Green Jobs: US Attorneys in CA Go After Big Marijuana

It's another one of those rare days when the Obama Administration launches an initiative that I wholly support. Today it was the four US attorneys in California launching a major crack down on the state's marijuana dispensaries:  

The four United States attorneys in the Golden State announced an initiative cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries on Friday in Sacramento, according to this Associated Press story.

In recent weeks, landlords of some pot shops have received letters from federal prosecutors warning them to stop sales within 45 days or risk seizure of their property and criminal charges

In addition, the IRS has slapped an Oakland dispensary with a $2.5 million tax bill, saying that they improperly deducted business expenses. 


I can't think of a sleazier enterprise than that of your typical "medical marijuana" dispensary. They hide behind sick and terminally ill people, all the while selling drugs to able bodied adults with notes from their doctors. The feds are explicit in saying they will not go after backyard growers tending plants for seriously ill people, but legalization advocates immediately began laying the guilt trip: 

“I assume the story you’re calling about is: Obama takes resources away from fighting terrorists and goes after old ladies with glaucoma,” Greg Anton, a lawyer for the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax, Calif., told the LAT.

I used to live a mile away from a dispensary in San Francisco. I never saw any little old ladies walking out of there. Instead, it was the same bunch of stoners you could see coming out of any Haight Street head shop. Why America has to turn its drug laws upside down to benefit these low-lifes is beyond me. 


There's a lot of talk in the linked article about how all of this is a reflection of the tension between states that want to legalize medical marijuana and the feds who classify marijuana as an illegal drug. While I'm always eager to have a discussion about federalism, I have to say that federal law should control, and appropriately so. We've spent the last 50 years convincing people to stop smoking, and 30 years convincing people that drinking to excess - especially when combined with driving a car - is bad news. Yet, pot advocates claim that a powerful intoxicant that combines the lung damage of cigarettes with the mental impairment similar to that caused by drink is somehow harmless. I don't buy it. 


Should be people who smoke marijuana be hassled by the man (at least when they're smoking at home)? No. Should people go to jail for possession? Doubt it. But, that doesn't mean we should just legalize something that's never really been legal in the first place. And there's something very wrong in a state where the biggest cash crop is also illegal. Criminals have free reign to make money any way they wish, while law abiding farmers and merchants struggle with the many demands government and the tax man place on them. This is a small step towards rebalancing what is legal and what is illegal in California. 

First Blood: The Pot Wars Heat Up In The Emerald Triangle

There's been a disturbing story playing out in California's Emerald Triangle (that's the region in Northern California that produces the state's biggest cash crop: marijuana). A local politico and a land manager were killed in the woods while seeking out pot plantations hidden amid the redwoods. Now, the suspect in those killings, who has been on the lam for 5 weeks, has been engaged in running gun battles with the authorities, leading to the inevitable escalation:     

More than 100 law enforcement officers in camouflage uniforms and face paint descended on a 6-square-mile "hot zone" in the dense North Coast forest Friday, looking for a double-killing suspect believed to have opened fire on searchers the day before.

Officers have been summoned from around the state to hack through the woods and comb the steep hills east of Fort Bragg, looking for 35-year-old Aaron Bassler. It is believed to be one of the largest and most concentrated manhunts in Northern California history, said Michael McCloud, a supervisor with the U.S. marshal's office, who has worked in the agency's fugitive apprehension unit for 23 years.

"He brought the fight to us and it's raised the stakes," said Sgt. Greg Van Patten of the Mendocino County sheriff's office. "He showed he's capable and willing to fire upon anyone for any reason, and it's taken this to a whole new level."

Bassler is suspected in the shooting death of Fort Bragg City Councilman Jere Melo, 69, who was killed while investigating a marijuana farm as part of a security check for Campbell Timber Management on Aug. 27. Sixteen days earlier, authorities believe, Bassler shot and killed land manager Matthew Coleman in the hills north of Fort Bragg.

Both men were shot with high-powered rifles, and investigators said they found Bassler's DNA at the scene of Coleman's slaying.

On Thursday, Sheriff Tom Allman said, Bassler fired on three Alameda County sheriff's deputies as they walked along a dirt road in broad daylight, then flanked around them through thick brush and shot again.

The suspect's dad says his son is not violent, just crazy (well, that's a relief). But, someone trusted him enough to arm the guy with a high-powered rifle and guard their marijuana fields. And that's the thing that should be bothering people about this. The northern part of the state is famously overrun with marijuana fields, even as "regular" agriculture is enduring a depression brought on by the state's near-suicidal fealty to green ideology. Pot growers may cultivate (heh) an image of stoner innocence, but the truth is that they are criminals who are apparently willing to kill to protect their profits. 


Bassler apparently shot and killed a local politician and a land manager. He has shot at sheriff's deputies. Now he's running around, living off the land like freakin' John Rambo. Transpose this story to Colombia or Mexico, and everybody would know what was going on. But move it to Northern California, and everyone tries to pretend that Bassler is crazy rather than acknowledge what he is: a hired killer working for a drug cartel. 


This story really does deserve wider attention. 


UPDATE: well, that was quick. Bassler has been shot dead.

One Toke Over The Line: Sarah Palin and the Drug War

Sarah Palin makes a pretty strong statement in favor of decriminalizing marijuana. Will the Left think she's cool, now? Sarah Palin: Marijuana a "Minimal Problem."

Asked about marijuana, Palin said: "If we're talking about pot, I'm not for the legalization of pot. I think that would just encourage our young people to think that it was OK to go ahead and use it...However I think we need to prioritize our law enforcement efforts. If somebody's gonna to smoke a joint into their house and not do anybody any harm, then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at to engage in and try to clean up some of the other problems we have in society...and not concentrate on such a, relatively speaking, minimal problem we have in the country."

Wait a minute, did she just say "joint?"

I Do Not Sniff The Coke

Tom Ammiano is beginning his term in the Assembly by proposing Assembly Bill 390, which seeks to legalize the growing and selling of marijuana. Mostly, this looks like a typical stunt by an SF pol trying to make a splash. There's a lot of natural resistance to pot legalization that you can expect from not just the GOP and law enforcement, but also some of the more temperate Dems. The only people who have shown any enthusiasm for legalization are Libertarians, progressives, and potheads in general; not exactly the Best and the Brightest. I have to wonder how hard Ammiano is going to push this.

Still, I think legalization is something that should be discussed seriously. Casual marijuana use in CA has effectively been decriminalized by state authorities (can't say the same for the Feds, who do most of the enforcement). Californians have supported medical marijuana initiatives not once, but twice, and by wide margins. And, there are a LOT of pot smokers out here; more than just potheads and deadheads loitering on Haight Street. You can find pot smoked at all levels of society, from the top to the bottom. It is so pervasive that you really can't call this law breaking; it's civil disobedience. 

The counter is that marijuana is a "gateway drug." Honestly, I don't believe this, but that's based solely on my observations in the field (strictly for research purposes, I assure you!), and anecdotal reports from satisfied users. And then there's this:

"The last thing our society needs is yet more legal intoxicants," said John Lovell, who represents the California Peace Officers' Association, California Police Chiefs Association and California Narcotic Officers' Association. "We've got enough social problems now when people aren't in charge of all five of their senses."

Those are the words of a man who has peeled a few faces up off the pavement. And, I think he captures my primary objection to legalization. We have spent the last 40+ years educating people about the dangers of smoking, and 25+ years warning about the dangers of drunk driving. Now, Ammiano proposes to legalize a substance that combines the intoxicating effects of alcohol with the potential health risks posed by smoking. 

(I know. I know. Pot proponents are always going on about how healthy their chosen libation is. Give me a break. Light use is perfectly safe, I'm sure, but I've lived in SF long enough to see how debilitating heavy pot use can be over the long term. It really does make you stupid and it really does hurt your lungs.)

To persuade folks like me, Ammiano says, "Think of all the $$ the state will make, both in job creation and taxes!" I hate it when progressives turn on their "green eyeshade" act. But, if there's one thing we've learned from economics, it's that artificially suppressing a desired commodity will not eradicate that commodity. It will, instead, distort the market for that commodity. And the marijuana market in CA is certainly the worst of all worlds. Right now, billions are being spent growing it, buying it, and prosecuting its possession and sale. The only people making $$ are unsavory criminals, hypocritical "medical marijuana dispensaries," and those guys who sell bongs strictly for "decorative" purposes. 

The state of affairs in the so-called Golden Triangle (Humboldt County and environs) is especially scandalous. Marijuana has become THE cash crop up there, at least in part because CA's environmental laws and buiness regulations have made "normal" farming and logging, which is what they used to in the Golden Triangle, prohibitively expensive if not effectively illegal. That's simply ridiculous. (then again, it might also mean that, were pot to be legalized, it would also become impossible to grow legally in CA. Oh, the irony!)

Anyway, I'm somewhat torn, but not really. The prohibition as represented by the War on Drugs has failed to eradicate the use of marijuana. Perversely, its use has only increased. I normally dismiss the efforts of the likes of Tom Ammiano out of hand, but I think his proposal - if it's a serious one - deserves attention.