Remember also the mountain you face if you off one of these registered democrats (which I am all for, just sayin’).
Nothing prevents them from getting money out at the grocery store and taking that cash to the pot store.
EBT cards should NEVER be able to be used as cash cards. It makes it too easy on the beneficiaries. At least make them have to work at it, buying permitted items and reselling them. At best, they should be getting their food and household needs from warehouses that only provide permitted goods, and are the only places that accept EBT. Rice, beans, flour, oil/shortening, canned foods, seasonings, fresh produce when in season, plentiful and cheap, kids’ vitamins, cleaning supplies, toilet paper.
Those on section 8 or other housing programs should be subjected to home inspections as well. Follow the rules, stay on the program.
I first laughed hysterically, then I got the munchies for Mac ‘N Cheese.
Indeed, true.
But we need to quit giving deadbeats a chance to reproduce. There’s few problems in this country right now that cannot be solved with the deaths of the right people.
“The difference is that the money in Colorado doesn’t go to Mexican drug lords.”
The end of alcohol prohibition did not end organized crime. In fact in some cases it legitimized the gang and gave it political power.
I won’t be too surprised if the cartels are not involved in “legal cannabis”.
I concur.
If only conservatives were serious about ending welfare, and stopped flapping their gums about it. You guys need welfare to exist just as much as the liberals do. Maybe more. Without welfare you would lose your biggest excuse for sending wannabe ninjas with sub-machine guns to smash in people's doors at 4:00 AM to kill the kids and house pets of the occupants.
Two states legalized weed and the promised zombie apocalypse never happened. But hey, ya'll still have that welfare crutch to lean on. Without welfare you have lost a big reason to meddle in the lives of 300,000,000 americans. Which is why it will never be ended. Both wings of the big government party need it.
The end of alcohol prohibition ended all but a tiny portion of alcohol/gang activity. When was the last time a liquor store owner shot another over turf infringement? The end of prohibition was an end to many gangs (like the Kennedys), but others just shifted over to other vices.
Without welfare you would lose your biggest excuse for sending wannabe ninjas with sub-machine guns to smash in people’s doors at 4:00 AM to kill the kids and house pets of the occupants....I never knew cops wanted soeone’s welfare check. Who knew?
When did the Kennedys end as a gang? We just saw them use family influence to get an OUI acquitted.
The exemption makes no sense. All a "dispensary" would have to do is set up a display of Hostess cupcakes (and Mallomars! Yum!). Munchies for the dopers and Viola! The vender "sells food."
I saw this story a month or so ago. The Dems are whining that the ATM systems can't be made to differentiate between a grocery store location or a pothead dispensary. As usual with the Rats, that is total BS because EBTs can't be used in Casinos. There's tracking, but the Rats don't want to use it.
Ye gods. Have you ever met a coke addict, even once? I can assure you that the last thing on their to-do list is go down to the polls on election day. And if drugs are legal they will be cheap and easy enough to get a lethal dose before they get to stealing the Tom-Tom out of your Honda. These problems tend to solve themselves once you get out of the business of saving people from themselves.
No, it doesn’t make it ok. But if using welfare dollars to buy something means that something should be illegal, then it’s going to be a long list including cigarettes, booze, junk food...
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