LA Times: DEA may be losing the war on marijuana politics
“For 13 of the 14 years I have worked on this issue, when the DEA came to a hearing, committee members jumped over themselves to cheerlead,” said Bill Piper, a lobbyist with the Drug Policy Alliance, a pro-legalization group. “Now the lawmakers are not just asking tough questions, but also getting aggressive with their arguments.”
It has certainly been frustrating that for way too long, the DEA seemed to be untouchable, able to lie, cheat, steal, and even kill with impunity.
But slowly, gradually, that immunity is fading, as demonstrated by Congress stepping up, and the Los Angeles Times writing about it.
‘”She is a terrible agency head,” Polis said of Administrator Michele Leonhart.’ And ‘”She has repeatedly embarrassed her agency before this body,” Polis said’
I love it!
To little too late. The Dea is a rogue agency, it’s target is the American people, and in its rapaciousness, it destroys the lives of whoever it’s myopic eyes focus on. Not only is it time to dismantle this agency, it’s employees should be called to account.
Amen, but you’re being much too lenient. Then again I’m a bloody-minded idjit.
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My preference would be to have them drawn and quartered
After the end of WW2, when Patton heard about the death camps, and found that many of those who had lived around the camps were denying knowledge of what had happened there, he forced the locals to walk through those camps and see the remaining bodies.
(Think about it. It’s wartime, Germany is losing the war, people are going hungry thanks to the naval blockades and bombings, food supply disruption, etc…and, every day, the sickening ‘roast pork’ smell of burned Human flesh is wafting from the camps, every day the trains bring more and more victims…but the camp doesn’t expand physically. And the trains go back empty. You don’t have to be Einstein or Hawking to figure that one out.)
Like Patton did, the prohibs need to have their noses rubbed in the mess they made. As forcefully as possible, so that we never, ever allow some future ‘revisionist’ to stand up, as unbelievably some have about slavery, and say it wasn’t so bad.
As a supporter of Colorado’s renewed hemp industry, I suspect an appropriate use for good hemp ropes could be found.
that gives a whole new perspective on michele’s claim that the worst day of her life was when a hemp flag flew over congress
Radley Balko at the Washington Post has pointed out the dehumanizing effect that occurs when one becomes conditioned to see drug offenders as less than human.
http://tinyurl.com/nhv574r
Myles Ambrose, the director of the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (the predecessor to the DEA) during the Nixon Administration had this opinion:
“Drug people are the very vermin of humanity.â€
I cannot help but think that as the director, his agency would certainly reflect his attitudes.
With a new executive order establishing the DEA, Nixon had Myles Ambrose picked for the new position running the DEA. While Ambrose refused the new position, the agency that he headed was amalgamated into the current agency called the DEA.
This dehumanizing attitude seems to be the calling card of the DEA to this day. It has no need to worry about relative harms between the drugs, as Michelle Leonhart made obvious in her visit to Congress.
Its all the same to them.
I applaud the brave members of Congress that question this agency. Its well overdue.
Darkcycle I agree. This agency needs to go.
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Did anyone else notice that there was a significant black swan event in Seattle last Tuesday? It looks like we’ve got friends in high places.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/seattles-attorney-apologizes-for-taking-bags-of-marijuana-to-the-offi/485581-79.html“>Seattle’s attorney apologizes for taking bags of marijuana to the office
July 13, 2014
Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes on Friday apologized for violating workplace rules by bringing bags of marijuana he purchased from newly-opened Washington state pot shops back to his office.
According to my understanding of Black Swan events, this does not seem to be one. Could you please ‘splain why you call it so?
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A black swan event is just seeing something happen that most people think impossible and would not be likely to predict. Europeans were certain there were no such critter until their explorers landed in southeast Asia and saw them in the flesh.
Perhaps I’m mistaken, have you seen a lot of people who’ve predicted that City Attorneys (or equivalent level public servant) would get into hot water for buying pot and taking it back to the office? I’ll grant that if the event was predictable that Mr. Holmes would have been at or near the top of the list of likely suspects.
An agency that cannot distinguish between some good buds, hash, and dabs from a pair of socks, vehicle fuel, pants, paper, your office desk, rugs, a house etc, won’t last too long. Granted, the DEA inherited the Hemp Ban, but they decided to run with it since 1971 and thus are responsible for a dozen or more million jobs not being around and a trillion or more in lost revenue. Such bacteria and viruses will make the body sick.
One of their job descriptions requires utter stupidity in regards to hemp . . . they are closet communists for controlling the means of production and supply. That and they go off and play like they are soldiers every once in a while with guns more precise than their comprehensions of the real world. Before they go onto a major operation, Mrs. L has them undergo the ancient Aztec tradition of putting tobacco leaves into their rectums for a hearty buzz. “Keep it legal boys–keep it legal.”
“Mrs. L, can I do some K2?”
“Is it on any of the band chemical’s list?”
“Nope.”
“Then smoke up Johnny.”