African Americans in Pennsylvania are over eight times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession offenses than are Caucasians, according to an analysis of statewide arrest data by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The ACLU Pennsylvania report reviewed arrest data for all 67 counties from 2010 to 2016. Excluding Philadelphia, which decriminalized cannabis possession offenses in 2014, adult marijuana possession arrests increased 33 percent during this time period – at a cost of $225.3 million to taxpayers. Black adults were 8.2 times more likely than their white counterparts to be arrested for possessing marijuana – up from 6.5 percent in 2010.
Recent analyses from other states, such as New Jersey and Virginia, have similarly identified racial disparities in marijuana possession arrests. Nationwide, African Americans are approximately four times more likely than whites to be arrested for possessing marijuana, despite members of both ethnicities using the substance at similar rates.
“Pennsylvania’s insistence in continuing to fight the war on marijuana, is at the root of the problematic data presented in this report,” the ACLU of Pennsylvania concluded. “Law enforcement has not only continued its business-as-usual arresting policies in enforcement of cannabis prohibition, it has ramped up enforcement as marijuana use has become more accepted throughout the commonwealth and the nation. If laws don’t change, this pattern will likely continue; law enforcement could become even more heavy handed until policymakers are clear that it is time to end this approach. The clearest way to send that message is to end prohibition altogether.”
This October 20th marks the third anniversary of the decriminalization of marijuana in Philidelphia, making the birthplace of the American Constitution the largest city to have marijuana possession a non-arrestable offense outside of a legalized state. Yet there is much progress to still be made beyond decriminalization.
“It is time for us to chart a better path forward. When politicians and police stop treating cannabis consumers like criminals, Pennsylvania can gain thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue,” wrote Temple Professor Chris Goldstein for Philly.com earlier this month. “I hope that by next October, the verdant harvest of Pennsylvania cannabis is something that will benefit every single resident of the commonwealth.”
And the political winds are changing.
In September, citing racism, bigotry, and mass-incarceration, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party adopted a resolution to “support Democratic candidates and policies which promote the full repeal of cannabis prohibition by its removal from the Controlled Substances Act, and to support the creation of new laws which regulate it in a manner similar to other culturally accepted commodities.”
“It’s time to stand on research, and the research shows it’s time to legalize marijuana in Pennsylvania,” said state Rep. Jordan Harris of Philadelphia, who is chairman of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus.
“Millions of dollars are spent each year on marijuana prosecutions. And prosecution costs are just part of the story,” wrote Pennsylvania Auditor General of Eugene DePasquale in September, “There is also the loss of income and other social, personal, and emotional impacts on those arrested for simply possessing a small amount of marijuana. That’s ridiculous. The police and court systems have more urgent issues to address.”
PA Resident? Click here to send a message to your lawmakers in support of pending legislation for statewide decriminalization and then click here to send a message in support of pending legislation for outright legalization.
If you give the tiniest shit about fighting social injustice, be it racism, sexism, global warming, pollution, war, economic inequality, or drug prohibition…
…then your Number One Enemy is Trump and the GOP. Regardless of infighting or incompetence, they ALL worship these things and will continue to pursue them. Join The Resistance, choose a front, and take an action! As Gandhi said, participate in your own liberation!
I have to disagree, Mark. I am singleminded in my opposition to the war on drugs and I need President Trump and his millions of followers to get the job done. I would wash his underwear three times a week in my own kitchen sink if he would advance the cause of liberating our favorite plant. That will provide all kinds of social justice benefits. It will put people to work. It will boost the economy. It will reduce the ranks of the unemployable. It will make the streets safer in Chicago and New Orleans by eliminating the foundation of the underground drug market. President Trump and his voters might get on board for any of these reasons. Let’s welcome them.
@safer: Trump is not your friend, and they don’t care one particle about cannabis freedom. I am from Louisiana and you are an embarrassment.
Sorry bud, just speaking my mind.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=snKpVv71VS0&feature=youtu.be
This Trump voter donated $8G for the legalization battles last year. Trump’s our best President in our lifetime, & then some
(How much did you donate, last year, Mark, you backasswards Deep State Swamp Crank, you?)
@ Matthew,
Ooooh! Feisty, are we?
Okay, I will tell you. As a medical marijuana patient, my life is on the line. I’m all in. I’m not fucking around.
That beats your chump change, sucker.
@Matthew: You are delusional. You also contradict yourself by claiming to contribute to cannabis reform yet you enthusiastically support an illiberal fascist psychopathic scumbag that wants to reignite the eighties style War on Drugs. Trump has lavishly praised Filipino President Duterte’s sadistic and murderous drug war. And you call Trump a friend and then some? You can go to hell with Trump provided that hell would even lower their standards by accepting the likes of you both. Trump and their supporters are public enemy #1.
Mathew, that’s great that you donated $8G. May I ask, who whom did you donate? Just wondering.
BTW, you said that Trump’s our best president in our lifetime–may I ask what he’s done that justifies such lofty praise? Personally, I’ve seen a human train wreck in the White House.
I am the resistance, I am a Trump supporter, we are the “resistance” to the democraps and there communist take over and selling out of America.
The problem is CONGRESS and the asinine CSA, not Trump.
Dumb ass.
Black Americans are not going to keep putting up with this. I hope the ACLU keeps studying these numbers. Their work has changed the conversation here in New Orleans. Here many political leaders of all racial descriptions see the solution is to stop arresting people for marijuana – not to arrest more white people for it. The authorities in Pennsylvania would need to arrest eight times more white people to achieve balance. In places where whites are a majority, that would drive the numbers to unsustainable levels. The state would have to scale back spending in all other areas, especially public payrolls and pensions, and focus on arresting people for a plant. Friends, we almost have this thing beat. President Trump is coming out for legal, regulated medical marijuana next week. We will get the Florida model everywhere. It will be progress, if not perfection.
@ saferinneworleans,
Trump coming out for social justice?
Bullshit!
Bull… …shit!
Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit.
BULLSHIT!
Laughs, obviously you doubt it! Certainly he is not Mother Teresa.
Onward!
@ saferinneworleans,
Hell no. Onward, my ass. As long as you support Trump, you’re nothing but a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Or a be a sucker. Which is it?
I support the president of the United States. I supported the last one, too, though I did not vote for either of them. And you cannot cast out half of society and make progress on our shared issue. Therein lies the beauty of NORML – that we share a fondness for a plant and a belief that we should legalize it, across party lines, religious lines, economic lines, and so on.
NORML represents marijuana consumers, not WHITE marijuana consumers. Thus, we reject Trump and his supporters.
he who cry’s bullshit is full of it more than anyone else, don’t forget that.
Notice how the democraps bullshit is turning on them now, they are the Russian colluders, not Trump.
You have look starting at our current AG Mr sessions , he graduated from a high roller Christian college and is currently backed by several other associations following that same train in his other agendas, so it will be multiple attacks that come from various sources that we will have defend against, as the church is looking to be a big player in today’s social politics . We are fighting racism , gender discrimination and the full legalisation of Cannabis all from one source of ideology of how we should live in fear. Fear of race,fear of gender identity,fear of cannabis..now the Commonwealth of the people live in fear of the current AG Mr sessions, how ever he is just a man that lives in his own fear of having nothing as he holds on to the deep rooted value in the church, take that away and he will fall because he has never learned what it is to be without nothing, this is his biblical conquest. The church as no place in government politics it has no place in the decision of how a man should live or if a man decides to partake to cannabis or what ethnicity a man should be or what gender, take away the church from the politics and be freemen ..
Buddy, you are going to need Christians to make further progress on marijuana in this country. And a lot of us have your back. My own Presbyterian church allows medical marijuana and there is no penalty for users – we are elders and teachers and members of the board. We don’t use marijuana at church but we don’t drink or shake out our other prescriptions either – not during services. We are focused on Jesus Christ, who healed the sick and fed the multitudes. As for Sessions, his United Methodist Church allows the use of medical marijuana. He is an outlier, a hold-over, a hard nose and he is on his way out. Surely you don’t hold all Christians accountable for his actions.
I have plenty of christian friends and most of them support marijuana legalization.
Jeff Sessions is an evil man.
He is our enemy.
Jeff Sessions is a complete failure due his refusal to do his job and jail literally hundreds of federal law breakers in Washington DC.
But the real problem has ALWAYS been congress
Christians are too judgemental to be of any use to us, in general.
Nancy if they are being judgmental they are not acting on Christian principle. They might not realize it because they have been brainwashed – with drug war propaganda – so they are acting as victims, more than Christians. We must forgive them, and welcome them to our cause when they come around. Meanwhiile it is tax free Friday, every Friday, at the dope man’s house, eh? So we’re really saving a lot of money. All of society pays for the drug war, but only marijuana smokers get the tax breaks. I wonder if the drug war cost $1 trillion, if we have also saved that much in marijuana taxes. A trillion is a thousand billions, and the marijuana market is worth $25 billion a year – representing, say, $3 billion in taxes – times 333 years is $999 billion, still not as much as we have spent in the drug war. So we are still losing money on the deal. But only we enjoy tax savings. If we end the war and pay the taxes, it will make a huge difference.
@ saferinneworleans,
Bottom line: the marijuana legalization movement doesn’t want or need the help of that racist Nazi scumbag Trump, or his racist, idiot supporters.
A pot smoking Trump supporter puts his racist hatred over his and his families own health and freedom. That’s a stupid bigot, by definition.
Like I said, saferinneworleans, Christians do not act on Christian principles, and thus they are of no use to us.
Thanks for the info, but I have been thrown out to wolves by the Christian authority long ago for my belief’s, coming from a family that built the first church of America and the Puritan of England’s dynasty I believe I’m the black sheep of the family no pun intended of race.
I learned before I was even a teen I would be going down this road .
Let’s take it back
To the middle of Iraq
Or better yet Syria
Before all this hysteria
Before all the Christians
Jesus smoked weed with the Scythians
They took a bale of weed
And gave everbody pithy grins
But not Moses
Who said “That’s for the Kings”
The prognosis
Of Priests within their rings
But Jesus didn’t care
He looked at the despair
And brought the weed
To those in need
Breakin off a nug to share
But when he got to prayer
The church was preaching DARE
Thats when he flipped a chair
“Theyre selling beads and underwear!”
(Tape FFW sound)
Now take it to the present
A humble Christian peasant
Tryin to legalize
Anti-epileptic resin
Asking the Church “please”
Praying on his kneese
While Pharma funnels 2 mil
Through the Archdiocese
To stop legalization
All across the nation
A 501 C(3)$
Creates reform constapation
If Jesus is able
To see through each church gable
And see all that they’re selling
He’d flip every table
So stop all this reliance
And false pious compliance
Only we can free our minds
And stop the violence of silence…
The AG sessions opened the door for the church to invade our privacy in to politics and law . When he made his statement about religion freedom from his briefing from the organization and based it on that , he basically said anyone can refuse public (not private) service to any one that doesn’t share there religious beliefs and he left it as open interpretation very subjective ..
He could very well turn that bullet towards Cannabis reform with out any hesitation. This is why church and religion has no place in politics this was argued by Rome and the Greeks as well ..
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=snKpVv71VS0&feature=youtu.be
Cenk turk didn’t impress me one single bit nothing he said about Trump’s actions towards Christians was muckery all cenk did was the usual negative throw of words . Any child can what Cenk did in that YouTube video ..
I look for intelligence ..
Trust me Gilbert, under this President we’re all looking for intelligence.
What Cenk is pointing out is what great hypocrits evangelicals have turned out to be even while Trump mocks them… because Trump doesnt get that defeating Roe v Wade and throwing abortion to the states is a victory because Trump doesnt know what Roe v Wade IS. Just like he doesnt know whats in Trump care. Just like he doesnt know La David Johnson’s name before he calls his grieving widow on her way to retrieve Johnson’s body in a casket. Just like Trump doesnt understand the Controlled Substances Act or what he signed himself up for.
Granted evangelicals knew Trump is a total douche and we all knew he never read the bible because Trump isn’t mentioned anywhere in it. So why degrade themselves to support him? Oh, so Gorsuch could take the Supreme Court and outlaw abortions? Cenk suggests it’s more than just that; evangelicals sacrificed their integrity to support more money for the church.
I would expand on that to say tax-free money laundering is the business of all big churches in this nation, which is why we see so much money supporting prohibition from big pharma funneling through their tax free “donations.”
You’re missing the point, which is about Trump, and the so-called Christians that support him.
And the GOP? They don’t even pretend to care about doing the right thing. Naked abuse of power.
@julian
I don’t get this debate about the call to LaDavid’s wife ?
The operation was a secret recon mission no one was to know about it anyways, this is not new tactical intelligence.
Trump did his best on short notice of an event that arrived from something that 99 percent of world didn’t even know about, look at Las Vegas it’s the there as well no difference just a different place on the planet.
Trump told the truth to his widow,it was his way of saying LaDavid was a man that sought out his own personal legacy as must men do that don’t roll with a sheep heard.
Was it a perfect scripted phone call nope it was a on the fly do your best,I would have said the same thing to her as well, because I know what I signed up for ever time I make that trip, it comes with the territory .
I had a semi recent encounter with some individuals in North Africa in discussing issues with east Africa no one knows about that as we discussed the security of Africa as well as issues in France. My point is that 85 percent of the outspoken hostility is from individuals that really have no clue beyound there backyard fence and barbecue .
I my self from my perception find it very troubling that People are Using LaDavid to promote hate and anger all because they just don’t like Trump it’s not what he said it’s who said it let’s be truthful this shows the disrespectful hostile actions of how far people will take advantage of even a dead man’s peace .. what a shame .
Trump is a business man, multi billionaire stepping in to a roll of politics from the top not bottom so yeah it’s a hectic how ever I’m pretty sure not many here on this message board has that much resilience to stand that ground, to make a quote if I may ” he knew what he signed up for ” . May peace be with LaDavid and May peace be with our leader Trump .
@ Gilbert,
No. Trump is a sociopath who is incapable of human compassion or remorse. He is a clear and present danger to America, and the entire planet. He has no redeeming qualities, and is entirely unfit to be in any position of power. Anyone who doesn’t understand that just isn’t trying.
@ negative Nancy, well I guess it’s true as it is lonely at the top.
I like to consider my self as a successful individual at creating something out of nothing and being a leader as apposed to a follower or a manager, typical managers are just that they manage what’s already in place , a leader opens up doors to things or ideas that others would not be able to notice and in doing so takes away some complacency that people have gotten used to so no forward progress has been accomplished .
The prohibition of Cannabis as been in a place of complacency for quite some time, I have been watching over the years who is going to be a leader of the revaluation of tearing down the walls of prohibition of Cannabis a leader of such will get alot o
Flack because he kinda goes against the grain a rebel you might say, even Gilgamesh was a leader of such tides of adventure .
@ Gilbert,
Nonsense. Trump isn’t a visionary, he’s a con artist. Trump is not a misunderstood genius, he’s a dolt and a thug, specifically, a sexual predator. Trump is cruel. Trump is racist, sexist, and a Nazi supporter.
That’s your role model? “Sad.”
Gilbert,
This is your rebuttal to my response to your derailed criticism of Cenk?
You can’t keep dodging bullets all your life. If you can dish it you can take it. With that said I’ll entertain you another fact checking response;
Our military don’t sign up to die; they sign up to serve our country and beyond that whatever personal or professional motivation that suits them. Our soldiers don’t sign up for PTSD, or opiate overdose, they don’t sign up for getting their VA funds cut for pissing positive for one of the few natural treatments for their trauma available, marijuana.
And our soldiers don’t sign up to have some nitwit who has ZERO idea what he signed up for as Commander in Chief… call their widowed wives while theyre on the way to retrieve their dead bodies just to forget the soldiers name and say “But thats what your husband signed up for.”
And THAT’s what YOU would have told a gold star grieving widow? Then you have no honor or value for life itself.
Clearly youre consuming too much Fakebook and right wing extremist propaganda. It’s Trump who shamelessly politicizes the death of our soldiers. He never bothered to call the wife of La David Johnson or 3 other soldier’s wives even after a reporter called him out on it. It was after General Kelly mentioned President Obama did not call him after losing his son to large casualties in Afghanistan in 2010 that Trump raced to the phones and twitter so quickly he forgot La David’s name.
If you can’t find what’s wrong with that then you lack the integrity to understand honor itself.
Gilbert;
You “like to think” of yourself as an accomplished businessman? Ego tripping on the Fox & Friends again are we?
Sorry to burst your bubble but the only reason Trump ran for President was because he needed to pay off expired tax credits from when he flushed 3 casinos down the drain after bribing Governor Christi to avoid taxes and permit fees, stiffed his contractors and ended up in deep debt with Russian money launderers. You know, like he scammed or dumped on every other business daddy’s money ever bought him, like Trump Airlines, Trump University and now the US government.
You call that “good business?” The finasteride saturated Mongoloid went to bankruptcy more times than KMart. It’s clear you have a severe insecurity due to artificially inflated ego.
No worries; smoke a joint, go on a right wing news fast and write me when youre prepared to answer your own questions.
@julian
Your just awesome sir !!
I don’t do Facebook, I don’t own a television and I try very hard to stay away from the media news and such, I rarely do blogs and Norml is pretty much all I entertain as for blogs, because I believe in this this fight to end this prohibition of Cannabis once and for all , so I rely on news for moment in order to track where the negative and false information of Cannabis enters into the main stream of public view, I try my best to deal in facts not opinions
The fight we have on prohibition of Cannabis is rooted in suspicious opinions of false truths with no actuall facts to back any of there claim’s .
In my opinion I’m kinda hearing a hypocrite of those ideas from those that wish to place at my feet the unsustainable opinions about issues of lately of Trump , it is in your opinion and many others that he was disrespectful by saying to the widow that her husband knew what to expect when you join up ! He didn’t go into details of it there was no mention that ” it was his fault for signing up !!!!!! ” Now that would be the disrespectful conversation one that never took place , the one that did and is undisputed is ” He knew what he was getting into ” .. I know alot of people would love to make sound like he actually said ” it was his own fault ” how ever facts say different , just like facts say Colorado did not see any rise of auto Mobile accidents by 48 percent due to cannabis legal action in Colorado .. if where going to call on facts to back us up then it needs to be straight across the board . It makes you weak . Stick to the facts , the truth you see and hear
I’m kinda like Trump I will fire you if you can’t do your job ! How ever I’m also one of nicest guys on planet with deep views in philanthropy but push comes to shove I will draw that line . It’s a requirement of success of human progress .
@julian
Trust me I don’t need fox and friends as you kinda put out there, I found that by placing my own belief’s into my own personal legacy in this time of the universe I’m much happier as I have traveled various countries around the world I can walk into pretty much any environment and see my way through it as long as I follow the facts of my truth .
I have been asked and told by some individuals that they hate America yet when I sit down with them and out they never been to America there discussion quickly turns to so how about Jimi Hendricks and all I can do is laugh . It’s amazing how people are so not into there own truth of what they see ..
Example !! You might not like this Julian how ever it’s truth I’m about to say , someone gets hurt or shot killed a thousand miles away it really has no effect in the here and now of my experience of reality except for the universe of collective one source and even then it’s viewed as a wave of energy . Unless you actually see it hear it feel it , it’s just a wave length in time .. step out of box ?
Gilbert;
By ignoring the obvious truth… that Trump’s statement clearly implied to a grieving gold star widow that La David signed up to die, you have revealed yourself a foreign troll with no allegiance to America but yourself. You don’t deserve any further responses from me.
So you don’t facebook? Congratulations, youre exclusively delusional through self fabricated propaganda. (Or a paid troll?)
Clearly you never had a loved one die thousands of miles away. And by the way @$$#ole, those are American soldiers were talking about in real combat, not some philisophical tree falling in a forest “does it make a sound” bull$#!+.
If you truly valued marijuana reform you would have questioned Trump’s appointment of Sessions as AG; his appointment of Chris Christi on the bogus opioid commission; and certainly questioned when he said Tom Marino was “a good man” even after he withdrew his nomination for drug czar when the WAPO broke the story on how the Marino bill is vastly helping to kill Americans for opioid profit by 149 per DAY. Now you don’t need to travel the world to see that $#!+, just look at people’s faces as you walk down the street. See their eroding faces and teeth? See the weight loss and the hollow eyes? That’s what you support by supporting Trump, you willfully ignorant coward.
You view yourself “like Trump?” Good. Like Billy Crystal said to a pro-Trump heckler; “I’ll take it from the words of your leader; GET him OUTTA HERE!”
Can anyone tell me exactly why Blacks are more likely to be arrested for marijuana than Whites? Is it truly, simply, because the police see the color of their skin and therefore choose to investigate them more often. Is it that they are eight times more likely to be doing something that will catch the attention of a policeman?
I would truly like to know if the rate at which they are arrested is purely because of their race or if it is because of their activities.
Miles, numerous studies or journalistic reports are available seeking the “why” of this racial disparity. Yes, racism seems to play a big role. But so does location. If you live in the projects your back yard is a public area patrolled by the police – often on foot or bicycle – and they are more likely to run into – or over – you than, say, a white suburbanite with a fenced half acre, who is in fact just as – if not more! – likely to be a marijuana consumer. So that accounts for racism and location. Poverty is another factor – and a high number of black Amricans live in poverty. If you cannot pay a simple speeding ticket or court fees and miss court dates and end up with warrants or expired or revoked paperwork, the police are going to stop and search you and charge you with a number of offenses including possession of marijuana if you have it. The white suburbanite living in relative plenty pays his ticket and his court costs and keeps his paperwork up to date – and is not likely to be pulled over in a world where so many easier targets are available. Underlying all these factors is historic racism, so that has to be the main thing. But it does not mean even the average police officer on the street is a racist, and is targeting black people. I think officers like that do exist, but they are a minority and are turned out by cooler minds when sanity prevails.
I agree, as a white individual we continue to pay out alot more in social anxiety .
As a white man I’m told I have no access to any government assistance, As a single father after the untimely dismissal of my wife from this Earth at the early age of 22 I went seeking assistance and was told by the office lady I was not Hispanic , I was not a female , I was not pregnant , I was not black , since I was a white male i was fully capable of being a single father without any assistance . That conversation held me through some tough times as being a white man,I learned then what was expected from me as a white man,I’m held to a higher standard of principal and honor,I’m to be a law abiding individual at all costs as a white man.and even though I have been tossed to the side in a couple places due to my indulging into Cannabis as a white man because they expected better of me so they say..
It’s a hard battle with the government for me as white man with my belief’s especially with Cannabis.
I have alot of different black women friends I know. When I want to escape the madness of the responsibility of being held to a higher standard of duties because I’m white , that’s where I go and relax and enjoy the freedom of the day as they are some of my best friends and even they expect me and hold me to a higher standard and watch over me to be sure i keep my higher white standard that is placed on me for being white, as they tell me let them indulge in the fruits so I don’t lose sight of what is expected of me so as I can keep us both out of trouble and safe ..
They know where the boundary lines are.
Gilbert,
Dude, you’re touting white privilege because some lady rejected your food assistance application? And you listened to her? Did you try showing proof of income by applying on line? Food stamps or unemployment have nothing to do with race and everything to do with our income and ability to read and type into a screen.
@ Julian
I think I’m a little more intelligent then that ..
I was just sharing some of the expectations of my personal experience that was placed on me because of being white ..
Yes I did listen to her, 30 years ago must of it paperwork filled out was in person not on a computer like today’s ..not even close
@ Miles,
It is because police focus their resources on urban areas, towns, and cities, with predominately non-white residents, knowing that they can arrest, confiscate, and shoot anybody, and get away with it — at least, so far! Resources are not focused on white, suburban soccer moms, who might just have political connections, or maybe just lots of money to fight back and “buy” more justice.
Don’t forget they get off on that ego trip they get going on, to some of them it’s better then any soccer mom could be !
@ Gilbert,
Totally. Nothing I said should be construed as giving racist, white cops,of which there are plenty, another free pass.
@ Mike
I was attempting to convey a point of how law enforcement personal are trained . When you train into this aptitude of professional military or civilian law enforcement it can become very personal And one-sided objective . So where one does full fill that objective plays Into it’s path. Take a look at Las Vegas ! There all victoms of the human show and unfortunately some go beyound the boundaries . Again sooner or later someone will come in and hold The US AG’s and the DEA accountable for the liabilities of harmful human rights of the people of the united states Commonwealth that they have created by this prohibition of Cannabis, that last Senate over site committee with sessions should have done more with respect to the Commonwealth of the people from what I saw of it , I didn’t follow all of it to be truthful so if I missed something important I apologise .
I am sorry to make a completely off-subject post but this is important to me and I feel the need to get this out. As USMC veteran I am outraged that the con-artist currently serving in the role of the President of the United States does not seem to care about the soldiers who have given their lives for our country.
Instead of showing any real grief or compassion regarding the recent deaths of those brave Green Berets, he verbally attacks our previous presidents as if to say they didn’t do anything either. If anyone wants to know why it is taking so long for him to acknowledge them I am pretty sure it is because of 2 things. First, he hasn’t really given it a second thought since it happened; at least not until the media brought it up. Secondly, it is because he is trying very hard to increase his wealth and to improve his golf game.
So, President Trump, I say to you “FU all the way to hell”.
Only the stupidest and most ignorant Americans among us could possibly support this friggin’ guy who has risen, no doubt with the help of the Russians, to be our president. God Dammnit!
It is now time for me to medicate since I am feeling very stressed out and hateful!
“Surrounded by water the fool is thirsty.”
This website is literally a library of answers for every question on this blog. I remember when I was in highschool during the 90s and the ACLU came out with their first reports on the 8 to 1 disproportionate incarceration of African Americans even though studies found they consume the SAME amount of weed as our white brothers and sisters. I remember sharing the report with my black and white friends in my home room class in a DC public school. So much has changed. So far to go.
“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying?” Ehrlichman told Baum. “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
– former Richard Nixon aide John Ehrlichman
Julian,
And to go along with that, on a local level, Albuquerque local TV news stations put a heavy emphasis on their crime and punishment segments. If they don’t have a significant Albq crime story to show, they’ll cover crimes in the state’s other towns, or even crimes in other parts of the country. The local CBS affiliate here, KRQE, loves to put up mug shots of minority prisoners in orange jump suits.
Indeed, Bud, it’s time to separate the predatory Fakebook wannabe “reporters” from the real few investigative journalists we have left like our Deputy Director Paul Armentano who just wrote this piece;
http://www.westword.com/marijuana/normls-paul-armento-rmhidta-marijuana-reports-are-just-propoganda-9617759
…reminding us that the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 is so corrupt that it requires the Drug Czar and the Office of National Drug Control Policy to use our hard earned tax dollars to systematically deny the medical efficacy of any schedule 1 substance, including but not limited to marijuana.
Of course that doesn’t stop the Sacklers and the rest of Big Pharma from pumping more lies into the propaganda machine by paying the DEA to place any herb or compound that can help keep people off opioids into the schedule 1 category, like they recently did with Kratom and CBD “marijuana extracts.”
Our government is killing us for profit… and it was written into the CSAct. Never has it been more apparent than now. And it’s never been more important to call our state and federal Congressman and take action.
I’ve been saying this since I took an AP government class in high school and I first found out about NORML and the CSAct… The executive branch has absolutely no business writing our drug policy, and it was an act of treason for Congress to give that power to the executive in the first place.
Never thought I’d stand so wholeheartedly behind any particular political party but the Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s stance on endorsing pro-plant candidates has my vote. Also, would love to see some data here on what percentage of the state’s population uses and of that percentage, how many are black versus other ethnicities. Although this information, given how laws and stigma, is probably virtually impossible to come by – at least with any sort of high level of accuracy I imagine. But if we had this data, it’d really paint a clearer picture when coupled with this arrest data.
You could collect that data at the point of sale of legal dispensaries as voluntary information , Age- Race-Sex and maybe county of domicile just to give a little more input for data purpose. Make it solely voluntary only and anonymous ?
Is anyone else deely disturbed by AG Sessions’ trstimony to Senator Franken yesterday when Sessions did not deny meeting the Russian spy-ambassador Kislyak… at the MAYFLOWER HOTEL in D.C.?!
I couldn’t even pay attention to any testimony about marijuana after that.
Allow me to explain to those of you reading that don’t know what the Mayflower Hotel is in our nation’s capitol; I’ts the same hotel where former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry was caught smoking crack with a prostitute… (and then got reelected) …because in the words of fellow D.C. resident Dave Chapelle, “That’s what you do at the Mayflower Hotel.” …smoke crack and screw prostitutes.
Dear God, does Attorney General Jeff Sessions have a pee pee tape?
PLEASE! PLEASE Senator McCain… Stay offended by Trump’s disrespect to LaDavid’s widow… shoot down this tax bill by telling Trump “thats what you signed up for” so the billionaire bat man villains that put him in power will depose him before he gets indicted by the D.C. Grand Jury and we are all forced to watch the pee pee tapes!!! For the Love of God, Country and Marijuana depose this man before it’s too late and we all go blind!!!
Lol that was the best laugh of the day Thanks ..
That reminds me of a friend that I know that used to be one of the high level secret service agents that would tell me stories of his days taking Russians to high level hotels around the world , what sessions did has been going on for years before the bush administration .. by the way I’m Dutch/Russian/Scottish . My Russian grandfather’s started one biggest chain stores here in the Midwest long ago and is still in the Russian name .. nothing wrong with Russians ..
Gilbert: Indeed, it’s somewhat of a misnomer to talk about “the Russians” when we mean the Russian government. I wouldn’t want to be stigmatized by all of the horrible things our DOJ has done around the world from toppling Democratically elected leaders to covering up covert drug wars by foreign societies referring to our corrupt foreign agents as “Americans.”
As for the sexpionage of hotels in world capitols that’s probably never going to change or go away. But we have to be careful that these decoy sex incidents like the one that got DEA Director Michelle Leonhhart fired don’t distract us from real legislative policy that creates reform like the CARERS Act. As long as the CSAct tells the drug czar to use our tax dollars to deny the medical efficacy of schedule 1 drugs like marijuana it doesn’t matter who becomes the next DEA Director or Drug Czar, or who they’re fucking, which is usually the American people.
Miles:
Don’t give Trump too much credit; He lacks the sinister intelligence and sarcastic irony of the Joker. There is one very stupid Batman villain worth looking up that gets close to Trump: The “Cluemaster.” Wearing an orange costume, the Cluemaster was a failed game show host turned to a life of crime to support his family. Leaving clues to his crimes the Cluemaster was eventually killed. And that was before they invented Twitter!
LOL regarding your comment about Batman villains!!!
For some time now I have envisioned Trump as The Joker (from the old Adam West Batman series) come to life and actually becoming president. It continues to be almost unbelievable that such a thing could actually happen…
What is this, Ground Hog Day? Information in this report is no surprise. I can tell you that much, sitting here in rural Pennsylvania. Look at the mayor of Reading who walked out of a city council meeting because they voted to make possession a summary offense and no longer a misdemeanor.
His attitude is summed up in these articles. Suffice it to say that he is illustrative a the rabid prohibitionists around here. I mean, you compare the big picture of Pennsylvania Republicans with the big picture of Pennsylvania Democrats. It’s like Progress versus anti-Progress, and for on other issues, too. I’m still trying to figure out what they hell we got going on in the White House, freak show people will put up with and all their shit that actually harms the everyman for now, but the stock market has got to have a correction sometime. If it happens around election time Republicans around here shouldn’t be asking How You Like Me now-James Brown’s Super Bad or The Heavy.
https://www.420magazine.com/forums/international-cannabis-news/416029-pa-reading-mayor-walks-out-meeting-over-marijuana-resolution.html
http://www.wfmz.com/news/berks/mayor-scott-storms-out-of-reading-city-council-meeting/635395427
Oracle,
Remember how the stock market crested under Bush Republicans with all the deregulation right before the big fall of 2008?
And is that the same Mnuchin as our Sec of the Treasury that was in charge of the hen house back then?
It’s another central bank heist brought to you by the Trump-lead GOP.
If Trump screws up this tax plan though he’s out the door; deposed before indictment so Pence can screw up the economy properly.
I hate the stupid comments one what is supposed to be none racist. The one that says Blacks are targeted because they commit most he crimes BS. Cops say this a lot and makes me sick. Ass hat if you didn’t target blacks more than whites then you might find that crime is more evenly spread than you think.
I know some pretty freaky people that are white, and my guess is they are doing far more crime, or at the very least same amount as blacks so… Yeah.
As for the Trump is great comments above
Laugh out loud omfg. Trump only hasn’t went after our states because he’s hoping to do so later after 2020. much like Obama did guns after 2012. We vote out the Republican majority in both the House and Senate in 18, but not with Democraps but with Libertarians or common sense people Trump wont stand a chance in 2020.
We need to get at his core for even some of those don’t support Trump full heartedly they just like some of what he does.
Just because traditionally Red counties lost in these last couple of emergency elections doesn’t mean the country is still behind Trump.
Talking about Montana’s election who voted in a assaulter type and Georgia elections.
People need to stop being duped by Criminal Democraps like Feinstein, and pervy Charles Schumer types that do nothing but support the status quoe.
But we also need to get away from the lock em up throw away the key types too.
the reason more blacks are arrested is because they are dealing or are not smart enough to smoke it in private
@ motorman,
No. That is incorrect. Sounds like a Trump supporter: racist and wrong on all counts.
Gee, thanks Motorman. And here, silly me, I thought that racist cops and predatory city councils were trying to make payroll and get kickbacks from private prisons by systematically targeting black neighborhoods with neverending court fees using scheduled drugs that crooked cops and prosecutors were often planting as evidence or in some cases schedule 1 drugs that the DOJ was supplying themselves?
Good thing white people are “not smart enough” to see the same thing is happening to them with opioids.
Or is it?
Oh look. Another “tolerant” leftist. Too bad your leftist Utopia Sweden is not too tolerant of your favourite drug:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_Sweden
Next, you can wear a riot mask and throw a molotov cocktail at people who don’t share your political beliefs, in the name of “tolerance”, of course.
@ Barfnoises,
We “leftists” will not tolerate Trump, nor the violence, the deceit, nor the sheer stupidity he represents. Why would you, unless you share those values? Fuck Trump.
Until America dumps Trump, America is shit.
Trump made a diaper out of the American Flag, and took a “great” big shit in it. Now, I know, Trump supporters, that you think that’s cute and adorable, don’t you? Piss off a liberal for sport, right?
But it won’t be funny when the bombs start flying, you stupid motherfuckers. Do you have any military in your family? Say goodbye now, while you still can. They will die for Trump’s blatant, self-serving lies. After all, “They knew what they signed up for.” Does that make you proud of America?
Bot, or troll farm.