Idaho’s Marijuana Border War

A small Nevada gambling resort just south of the Idaho state border called Jackpot intends to set up recreational cannabis dispensaries. An editorial by Stephen Hartgen in an Idaho newspaper exposes the impending peril and doom Idaho residents and its public officials feel as cannabis intrudes upon their comfort zone:

…it’s a fair question whether marijuana sales on Southern Idaho’s border is a good social move. The Elko County sheriff says Idaho law enforcement sees the issue as one of Nevada’s politics, not one of Idaho’s concern…. That sends a clear signal, does it not, that Idaho may not set out to quash incoming traffic.

Still, the costs to Idaho by increased marijuana availability aren’t hard to spot: more drug arrests, jail expenses, law enforcement staffing, plus the well-established linkage of marijuana use to a host of other criminal and socially irresponsible behaviors.

Yea, we’ve heard all the arguments. Recreational marijuana use is a personal thing; it doesn’t affect anyone else; would open up “new” business, etc. But privately, law enforcement officers, social workers, medical professionals and educators will mostly tell you there’s an obvious link from marijuana use to other crimes. […]

You don’t have to look far to see marijuana use as an underlying feature of many social and criminal activity. As part of its recent investigation, Oregon police learned last week that the antifa killer in the Portland shooting had sent a text message to his teenage son that read, “Sell me the gun for a quarter pound of weed and $100 I’m getting tired of this shxx. I need a piece now.” (Oregonian, 9/4). Interesting that the “teenage son” has both access to firearms and drugs. Such goes modern parenting. […]

Despite his misgivings about cannabis, credit is due to Stephen Hartgen for giving the world a heads-up that Idaho law enforcement views marijuana convictions as an excellent way to arrest otherwise innocent people and felonize them for life before they actually do anything that’s criminal in nature.

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11 Responses to Idaho’s Marijuana Border War

  1. drugwarobserver says:

    “Such goes modern [prohibition]”
    Connection to crime? Well DUH!
    These people REFUSE to get it…

  2. NorCalNative says:

    California, or at least the 80% of the state without cannabis dispensaries has nothing on backward prohibitionist Idaho.

    When the site mixup had comments from earlier years there was a thread in 2009 where darkcycle and Allan were dissing Idaho as a shithole. Funny stuff.

    Up here in Humboldt there are significant worries about a smoke-tainted harvest. Apparently there’s an Illinois connection to some of the larger permitted grows. Seems Chicago-area Bulgarians have established themselves in Humboldt County Weed business.

    • darkcycle says:

      Still a shithole. It’s still hardcore prohib territory, the Idaho State Police line up at the Washington border and stop anything they see with a Washington plate.

      • and yes, ID is still a shithole. We have a Patriot Prayer protest here right next door to Ideeho tomorrow because of our mask protocols in Pullman (our infection rate is one of the highest in the country)(90% under 40)(f’in kids). I shall not be attending.

  3. Apparently all Idaho law enforcement needs to see a copy of “Minority Report”. They are all real life sci-fi cops.

  4. I’m in Pullman, WA. 8 miles away is Moscow, ID (co not cow), w/ the University of Idaho. About 1/2 mile from the border is a very big, nice and popular dispensary, Floyd’s Cannabis Co. On any of my excursions into ID, I have yet to see an Idaho or Moscow cop car on that stretch.

    An interesting read: WSU study of connection between marijuana legalization, crime turns up surprises

  5. Allan says:

    on a sad note, my first boss in Oregon, one of those that taught me how to fight assholes, has passed.

    Body thought to be Oregon environmentalist George Atiyeh’s found on his Marion County property

    • WalStMonky says:

      .
      .

      I almost feel sorry for the Idaho prohibitionists. If Montana goes legal next month they’re going to be the first “landlocked” State with nothing but legal neighbors sharing their Statelines/international border. Good golly, their State is going to be overrun with kittens!

  6. Servetus says:

    It gets worse. Idaho farmers are being denied the legal right to grow hemp in 2021 because of one idiot:

    …all it took to spook the House panel was retired prosecutor Monte Stiles calling hemp a celebration of drug use.

    “The culture of hemp is the culture of marijuana,” Stiles said. “Growing hemp in Idaho is not a legal requirement, it’s a policy choice.”

    So down went Idaho’s hemp aspirations on an 8-7 committee vote.

    Idaho’s Indian reservations are in the clear because their hemp regulations come from the Dept. of Agriculture.

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