Words are my Weapon of choice ~ Truth is my shield

“Another big marijuana seizure happened at the U.S./Mexico border . This time, agents found more than 6,000 pounds of marijuana mixed in with a shipment of door locks at the Calexico East port cargo facility.

Officers found 458 wrapped packages of marijuana concealed in 67 boxes in the big rig Friday around 7 p.m.

A 30-year-old Mexicali man entered the cargo port driving a 1998 tractor trailer with cargo described as door locks. A canine team alerted agents to something in the cargo.  After a secondary inspection, agents found the pot with a street value of approximately $5.9 million, agents said.

The driver was arrested and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.”

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Marihuana is not the largest illicit drug being imported in to our country. By far, shipments of heroin and cocaine surpass marihuana yet, due to the bulk of the product and the smell given off by the flowers, it is more often discovered by law enforcement agents.

I have proposed numerous times in the past, the Federal government remove Marihuana from the DEA Drug Schedule and sell an agricultural tax stamp giving the bearer the legal right to grow their own crop of marihuana for personal consumption. I would be willing to pay the government $250 per year for a tax stamp which would allow me to grow enough marihuana to last me for the entire 12 months of each year. Personally, my needs could be fulfilled with 52 ounces per year. That amounts to 3.25 pounds of dried flowers.

I am not saying that this should be the limit imposed, just what I could see as an adequate amount for any individual.

I believe if Marijuana were freely grown in private gardens, the lucrative trade and high price of marijuana would be removed as a component of the ongoing drug war. This would free up resources to discovering and interdicting the heroin and Cocaine entering the USA.

The violence and money laundering would cease with regards to marijuana. The lives of our citizens would no longer be destroyed simply for possessing this natural plant, which many believe GOD created and, called his work Good.

Our Prison system and Courts would no longer be clogged with citizens being charged and incarcerated for this non-violent infraction of current law. Our children pursuing a college education would no longer lose their ability to qualify for Government grants and loans simply because they were found to possess small amounts of marijuana.

Drug Convictions Cause Students to Lose Financial

Students convicted of any drug-related crime while receiving federal financial aid lose their aid for the rest of the semester and are ineligible for aid the next time the student applies for it, according to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid Web site. Nearly 200,000 students have been denied financial aid since the law making drug offenders ineligible for it was enacted in 2000, according to a report from Students for Sensible Drug Policy. “Sixty-three percent of students rely on financial aid,” he addded. “Most students are forced to drop out immediately.”

Ron Paul: States Have Right to Legalize Marijuana ~ He said that he believes that the U.S. Constitution gives the fifty states the right to legalize hemp production or marijuana.

“The federal CSA of ’72 says that a state’s scheduling of controlled substances is preeminent and trumps federal scheduling.”

21 U.S.C. 903 reads: Title 21 United States Code (USC)Controlled Substances Act

Section 903.  Application of State law
No provision of this subchapter shall be construed as indicating an intent on the part of the Congress to occupy the field in which that provision operates, including criminal penalties, to the exclusion of any State law on the same subject matter which would otherwise be within the authority of the State, unless there is a positive conflict between that provision of this subchapter and that State law so that the two cannot consistently stand together.”

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If my plan were enacted, we would no longer read Headlines such as these:

DEA Unearths Illegal Marijuana Operation in National Parks
Mexican cartels running pot farms in U.S. national forest
Undocumented Immigrants Recruited to Grow Marijuana in National Park

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“Our national treasures are now ground zero for international and domestic drug cultivation and trafficking,” said drug czar John P. Walters. “We must push back against the invasion of foreign drug-trafficking organizations through increased law-enforcement collaboration, enhanced intelligence and expanded investigations to reclaim our public lands.”

“America’s public lands are under attack,” Mr. Walters said. “Instead of being appreciated as national treasures, they are being exploited and destroyed by foreign drug-trafficking organizations and heavily armed Mexican marijuana cartels.”

“Last year alone, close to 2.8 million outdoor marijuana plants were eradicated in California, including 1.7 million plants from federal and state land, with an estimated street value of $6.7 billion,” he said.
Mr. Walters, during a press conference at the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, described those who plant and tend the gardens as terrorists.

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Remove the profit motive from this commodity, both from the Drug Cartels as well as the Criminal and Justice system and Americans will utilize this commodity with personal responsibility.

I am finding more and more instances where the Government attempts to legislate personal responsibility. Tobacco is a legal commodity yet, those who legally consume it are treated as criminals. The Medical act of Abortion is legal yet, those who undergo this legal procedure are to often treated as criminals.

We do not want nor need a Nanny State, dictating personal behavior and responsibility.

Walter Cronkite & America\’s Disastrous Drug War

Mexican Drug War