Drug WarRant

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants his state to control the quantities of medicinal marijuana sold to individual consumers.

With the high cost of cannabis, patients usually titrate their dosages to adjust for the various potencies of the product and their own health requirements. However, a new emergency rule implements Florida’s statute section 381.986(4)(f) and sets a 35-day, 2.5-ounce possession limit on smokable marijuana, while a 70-day limit of 24,500 milligrams (0.864212 ounce) of THC was set on vapor or edible products. Patients must find a doctor to apply for an exemption if they need more than the legal maximums.

Delays in processing the applications are inevitable. The rule also poses many problems for elderly retirees who will not be covered for medicinal marijuana by Medicare or their health insurance and who might wish to save money on healthcare costs by growing their own. No actual, arbitrary or capricious explanation appears to have been offered for how or why the stipulated quantities of cannabis were chosen. Floridians should know by now that what’s easy for their state doesn’t always make it convenient for the individual. Why not just round up the 70-day limit on processed THC from 0.864212 ounce to 1.0 ounce to make it easier to remember?

Unfortunately, Governor DeSantis is known for treading heavily in medical fields where he doesn’t belong. Like in 2021 when he resisted imposing face mask mandates or vaccination requirements such as providing proof of vaccinations to businesses, restaurants, schools, colleges, cruise ships, government and healthcare facilities. His professional career began as a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) in the Navy (2004 – 2010), where as a commissioned officer, he conducted prosecutions at Guantanamo. It will be interesting to see how Ron DeSantis’s Guantanamo-style doctoring plays out should he end up running for president in 2024 or beyond.

Iowa Senator Charles Ernest Grassley, a fierce and longtime advocate of the war against cannabis, who introduced anti-marijuana bills into Congress often in a bipartisan alliance with prohibitionist California Senator Dianne Feinstein, is accused of participating in the January 6 insurrection. As a pivotal figure no less. The evidence comes from a tweet:

NEW: Iowa’s Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the Senate president pro tempore, says he and not Vice President Pence will preside over the certification of Electoral College votes, since “we don’t expect him to be there.” […] 7:06 AM—JAN 5, 2021.

The insurrection didn’t go as planned:

“Pence was supposed to step aside willingly. Adam Schiff said the most chilling words he had heard in the entire investigation were Mike Pence’s words to the Secret Service that he wasn’t getting in the SUV to be whisked away. Pence knew they were trying to get rid of him, get him away from the Capitol so that Grassley would count the electors and reject those from the contested states.”

The 88-year-old Senator is running for the Senate in November. He may be forced to testify before Congress first. Deemed a conspirator and insurrectionist, Chuck Grassley would not be allowed to hold public office again, civil or military, according to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

A DEA owned Beechcraft twin-turboprop King Air (costing from $1.45 to $2.6 million) had its hangar contract voided at Toluca Airport outside Mexico City because the plane—long used for “elite-level ops” in drug enforcement—is seen as no longer serving a useful function.

“Hugs, not bullets,” reflects the latest in a string of political embarrassments for the Drug Enforcement Administration. That’s the latest message from Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) concerning the drug war:

…AMLO stated that his administration “cared for” cartel members just as it did for soldiers in the nation’s armed forces, because the criminals “are also human beings.”

The DEA’s Vigil also pointed out that the populist president AMLO has a track record of hampering U.S. law enforcement programs in Mexico as part of his “Abrazos no Balazos” [“Hugs not Bullets”] campaign, which aims to take a softer approach than his predecessors to organized crime.

“The first three years of President Lopez Obrador’s administration have been disastrous for the DEA. He has placed limitations on the activities of the agency, eliminated the Sensitive Investigative Unit, dismantled Plan Merida and now the most recent blow involving the DEA aircraft,” said Vigil, who added that AMLO has also reneged on diplomatic immunity for U.S. agents. […]

The dismantling of Plan Merida must come as a severe shock to U.S. politicians and all other drug war Beechcraft turboprop elitists who staked their professional careers on the scheme’s success. This is not to say the King Air 300 is a bad choice of planes just because the DEA owns one. With its short takeoff or landing capabilities, top speed of 368 mph at 28,000 feet, range of 1570 miles, maximum payload capacity of 2570 pounds, and service ceiling of 35,000 feet, it’s obviously an excellent aircraft for smuggling contraband.

One use for the Beechcraft that would go a long way toward cleaning up the DEA’s public image would be for the agency to recommission its plane to transport cannabinoid medicinals and psilocybin mushrooms or spores to remote areas where they would be greatly welcomed by traumatized indigenous populations. Call it Operation Drug Peace. Citizens currently living in the battered Ukraine would top the list for a first delivery.