DEA operations chief decries legalization of marijuana at state level

[Redfairen]

Source: Washington Post

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 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.”



Read more: http://m.washingtonpost.com/national/dea-operations-chief-decries-legalization-of-marijuana-at-state-level/2014/01/15/17af548a-7e38-11e3-9556-4a4bf7bcbd84_story.html?tid=pm_national_pop

[A HERETIC I AM]

1. Where in the world has this been tried?

And where has it "failed time and time again.”


Methinks this guy is using his ass as a reference source.

[Ganja Ninja]

18. Yeah one place, one very small place in the western world, Amsterdam.

And because it was only one place and such a novelty it attracted a crowd like it was Disney World and Bourbon Street all rolled into one. And in any crowd there's always a few bad apples. Imagine if booze were only legal in one very small country what sort of Animal House would ensue.

This guy is worried his funding will be cut.

[yesphan]

21. "This guy is worried his funding will be cut."

Bull's eye !

[jwirr]

22. Bingo. Now he only has the hard drugs to chase around. Poor guy.

[yesphan]

34. Yep. They do like

they're low hanging fruit and don't want to give it up.

[mpcamb]

45. Yeah, and the hard drug people shoot back at you.

[jwirr]

49. That is what I was thinking also.

[RKP5637]

27. Exactly! An entire empire with lots of $$$$$ has been built up around going

after pot. Not only this guy, but many many like him, fear their gravy train might be derailed some. This guy would have loved the alcohol prohibition era. Yet another dinosaur that needs to find a new home.

[GoneFishin]

38. This guy would love for chocolate to be prohibited. Or anything that would justify more helicopters

and hi-tech electronics gear.

[jwirr]

50. Unfortunately many of our local police see that as their main job. The attitudes are going to be

hard to change.

[RKP5637]

57. It will be, they have hard core reinforced beliefs by in many ways a punitive society. n/t

[Aristus]

24. That's more likely than what I thought.

Which is that he's taking kickbacks from the private, for-profit prison industry.

Funding for his government bureau is more plausible.

[RKP5637]

28. Exactly !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[Bandit]

40. Portugal made ALL drugs legal several years ago and the results were shocking

Usage actually fell for marijuana use and remained about stable or slightly less for the harder drugs and there is not a single person there who is unhappy with the results they have seen.

[thefool_wa]

41. Not just direct funding either

They stand to loose BILLIONS in confiscated propert and money that they can use for whatever they want. MJ is so big that, without it, they will crumble under lack of funding if it spreads nationwide or is removed form the UCSA (something that can be done BY THE DEA without congress).

I think the US, and probably the world, would be a better place without the DEA.

[shanti]

52. yes, follow the money...

every time.

[RainDog]

55. The Netherlands never legalized. They use "benign neglect"

They just don't enforce the law on marijuana - because it's the law because the U.S. had all other nations agree to prohibition.

Portugal has decriminalized all drugs - drug use is a civil offense, not a criminal one.

Colorado, iow, is the first.

it's pretty sad when you are either lying or don't know drug policy that the U.S. forced on the rest of the world.

[dotymed]

2. Just like prohibition was bad for "us."

It may be bad for people whose jobs depend on being the morality police...

[IDemo]

3. --

[vt_native]

4. Hey, DEA

You're just worried about losing asset seizures as a revenue stream.

Go suck it!

[another_liberal]

5. Oh yeah, just awful!

I don't have to tell you, it's a lot easier to bust someone's kid for a couple bags of pot than it is to take on real criminals committing real crimes. And how will the for-profit-prison-industry make a buck without that steady infusion of more people busted for weed? Awful, it's just awful.

[thefool_wa]

43. It has always been my opinion..

That this was the exact reason the UCSA was originally adopted in 1971. Below is mostly observation of history and conjecture, but seems reasonable.


The 60s saw not only the proliferation of TV, but the dawn of local news and crime coverage. Crime coverage that talks about (even today) TONS of unpreventable crime (rape, murder, robery, assault, etc). By the 70s the common knowledge of how many horrible, unstoppable people were around you paralyzed the aging "Greatest Generation" and many of the teens/young adults of the 60s that now found themselves with families. So the UCSA was made not only to fight the "drug scourge of the hippies" but also to give the country FIGHT-ABLE crime that they could tie arrest statistics to and convince people that the police were in fact necessary and doing their job.

I don't know this is true, but it seems reasonable.

[another_liberal]

44. It is quite true far too often.

Of that much there can be no doubt at all.

[DetlefK]

6. Marijuana is bad, but alcohol is okay?

Every part of the world where alcohol has been legalized, there have been alcohol-related accidents and fights. Coincidence?

[KurtNYC]

30. The USA tried prohibition of alcohol and it was disasterous

The price of booze went down. Al Capone and others cashed in. Created a whole range of blackmarket goods and distribution channels.

The government even poisoned some blackmarket booze and they STILL mandate now that all non-taxed alcohol be poisoned:

http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=57913

[Uben]

7. Well duh!

When your job is to bust people for pot and throw them in prison so corporations can make billions off of them, of course you think it's scary. Now you'll have to try and bust smugglers and cartels who traffic the hard drugs, which you should have been concentrating on in the first place!

If cops can't use marijuana busts to confiscate billions of dollars from pot smokers, where will the money come from to buy all the gadgets and special weapons they want?

Mr. Capra, try doing the job you are supposed to be doing instead of preying on marijuana smokers. Ten will get ya twenty the bastard is an alcoholic who thinks alcohol consumption is safer than pot.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. Narco haz a sad.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

20. +1

[RainDog]

56. LOL

[Dustlawyer]

9. He can just hear his budget, and his nuts, shrinking!

[maindawg]

10. straw man

The DEA and the CIA are out of control. They DEA is frieking out because they are losing power. Power is money. Control is power. The state s will fall like domino's and the they cant put the genie back in the bottle. The hemp industry is the real reason for the legalization. Its corporations not people. The DEA cant win against the corporations either.

[Peace Patriot]

42. Hm. I figured corporatization/GMO-ization of marijuana is in the works...

...and has been for some time--a Big Pharma/Big Ag/Big Chem Big Plan to tap into the trillion+ dollar illicit herbal, medicinal, recreational and/or addictive drug industry, with legalization. I don't think legalization would have gotten anywhere, as a political movement, without Big Somebody support. Who stands to gain? Big Pharma/Big Ag/Big Chem.

Been following this issue in Latin America for some time, and it was the RIGHTWING FREE TRADE FOR THE RICH president of Colombia who first ran this one up the flagpole (total legalization--all drugs). Go figure.

That personage (Colombia prez Santos) was vetted and approved by Leon Panetta. And pols like that in LatAm do not pioneer revolutionary social/political/economic initiatives, such as total legalization of all illicit drugs--particularly after U.S. taxpayers have been robbed of BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of tax dollars to extirpate said drugs--without a green light from Washington DC.

But, wait a minute! Who gives green lights in Washington DC? Thought I. There must be a split within the "military-industrial complex," with our twin dictators--rapacious, global corporations, on the one hand, salivating over MJ, coke, heroine revenues, and our police state/military boondogglers, on the other, clinging with bloodied claws to the fascist policies that feed them. The latter would not, by any means, easily let go their grip on our throats.

There are a lot of layers to this--including the current (and so far successful) peace negotiations in Cuba between the Colombian government and the FARC guerillas to end Colombia's 70 year civil war; including CIA (and probably DEA and other agency) revenue enhancement; including Pentagon "forward operating locations" in Colombia and other LatAm countries where the U.S. "war on drugs" has invaded; including BIG scandals re Bush Junta drug trafficking and Murder Inc., in Colombia, being covered up by the Obama administration as part of a deal brokered by Bush Sr. and his good buddy, Panetta (to preserve Jr. from retaliation by the CIA over Cheney/Rumsfeld outings, the core issue being their plan to nuke Iran). (Ahem, "Impeachment is off the table.&quot Legalization may be a pathway out of the HORROR that was the Bush Junta in Latin America. But I've posited a Big Split in the MIC over this (legalization) parallel to the internal war over Iran's oil and how to get control of it. And this DEA fellow mouthing off certainly points to a split.

But, no way that "will of the people" is the prime mover on legalization--not with a far rightwing-connected, global corporation (ES&S, which bought out Diebold*) controlling the 'TRADE SECRET' code in ALL of our voting machines here; global corporations controlling the media, hand in hand with the CIA, and so much irony--billions and billions and BILLIONS poured into the corrupt, murderous, failed "war on drugs"! Now they just turn around and legalize it? Jeez.

Anyway, I've been thinking personal drug use, as the "pot of gold," not hemp. Please tell us about hemp. I know what it is, of course; and I know why MJ was originally outlawed (to force deforestation for paper use). But do you know how it fits into our current, weird, MIC/Corporate-driven situation? Is hemp the "pot of gold"? Or combined personal drug use/hemp? What is your information on this? (Hemp as fuel oil?)

------------------------


*(Our current Sec of Defense, Chuck Hagel, was a founder of ES&S, whose new (at that time) 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines, with no audit whatsoever, s/elected Hagel in his first run for U.S. Senate. ES&S is THE worst enemy of democracy to come along since George III, and is far, FAR more devious than King George ever was.)

[maindawg]

47. Its about money.

Anyway, I've been thinking personal drug use, as the "pot of gold," not hemp. Please tell us about hemp. I know what it is, of course; and I know why MJ was originally outlawed (to force deforestation for paper use). But do you know how it fits into our current, weird, MIC/Corporate-driven situation? Is hemp the "pot of gold"? Or combined personal drug use/hemp? What is your information on this? (Hemp as fuel oil?)

Hemp is the reason for the prohibition of Cannabis. All that crap about Marijuana is non sense. There is no such thing as Marijuana. They made that word up to make Cannabis sound like a Mexican drug. Its not like there was some kind of problem associated with the use of Cannabis in the first place. There wasn't. Hell a few jazz musicians in NY smoked it allegedly. The huge narco industry just grew from the opportunity and people,especially Americans dont like being told what they cant do.
Before 1930, Hemp was one of our biggest crops. Before the cotton gin, Hemp was the number one product in agrarian society. Hemp makes everything else obsolete. Everything.It makes oil and coal, obsolete. Why drill and mine and pour chemicals down into the earth destroying our water when Hemp burns hotter, is renewable and does not harm the environment at all? Why clear cut our forests ? Why destroy the rain forest for oil and gas ? Next you will tell me that gold is not really worth 3200 dollars an ounce...............
Its not about getting high. Its about money.

[Hosnon]

11. This guy's job is literally on the line. Take anything he says with that in mind. nt.

[KurtNYC]

32. All government agencies are being forced to fight for their budgets right now

The developments in Colorado, NY, Washington and California are bad news for budgets tied to MJ.

Likewise, public perceptions about pot have shifted at just the time when budgets are being pressured to conform to new priorities.

[JackInGreen]

12. This gent Capra

is a stone liar, and it appears that his lies go unquestioned and taken as gospel truth. I wish someone in any of these hearing had the balls to shut him down and call him out.

[sorefeet]

13. Hey Pig!!!

Two more people were gunned down in Indiana, do you really think we give a fuck about your lying propaganda???? You spineless piece of shit, it's your god damned job your worried about, not the safety of the people. Fuck you.

[SamKnause]

14. Drug Czar

It is in the job description of the DEA Czars to INTENTIONALLY LIE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/drug-czar-required/

Article at link is worth reading.

[OnyxCollie]

15. "We are losing the war against drugs."

"We are losing the war against drugs." You know what that implies? There's a war being fought, and the people on drugs are winning it. -Bill Hicks

[psychopomp]

16. "It's a bad thing" ...for DEA profits from the Sinaloa drug cartel

They know that the local regulation of marijuana production and sales will cut out the Sinaloa cartel, which is backed by our own USG according to recent revelations.

[reddread]

19. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ n/t

[RainDog]

58. They're paying off the Sinaloa cartel

interesting.... http://www.democraticunderground.com/11701577

The head of the cartel thanked Reagan, Bush, Bush Sr., even "El Presidente Obama" for making him stinking rich from the war on drugs.

[taotzu]

17. No Money for DEA

The only reason the DEA is worried about legal marijuana is that they will lose a lot of funding and the easy change that they would steal from the illegal dealers. They need to look deep within their own organizations for the real dealers seeing that they have been implicated in working with the Mexican cartels with securing the routes into the States for the flow of illegal drugs.

[NealK]

23. Dear DEA operations chief Capra,

Go fuck yourself you lying POS. “It scares us,” Yeah, you're scared about budget cuts and the loss of money income from seizing (stealing) people's assets.

[LordGlenconner]

25. Go pound sand asshole

The only thing this shit stain on humanity is fearful for is his job.

[tridim]

26. Too late dinosaur... You lost, big.

Cannabis prohibition is ending and there's nothing you can do about it, Asshole.

[L0oniX]

29. Teh drug cartel has a sad too

Aw ...now the drug dealers will have to work to get people on more crack, heroin, meth ...and more oxy for Rush.

[Fozzledick]

31. "Severe consequences"

He might have to find a real job.

[godevil10]

33. We must get this law changed at the federal level.

The only reason it bothers me is that a terrible precident is being set, eg what might some state want to legalize next. IMHO Holder should not be allowed to pick and choose what laws he wants to enforce.

I have no problem with weed, just a problem with this situation making us all scofflaws.

[W T F]

35. Desperate cries form a department thats about to have it's budget cut.

[kestrel91316]

36. Oooohhhh, yeah, SCARY pot!! Run and hide!!

While you're hiding, be sure to get drunk.

[GoneFishin]

37. "They are taking away part of my fiefdom. How dare they?! "

If all drug use was treated as an illness, and drugs were decriminalized, what do you suppose would happen to the DEA's budget over subsequent years?

On edit : Oops. Everybody beat me to it. Yeah. ^^^^ What they all said.

[frylock]

39. this is the same DEA that was working with the Sinaloa Cartel, right?

or is that a different DEA? please advise.

[bemildred]

46. I'll bet he does. nt

[Baalzamon]

48. No more kickbacks

for jailing people for something no worse than drinking; that is why they are disliking this.

Once the more liberal states all start passing this, the other states will be dragged into it kicking and screaming when they cave remove it from the ban list at the federal level.

[JNelson6563]

51. Still holding Buggy Whip Inc. stock. Asshole.

And do tell, James L. Capra, where exactly has this been tried and failed?

Julie

[warrant46]

53. OOH Mommy LOOK it's the Bag Man and Water Carrier for the Sinaloa Cartel