cannabisnews.com: DEA Operations Chief Decries Legalization of MJ
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DEA Operations Chief Decries Legalization of MJ
Posted by CN Staff on January 17, 2014 at 05:42:42 PT
By Ernesto Londońo
Source: Washington Post
Washington, D.C. -- The chief of operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration on Wednesday called the legalization of marijuana at the state level “reckless and irresponsible,” warning that the movement to decriminalize the sale of pot in the United States will have severe consequences.“It scares us,” James L. Capra said, responding to a question from a senator during a hearing focused on drug cultivation in Afghanistan. “Every part of the world where this has been tried, it has failed time and time again.” Capra’s comments marked the DEA’s most public and pointed criticism of the movement toward decriminalization in several states, where local officials see it as an opportunity to generate tax revenue and boost tourism.
The Justice Department decided last summer it would not challenge state laws passed in Colorado and Washington after voters supported proposals to decriminalize the sale of marijuana for recreational use. The sale and use of marijuana remains unlawful under federal law, but the Obama administration has indicated that it will not prosecute ordinary recreational users in states where consumption is legal.Sales began in Colorado this month and will soon start in Washington. Officials in several other states are contemplating similar changes to their laws.Capra said agents have watched the early days of legal marijuana sales in Colorado with dismay.“There are more dispensaries in Denver than there are Starbucks,” he said. “The idea somehow people in our country have that this is somehow good for us as a nation is wrong. It’s a bad thing.”Capra said that senior DEA officials have faced uncomfortable questions from law enforcement partners abroad. During a recent global summit on counter-narcotics in Moscow, he said, he and the head of the DEA were at a loss to explain the loosening drug laws.“Almost everyone looked at us and said: Why are you doing this [while] pointing a finger to us as a source state?” he said. “I don’t have an answer for them.”Officials in the District are among those contemplating changes to local codes that could lead to the legalization of marijuana. The D.C. Council’s public safety committee on Wednesday approved a proposal that makes possession of a small quantity of marijuana a minor offense, punishable with a citation similar to a parking ticket.Support for legalization among District residents has increased markedly in recent years. A new Washington Post poll shows that nearly 63 percent of residents support decriminalizing pot. Four years ago, residents were evenly split on the issue.Capra said he worries about the long-term consequences of the national mood on marijuana, which law enforcement experts call a gateway to more dangerous drugs.“This is a bad experiment,” he said. “It’s going to cost us in terms of social costs.”Source: Washington Post (DC) Author:  Ernesto LondońoPublished: January 15, 2014Copyright: 2014 Washington Post CompanyContact: letters washpost.com Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ URL: http://drugsense.org/url/44aCP7lECannabisNews  -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #12 posted by awareness on January 21, 2014 at 05:43:27 PT:
govt hypocracy
the day before these comments comes an investigation of dea controlling a cartel and putting the money in wachovia. i guess they are not as moral as they sound huh
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Comment #11 posted by runruff on January 17, 2014 at 18:15:27 PT
Anslinger still makes my head explode!
"Smoking marijuana makes a negro think he is as good as a white man!"This coming from a man who is two degrees genetically from a neanderthal!
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Comment #10 posted by Hope on January 17, 2014 at 16:40:24 PT
So sorry....
Now I have to copy and paste that to the thread it should have been posted to.
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Comment #9 posted by Hope on January 17, 2014 at 16:39:11 PT
Corbett also seems feverish
with a bad case of pedanticism.You just can't help some of these prohibitionists to live a normal life. They're pretty much doomed, because of their arrogance, to their sad fate of living out their lives as hate filled old busy bodies.It will be good for him to be out of office where he can't cause quite so much harm to so many people. They (prohibitionists) have each other. I guess that's something.
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Comment #8 posted by Swazi-X on January 17, 2014 at 14:54:52 PT
Being Honest....Partially
Of course this idiot is scared at the re-legalization of cannabis - it means his job is on the line.Once cannabis is legal his job will vanish along with those of many of his friends. The reason to flush billions of taxpayer dollars down the toilet of the DEA will vanish as well. All law enforcement is scared for the exact same reason - no matter how they spin it.If there are questions about re-legalizing cannabis, they should be answered by science and not by those who have a vested interest in keeping the status-quo.The reason cannabis was criminalized in the first place was that we listened to law enforcement - specifically to the lies law enforcement (Harry Anslinger) told Congress and the public about cannabis, in order to keep his buddies on the government teat after alcohol was re-legalized and they no longer had the job of hunting down all those alcohol "criminals".There's so much information from reliable, scientific, unbiased sources out there about the true nature of this harmless, incredibly beneficial plant that if law enforcement isn't lying about it, then maybe we're seeing a crisis of illiteracy in their ranks. If so that's another problem - and another reason to ignore what they say on the subject.
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Comment #7 posted by disvet13 on January 17, 2014 at 14:21:38 PT:
scared of going hungry
it's there jobs, the world police, nazi's in training. the social costs? big pharmacy loses, big prison loses, big alcohol loses, big lumber loses, big alcohol loses, big oil loses,big government loses, and we win our freedom to choose to grow our own medicine for pennies. I choose freedom, according to the original Constitution, having served Honorably with Good Conduct and 100% service connected and dying from it. 
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Comment #6 posted by BGreen on January 17, 2014 at 14:07:57 PT
I wonder why?
DEA agent exclaims, "(e)very part of the world where this has been tried, it has failed time and time again."Interestingly enough, in the VERY few places cannabis tolerance has been attempted, it has been the interference and heavy-handed tactics of the USA and the DEA who have ensured the propagandist "failure" of these attempts. Not in reality but in the propagandist subterfuge they've been able to maintain ... until now.The DEA knows that this means an end to the entire war on drugs. Forget about a common sense solution to deadly pills and powders. The credibility that the DEA used to be able to force a jack-booted acceptance to is gone. The lies about cannabis have completely discredited their entire mission.I know a lot of people on this website only wanted the war on drugs to end for cannabis. That would have been the answer to any common sense approach to the problem. However, since common sense has never been part of this war, there is no possible separation.Any continuance of this war against any drug would have to include all of the now-known liars and they will never get back their credibility. The DEA is DEAd.I don't want people to use hard drugs. This war on drugs is not the answer. It is just as barbaric to subject a heroin user to the US penal system as it is a partaker of cannabis.It has become crystal clear to me that the only way to win the war against the deaths from chemical poisons is to start over again. This time we approach this issue with common sense, love and compassion towards those who are hurting. Some might call this "Christlike." Only when we start over with truth as our imperative will we begin to have success over so much tragedy.Cannabis legalization is step one in this enlightened approach.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #5 posted by kaptinemo on January 17, 2014 at 13:31:20 PT:
A line from the first Ghostbusters movie comes to
mind: "Cats and dogs, living together! MASS HYSTERIA!" would be a perfect voice-over for a YouTube on this guy.Like a child trying to frighten adults with stories about monsters under the bed. Only in this case, I don't feel like hiding my mocking laughter for this idiot 'child's' sake. Not when we've got veterans sleeping under bridges, and families living in tent cities for lack of the money these swine waste daily. Not when he's on our payroll, doing this on our dime, on our time, and to our faces.
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Comment #4 posted by Universer on January 17, 2014 at 11:25:26 PT
OT: "I Like Weed, and I'm a Good Person" -CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/16/living/irpt-recreational-marijuana/index.html?hpt=hp_inthenewsSuck on that, Capra-cious.Let's keep at it. The animals are wounded, and more vicious than ever. Do not stop, but accelerate.
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Comment #3 posted by schmeff on January 17, 2014 at 09:27:17 PT
Severe Consequences
This severe dork sounds like a slave owner complaining about emancipation. "Whaaa, whaa, whaa, think how much harder it will be to justify my career now that I have fewer victims to bully, harass and incarcerate. The sky is falling!"What do you call a hundred DEAth agents tossed into an active volcano?A good start.
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Comment #2 posted by runruff on January 17, 2014 at 08:58:48 PT
"...will have severe consequences".
Can a person with this level of education be this stupid?I know Leonhart is "that stupid" I've seen her speak. If she is the leader and she is so dumb she cannot put two sentences together, imagine what her underlings are like. I said "underlings" not "underthings". Government issue scivies are not sexy anyway. They are probably olive drab green. Ohh, why does my mind even go there?Whether Capra is a low-life public trough feeder or just a run of the mill useful idiot, I get the great pleasure of laughing at his pain and frustration. Yeah, here is a man who is concerned about the fall of our civilation from too many people smoking herb while mother earth burns to a crisp due to the alternatives we use to substitute the natural.I know that to a trough feeder the worst thing in this world that can happen is BUDGET CUTS. We have seen the devistation caused by prophibition, We have seen the healing herb undoing that which tyranny hath wroght!
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Comment #1 posted by runruff on January 17, 2014 at 08:33:48 PT
The end of tyanny, prohibition!
I call it. "Silence of the Hams"!
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