Mexican Cartels Join DEA in Opposition of U.S. State Marijuana Laws

(SALEM, Ore.) - This nation is heading for a showdown with the Drug Enforcement Agency, a government arm nearing rogue status. They have been running awry of state laws in order to keep the pharmaceutical and insurance industries intact. The DEA is an enemy of the emerging data that keeps painting marijuana an even richer tone of green, and their interests a sootier shade of black.

They are the last vestiges of the Bush Administration's whacked out interpretation of how things should be. I don't know about you but I'm tired of the feds shoveling sh*t over the vibrant people of America.

The moral compasses of these so-called cops is soaring somewhere over the Bermuda Triangle. The centerpoints of the new campaign are both LA and San Diego Counties, where the will of the people is utterly devalued.

Marijuana never should have been criminalized and only a blind, closed minded society would seek to keep it that way. Clearly, it is not the will of the people that is at stake, but the profits of the above mentioned industries.

The feds want to lock up your sons and daughters, parents and grandparents, because of a plant that grows naturally in the ground. Pot laws are a farce and a case of extremely willful prejudice. Laws against marijuana are rooted in bigotry toward Mexicans and African-Americans.

Jack Herer, author of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes", wrote the book of all books on this subject. He exposed the process used to vilify and then criminalize this herb which helps Americans by the millions.

The DEA and other federal agencies want to incarcerate people and overly regulate this simple herb and you know who is on their team? That's right, the Mexican drug cartels. They are the DEA's friends.

Keeping marijuana illegal and non-commercial only helps big pharma, insurance, DEA job security, and these cold blooded drug dealing killers south of the border. The United States is economically strapped and the DEA wants to keep it that way.

In my view that makes them a danger to our very existence. The agency should be disbanded, they had their chance and they have miserably failed. In their heyday they added to the problem of "drugs in America" through their complicity with the Ronald Reagan/Ollie North era guns for drugs programs operated by the DEA's sister agency, the CIA.

Our writers Dr. Phil Leveque and Allan Erickson have written about this at length, along with Norm Stamper, former Seattle Police Chief, who is an active proponent and member of the forward thinking group called LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

Americans have been had and now the DEA wants to rub salt in our wounds by proving that they don't have to follow state laws; as if they are somehow above it, as if somehow there is no United States at all.

People of the older generations might as well get it through their heads that practically everyone today either has or does use marijuana. Again, as Dr. Leveque has written hundreds of times over the years on these pages, marijuana has never caused a single death. It is an appropriate alternative to alcohol, which kills a person's liver.

Almost every single negative thing you have ever been taught in school, or told by a police officer about marijuana, is probably not true.

=================================================

Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com

Salem-News.com Marijuana Coverage

Where and How to Smoke Legal Marijuana without Fear of Arrest in the U.S.

Eulogy of a Great Warrior: Hoss Plourde

The Ripple Effect How Marijuana Laws Are Impacting Society

Audit the Audit

Welcome Home, Tom

Comments Leave a comment on this story.

All comments and messages are approved by people and self promotional links or unacceptable comments are denied.

David Lizama February 15, 2010 10:03 pm (Pacific time)

We must unite under a 3rd political party that has in its name the word Cannabis or Marijuana so that the people will elect a leader that will immediately end the War on Marijuana that has subsisted for 73 years. Until we vote irrespective of Dem or Rep or Indie and make it clear the candidate's stance on Legalization, Industrial Hemp, Declassification of marijuana from Schedule I to II and Medical Marijuana is what is most important things will change only slowly. So far Obama has not stopped the DEA raids as promised.

Bill Harris February 2, 2010 4:01 am (Pacific time)

Thank you, Mr. King, for telling it like it is. People are waking up, one by one. Times are changing. Liberty is near.

dev-o February 1, 2010 3:36 pm (Pacific time)

Go after meth cocaine an opiates, even cigarettes or alcohol Cannabis is less intrusive than all of the above. Except that it will land you in jail... Thanks to the Utah who enacted the fist law against it because it caused euphoria...1915 A religious decree… And the prejudice association of crazy Mexicans and the weed that makes them so… And to have hemp outlawed because it looks like the good stuff??? Hemp saved us before, and can do it again - HEMP FOR VICTORY - look it up! The poor do not have longstanding relationships with their doctors - the rich only have these relationships. Even the middle class get shuffled around to what ever doctor is under their current medical plan. if the they are lucky enough to have one.

mike February 1, 2010 3:30 pm (Pacific time)

the real problem lies in our states elected officials, that government money keeps em from budging, and until all states support legalization the federal government will not budge, I feel there will be alot of blood shed over this issue by the DEA in an attempt to discourage states from supporting it, it is getting to a point that all they have left is force and there gonna use it.

Daniel February 1, 2010 12:43 pm (Pacific time)

Ersun you forgot to add in the millions of drug testing kits . I also am not sure about the liability laws protecting people , judging by all the harmful crap sold in this country ! Jeff if the DEA only went after meth labs it would make there job 100x harder ! Instead of pushing around kids and ill adults they might get shot at . Do you really expect them to earn their pay ?

Ersun Warncke February 1, 2010 11:25 am (Pacific time)

Since the DEA has never been effective in actually interrupting drug distribution, it can be observed that its primary effect has been to grant monopoly status to certain distributors, and thus give those distributors excessive monopoly profits. Irregardless of "intentions," this is the observable outcome of the "war on drugs." Cannabis in its natural form is very different from refined products such as cocaine and heroin, which are dangerous and deadly. It is only the illegality of cocaine/heroin/meth that makes it possible to run multi-billion transnational corporations devoted to producing/distributing them. It is the fact of "illegality" that eliminates consumer protections and legal recourse for users of these dangerous products. If cocaine/heroin/meth were legal, every corporation involved in distribution would collapse under a wave of consumer lawsuits in short order. Apply normal product liability laws to those drugs, and it would be impossible to run a business distributing them. Such are the facts, make of them what you will.

Anonymous February 1, 2010 10:13 am (Pacific time)

I'm glad to find that at age 50 I'm still a member of the younger generation. Legalize it. Anything less is criminally stupid.

dan b February 1, 2010 6:27 am (Pacific time)

i would be on morphine if it wasnt for the holy herb so many helpfull compounds , we arew just scratching the surface

Jeff Kaye~ February 1, 2010 6:01 am (Pacific time)

@ JB; I hope you're not serious? They're already moving meth and producing it here. Their crappy Mexican weed accounts for roughly 70 percent of their profits, because most people prefer cannabis to moronic deadly addictive chemical concoctions like methamphetamines. Get a clue. They would lose a majority of their funding if marijuana were legal, much like the DEA would, having to chase actual criminals involved in truly dangerous drug production and distribution. We need to hold Holder to his word about not using Justice Department resources (DEA) to circumvent state laws (Prop 215 and SB 420) which allow for the production, distribution and use of medical cannabis. It's time for us consumers to take a stand against this police state mentality of our federal "public servants". We pay them to protect us, not harass and arrest patients and caregivers in states with the foresight to legalize medical use of the most benign yet powerfully effective natural healing medicine on earth. The vast majority of Americans support medical marijuana, yet we allow these continued raids on providers and consumers alike. No more - enough is enough. DEA: do your job, which is to protect us from dangerous drugs. Marijuana doesn't fit that description, so lay off. If you can't find the meth labs and other actual threats to our communities, we'll have to eliminate your agency altogether.

D-Rod February 1, 2010 1:08 am (Pacific time)

Yes,Ganja is the healing of all nations! please recognize that many "Smart people" Are For this!

Saltine January 31, 2010 9:25 pm (Pacific time)

Alcohol kills, cannabis heals.

JB January 31, 2010 8:56 pm (Pacific time)

The cartels want weed to be legal so that it will be easier to move up to the next step, meth.

Norman Lepoff January 31, 2010 8:10 pm (Pacific time)

Does this story really surprise anyone?

Osotan; January 31, 2010 5:35 pm (Pacific time)

time to twist one up and chill mon!

Frances January 31, 2010 4:28 pm (Pacific time)

I am of the older generation and I TOTALLY approve of legalization.

[Return to Top]

Mexican Cartels Join DEA in Opposition of U.S. State Marijuana Laws

Quick Links

DINING

MUST SEE SALEM

AUCTIONS - APPRAISALS

CONSTRUCTION SERVICES

ONLINE SHOPPING

Advertise with Salem-News