Tag Archives: DEA

Court of Appeals Rules DOJ can enforce law on federal land

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Department of Justice can go after pot growers on federal lands.  The ruling says a congressional budgetary restriction preventing the enforcement of federal laws in medical pot states does not apply to the growing and manufacturing of marijuana on federal land.
Under the court’s ruling, pot growers can now be investigated by DEA and prosecuted by United States Attorneys if their pot operations occurred on federal lands managed by the Forest Service and other federal agencies, even in states where “medical” marijuana is allowed.

Continue reading Court of Appeals Rules DOJ can enforce law on federal land

AG Sessions Cites Role of Drug Policy in Addiction and Death

In a speech on January 26, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said: “In recent years, there was an erosion of support for anti-drug law enforcement – in Congress, in state legislatures, and even among some of the general public.  One law enforcement professional told me he felt disappointed that government officials didn’t seem to understand the importance of his work.  Resources were redirected.

“What has been the result?   We saw drug purity and availability go up and drug prices go down.  We saw addiction and death spread like never before.” Continue reading AG Sessions Cites Role of Drug Policy in Addiction and Death

Pot Money Corrupts Maryland Lawmakers


By DeForest Rathbone

More than 16 news articles from 8/16/16 through 10/23/16 reveal a virtual feeding frenzy among Maryland state legislators, marijuana bureaucrats and would-be pot contractors squabbling over access to profits from the federally-illegal addictive dangerous child brain poison, marijuana being falsely promoted as “medicine” under recent drug-trafficker-friendly Maryland state laws.

Examples of such corrupt pro-drug legislative activities are illustrated in the Washington Post’s 9/23/16 article titled: Delegate’s medical pot roles reviewed.

marijuana-harms

But two recent official federal government reports categorically confirm from numerous scientific studies that smoked marijuana is not medicine but instead is a dangerous Schedule 1 drug that endangers the health and safety of users, especially youths.  And is a major gateway drug to addiction to other deadly drugs.

The new FDA and DEA report of 8/11/16, reaffirmed the many previous scientific studies stating that there is no medical use for smoked marijuana.

And the new November 2016 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Addiction stated categorically None of the permitted uses under state laws alters the status of marijuana and its constituent compounds as illicit drugs under Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act.”

Additionally, the Surgeon General’s report stated, “Marijuana use, in adolescents in particular, can cause negative neurological effects. Long-term, regular use starting in the young adult years may impair brain development and functioning…  And marijuana use—particularly long-term, chronic use or use starting at a young age—can also lead to dependence and addiction.” 

Further, annual national drug overdose death rates currently reported by the CDC, are skyrocketing at all-time high levels and increasing rapidly.  To illustrate the enormity of this U.S. drug death plague, if caskets of the 500 victims of drug-related deaths that occur daily in the U.S. were stacked up alongside the Washington Monument, they would extend to nearly twice the height of that monument! 

 From our direct experience with this drug holocaust among our children typically beginning with marijuana,  we Parents published a full page ad in the 1/23/17 Washington Times offering specific suggestions for federal legislation to fix that urgent and growing national public health crisis.

Therefore, we Maryland Parents urge our Governor and State Legislators to immediately recognize the imminent danger to all Maryland citizens from this unprecedented drug overdose death public health crisis and end the drug-money fueled attempts to create and promote a federally-illegal marijuana industry in Maryland.  And instead adopt protective legislation such as those suggested in our Washington Times ad.

Otherwise those of you who continue to support the current headlong rush to enable and promote a federally-illegal marijuana industry in Maryland, will be shamefully responsible for continuing the dope-money-fueled destruction of our children, families, schools and communities throughout this State.

DeForest Rathbone is a Board Member, Parents Affected By Addiction (PABA).  He can be reached in Leonardtown, MD, 301-994-2733, DZR@prodigy.net

Editor’s Note: Last week the Police Chief of Prince George’s County Maryland announced a marked increase in crime due to the decriminalization of marijuana.

 

Has the “Medical” in Marijuana Qualified Pot for Rescheduling?

Marijuana Lobby Depends on Selling a Lie to Pull off a Scam

If you tell a lie long enough, people start believing it’s the truth.   We found a  “medical” marijuana box  in the middle of the soaps and toiletries of a gift shop in a state where lobbyists have been trying to commercialize “medical” marijuana through the state legislature.   Marked “For Daily Use Only,” it gives the appearance of necessity, much like a pill box.  The marijuana industry is finding good ways to trick the public into believing marijuana is “medicinal,” just as the tobacco industry claimed cigarettes were healthy.  However, there are 450,000 marijuana-related hospitalizations in the US each year.*

This summer the head of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) said he would be making a decision about rescheduling marijuana which would mean a change from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2.   However, this past week a federal magistrate judge in New York rebuffed a challenge to federal laws which place marijuana among the most dangerous drugs.

inside lid
Under the lid of the “medical” marijuana box in a Shenandoah Valley, VA gift shop. Virginia has a limited medical marijuana program and doesn’t allow joints to be smoked as “medicine.”  There was a petition to fire the DEA Administrator for calling “medical” marijuana a joke, but who can claim this box is anything other than a joke?

It should be no surprise, as Judge Kimberly Mueller made a similar ruling against rescheduling in April, 2015. Her decision followed a Court ruling of January 2013, which followed many years of studying the issue, by the DEA, with input from the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Ruling of July 12 in New York

In his ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Feldman said, “There can be no dispute that public opinion on whether marijuana has legitimate medical uses is changing in this country.”  But Feldman ruled that Charles and Alexander Green, two brothers accused of marijuana trafficking, had a to prove that current federal laws are “so arbitrary and irrational as to be unconstitutional.”

The Greens, who are from California, are accused of major roles in a marijuana trafficking operation that brought the drug into western New York. They have challenged how federal law classifies marijuana, in the same category as heroin. The category known as “Schedule 1” drugs suggests Congress and federal authorities consider it among the nation’s most dangerous illicit substances.

Marijuana, as a plant or a weed, is not medicinal.  Derivatives may have medical application, but those are derivatives of the plant not marijuana.   National Families in Action put a good explanation of the difference between marijuana and marijuana-based medicines.

Scam2
NORML always planned to use the medical idea as a scam to advance the cause of legalization.

It is possible that the DEA may reschedule cannabidiol, one of the cannabinoids in marijuana, which gives relief to some children with seizures.  Today’s high-THC marijuana has lower proportions of CBD than the marijuana of the 60s, 70s and 80s, which makes marijuana far more dangerous, on par with heroin.  (Any medicine derived from a plant does not go by the plant name, but the marijuana lobby tries to mislead the public into confusing the extract from the plant.)

Quotes by leaders of NORML reveal that medical marijuana was planned as a scam from the start.  On February 6, 1979, at Emory University, Keith Stroup said:  “We are trying to get marijuana reclassified medically.  If we do that, we’ll be using the issue as a red herring to give marijuana a good name.”  Richard Cowan and Ed Rosenthal followed up with statements saying that getting people to buy into the idea of medical marijuana and getting hundreds of thousands to do it will be the key to getting full legalization.

Watch the video.

*Information comes from checking the long DEA report that was available online until recently showed a growing number of hospital treatments for marijuana up until 2010. Obviously, it is more now.  Here is the summary available online.