Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/09/25/over-439000-people-were-arres.html
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I wonder if Jeff Sessions is holding stock in any prison companies…
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How convenient that it’s decriminalized in D.C.
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Oh, that’s just one microscopic piece of the kind of peanut butter that’s likely being spread across the world of Trump & Friends. It’s been all about improving portfolios by influencing the markets.
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As if the politically-connected would actually be arrested in Idaho or Texas?
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I understand the sarcasm in the rest of the sentence, but how does that apply to drug cartels? If a user gets arrested, they can’t buy from the cartel, right?
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They profit from it being illegal
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More of a observation that they don’t even try and hide the double standards
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Aside from the fact that most people don’t buy directly from crime syndiates in the first place:
Keeping drugs illegal is what gives cartels their power, because the people who are going to do drugs regardless will generally not be deterred by criminalization or the threat of jail time; all it does is create a “black market.”
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Marijuana can be grown pretty much anywhere by anyone, and therefore – being cheap and easy to obtain if homegrown (unlike harder to grow tobacco) – must not be allowed to compete against the deep-pockets, lobby-creeper, tobacco industry. Hence the arrests.
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translation from the local dialect: white
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But the D.C. legalization (such as it is) came about because of local politics, not Congress ('twas a ballot initiative if i remember correctly). Congress has been doing their best to erect all sorts of roadblocks to make the legalization as pointless as they can.
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Well, I… um…uh…er, I forgot.
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I remember making that argument in one of my first research papers in junior high (hah), I think it was 7th or 8th grade, a year or two before I ever smoked weed. Man I was a precocious youth. 
Subject was marijuana and drug criminalization. I had more sense as a 13-year-old than most policy fucks, what does THAT say…?
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One person gets arrested for marijuana possession every 71 seconds…
Poor guy. Ten bucks says he’s black.
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I for one am glad that up to 10 grams is decriminalized here in Baltimore. I mean, like, because it’s a good policy, sheesh.
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Arresting a half million people a year for something that shouldn’t be illegal is an excellent training exercise.
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“Regulating marijuana for adults creates jobs, generates tax revenue, protects consumers, and takes money away from criminals,”
Works great here in San Diego, going rate for decent bud is down to $50 oz, not too shabby.
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What sarcasm? Every group listed profits from marijuana prohibition:
drug cartels - in the same way that bootlegging alcohol was profitable during Prohibition, and basically died out after legalization. Alcohol cartels moved into other crime rackets.
police departments - it’s pretty safe and easy to bust someone for marijuana possession (safer and easier than going for heroin or meth dealers), and the rare “large grow” that gets busted gives an excuse for militarization and the purchase of military equipment.
racists - who see minorities punished (often, their lives destroyed for minor infractions, like possession with intent to use), while white users with the same minor infractions are let off with a warning.
corrupt politicians - marijuana is an easy scapegoat, and plays to the “what about the children” / “save us from the filthy degenerate drug users” crowd.
prison industry - which directly profits from having inmates; the more non-violent (and therefore compliant), the better.
the involuntary rehab clinic racket - see “prison industry”, above.
I’m not seeing any sarcasm here.
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