The Drug War and the Prison-Industrial Complex

[mac_hine]

In Idaho the drug warriors and the prison-industrial complex are working hand-in-hand to deliver big profits to the corporatists by maintaining one of the highest prison populations in the country. Watch the Liberty Report to see what happens to Idaho families seeking to use cannabis oil to provide relief for their very ill children. Join us with special guest Will Norman Grigg.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIoMJd2Vdfk&feature=youtu.be


Protecting the Vicious, Punishing the Virtuous: Marijuana Prohibition and Idaho's Prison-Industrial Complex
written by William Norman Grigg http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2015/april/21/protecting-the-vicious-punishing-the-virtuous-marijuana-prohibition-and-idahos-prison-industrial-complex/

[Suzanimal]

Bump!



Protecting the Vicious, Punishing the Virtuous: Marijuana Prohibition and Idaho's Prison-Industrial Complex
written by William Norman Grigg http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2015/april/21/protecting-the-vicious-punishing-the-virtuous-marijuana-prohibition-and-idahos-prison-industrial-complex/


Protecting the Vicious, Punishing the Virtuous: Marijuana Prohibition and Idaho's Prison-Industrial Complex
written by william norman grigg

Josh Tewalt has a drug problem that led to several arrests. Like many others afflicted with that weakness, Tewalt eventually wound up in prison. Unlike most of them, however, he landed on the right side of the bars in the very lucrative position of Deputy Chief of Corrections for the State of Idaho.

Without the dubious benefit of a college degree or substantial experience in law enforcement apart from his own time in jail, Tewalt receives a base salary of at least $83,000 a year to manage the human inventory of Idaho’s prison-industrial complex.

Under Idaho’s state code, Tewalt’s repeated DUIs constituted an aggregate felony. Many – perhaps most – of the people whose lives he now controls committed offenses less serious than his. More than a few of them were convicted of felonies under Idaho’s pre-medieval laws against marijuana possession. The inmate population over which Tewalt presides may soon include desperate parents of children suffering from conditions for which non-intoxicating cannabis oil (CBD) is the only effective treatment.

On April 16, Idaho Governor Butch Otter vetoed a measure (S1146a) that would not have decriminalized possession and use of CBD, but would have created an “affirmative defense” for those who obtain and use it for treatment of several medical conditions, including cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and various kinds of seizure disorders.

That bill did not recognize that marijuana use is a function of the unqualified right to self-ownership, which is the only morally sound perspective on the matter. It would have placed a modest impediment in the way of cynical people who make a subsidized living by punishing those who exercise that right. This would include parents who would not consume CBD, but administer it to their children.
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[tod evans]

Well worth the time to watch!