Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The DEA has failed to eradicate marijuana. Now Congress wants it to stop trying.
Washington Post ^ | November 27, 2015 | Christopher Ingraham

Posted on 11/27/2015 12:01:54 PM PST by ConservingFreedom

[...] Last week a group of 12 House members led by Ted Lieu of California wrote to House leadership to push for a provision in the upcoming spending bill that would strip half of the funds away from the DEA's Cannabis Eradication Program, and put that money toward programs that "play a far more useful role in promoting the safety and economic prosperity of the American people:" domestic violence prevention and overall spending reduction efforts.

Each year the DEA spends about $18 million in efforts with state and local authorities to pull up marijuana plants being grown indoors and outdoors. The program has been plagued by scandal and controversy in recent years. In the mid-2000s it became clear that the overwhelming majority of "marijuana" plants netted by the program were actually "ditchweed," or the wild, non-cultivated, non-psychoactive cousin of the marijuana that people smoke.

More recently, overzealous marijuana eradicators have launched heavily-armed raids on okra plants, and warned the Utah legislature of the threat posed by rabbits who had "cultivated a taste for the marijuana." Last year the DEA spent an average of roughly $4.20 (yes, really) for each marijuana plant it successfully uprooted. In some states, the cost to taxpayers approached $60 per uprooted plant.

The program has also proven to be ineffective. The idea behind pulling up pot plants is to reduce the supply of marijuana, thereby reducing its use. In 1977, two years before the program's introduction, less than a quarter of Americans said they'd ever tried pot, according to Gallup. By 2015, after 36 years of federal marijuana eradication efforts, the share of Americans ever trying pot nearly doubled, to 44 percent. [...]

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cannabis; dopertarian; liberaltarian; marijuana; pot; wod
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-64 next last
To: DJ MacWoW
I don't need drugs to enjoy life or have a good time.

There was a time when I could say that too.

It was a very, very, humbling experience to find out that my quality of life was suddenly dependent on drugs. I resisted for a very long time, and had to be reminded daily to take them, I hated it so.

the second blow had the decency to wait a decade before I found out that my very ability to stay alive was suddenly dependent on drugs.

Pray you never have to face that.

41 posted on 11/27/2015 2:27:11 PM PST by Balding_Eagle (The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: sparklite2

With year over year budget increases, despite their failure to have any impact, the last thing they want to do is report positive outcomes. Congress would start to cut their budget.


42 posted on 11/27/2015 2:32:31 PM PST by AndyJackson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Balding_Eagle

Oh please. Pot is a pleasure drug.


43 posted on 11/27/2015 2:32:49 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: ConservingFreedom; soycd
I have no respect for someone that whines they need a pleasure drug in order to live. Don't bother me with excuses. Pot users are as whiny and selfish as the SJW's.

I refuse to debate someone who still lives in the 60's.

44 posted on 11/27/2015 2:35:14 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: AndyJackson

Get to the root of it. The only accurate metric is the street price of drugs. From what I read, marijuana is stronger than ever, and the price hasn’t budged.


45 posted on 11/27/2015 2:36:20 PM PST by sparklite2 (Islam = all bathwater, no baby.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: DJ MacWoW

I have to agree with you there. It’s been
45 years since I smoked any weed, and I’ve
not missed it. What is under discussion
is lifestyle choices, for which, like taste,
there is no accounting. It’s a foolish
debate. Live your life as you see fit and
accord the next dude the same.


46 posted on 11/27/2015 2:40:06 PM PST by sparklite2 (Islam = all bathwater, no baby.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: sparklite2
I'm a Conservative, not a liberaltarian.

Have a nice evening.

47 posted on 11/27/2015 2:42:34 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: Little Ray

Pot is an excellent example where government was being used to enforce a moral issue that did not directly endanger the lives of others. Government has no more business attempting to outlaw pot smoking than it has in outlawing overeating.


48 posted on 11/27/2015 2:46:41 PM PST by theBuckwheat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: DJ MacWoW

>I refuse to debate someone who still lives in the 60’s.

There is no debate when you are the Judge.


49 posted on 11/27/2015 2:52:05 PM PST by soycd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: DJ MacWoW
In a free society, the justification for government force is violation of rights ... which growing, selling, and using pot are not.

I have no respect for someone that whines they need a pleasure drug in order to live.

Who here said they need a pleasure drug in order to live?

Pot users are as whiny and selfish as the SJW's.

Who here is a pot user - and how do you know them to be pot users?

Are those who defend the right to use the pleasure drugs alcohol and tobacco also "as whiny and selfish as the SJW's"?

I refuse to debate someone who still lives in the 60's.

Who here still lives in the 60's - and how do you know them to still live in the 60's?

50 posted on 11/27/2015 2:52:48 PM PST by ConservingFreedom (a "guest worker" is a stateless person with no ties to any community, only to his paymaster)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: DJ MacWoW
When it affects society, society has every right to JUDGE.

A MUCH broader standard than the one you quote on your home page:

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicity. Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address.

51 posted on 11/27/2015 3:32:32 PM PST by ConservingFreedom (a "guest worker" is a stateless person with no ties to any community, only to his paymaster)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: theBuckwheat

I am not a libertarian and I think smoking pot is foolish. It is simply that I also think that cops enforcing laws against it are more of a threat to my welfare and civil liberties than potheads are.


52 posted on 11/28/2015 5:45:27 AM PST by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: ConservingFreedom

Thanks. In a sense that 1.9% is low too. The charts indicate the total number is over 21 million Americans that have significant substance abuse issues. Again, without knowing our census numbers that seems to me to be in the 10% range.


53 posted on 11/28/2015 6:23:17 AM PST by Oystir
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Oystir
In a sense that 1.9% is low too. The charts indicate the total number is over 21 million Americans that have significant substance abuse issues.

What charts indicate that? The chart in post #11 has only percentages.

54 posted on 11/28/2015 7:33:30 AM PST by ConservingFreedom (a "guest worker" is a stateless person with no ties to any community, only to his paymaster)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: tacticalogic

Ditch weed has medical value.

anti seizure cannabis created specifically for children utilized ditch and hemp strains so as to decrease the THC and increase the CBD.

the result is zero THC but lots of CBD.


55 posted on 11/28/2015 7:58:02 AM PST by T-Bone Texan (The economic collapse is imminent. Buy staple food and OTC meds now, before prices skyrocket.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: ConservingFreedom

The one chart stated 1.9% further down the page listed numbers, which indicated over 21 million Americans had substance abuse issues. Obviously the numbers don’t jive.


56 posted on 11/28/2015 8:10:10 AM PST by Oystir
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: Oystir
The one chart stated 1.9%

For abuse/dependence on illicit drugs only.

further down the page listed numbers, which indicated over 21 million Americans had substance abuse issues.

For both alcohol and illicit drugs.

The number for illicit drugs is 5 million, which divided by 1.9% gives a total 12-and-older population of 260 million.

57 posted on 11/28/2015 10:18:30 AM PST by ConservingFreedom (a "guest worker" is a stateless person with no ties to any community, only to his paymaster)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: ConservingFreedom

Correct and which also means over 8% of Americans over age 12 suffer from the disease of substance abuse regardless of the substance - a huge number given that gays are something like 1-4%, Blacks 12%, Hispanics 14% (again, I don’t claim to have the exact census percentages - I only use the numbers for rough correlations.)


58 posted on 11/28/2015 11:05:19 AM PST by Oystir
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: Oystir
over 8% of Americans over age 12 suffer from the disease of substance abuse regardless of the substance

Right ... but while the 6% addicted to the legal drug alcohol are well worth keeping in mind, they have no direct bearing on the chart in post #11 (on whose figures you commented). U.S. drug control spending wouldn't be expected to have an effect on a non-'controlled' (albeit regulated) drug's addiction rates.

59 posted on 11/28/2015 11:29:47 AM PST by ConservingFreedom (a "guest worker" is a stateless person with no ties to any community, only to his paymaster)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: T-Bone Texan
Ditch weed has medical value.

The "finding" that cannabis has no medicinal value was specious from the outset. Cannabis tincture was part of western pharmacology when the first federal regulation was enacted during FDRs administration. It was declared to have no medicinal value in the 70's based when the Controlled Substances Act was passed, based on testimony that there were no ailments that it was prescribed for. But the reason it wasn't prescribed is that the Marijuana Tax act had made it effectively unobtainable for the last 30 years.

60 posted on 11/28/2015 11:34:19 AM PST by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-64 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson