Congress’ Summer Fling With Marijuana – How Congress turned on the DEA and embraced weed

[jct74]

The author of this piece is actually a member of Ron Paul Forums. Article mentions Thomas Massie a few times and also Rand.

Congress’ Summer Fling With Marijuana
How Congress turned on the DEA and embraced weed.

By JAMES HIGDON
July 30, 2015

It's not easy being the DEA these days. After an unprecedented losing streak on Capitol Hill, the once-untouchable Drug Enforcement Administration suffered last week what might be considered the ultimate indignity: A Senate panel, for the first time, voted in favor of legal, recreational marijuana.

Last Thursday, the Appropriations Committee voted 16-14 on an amendment to allow marijuana businesses access to federal banking services, a landmark shift that will help states like Colorado, where pot is legal, fully integrate marijuana into their economies. As significant as the vote was, it’s only the latest vote in a remarkable run of success marijuana advocates have had this year on Capitol Hill.

“The amendment was a necessary response to an absurd regulatory morass,” Montana Sen. Steve Daines, one of the three Republicans to support Thursday’s amendment, tells Politico, referring to the multifaceted and complex system of laws that have been enacted over the past four decades to prosecute a war on marijuana. It’s a war that began on or about May 26, 1971, when President Richard Nixon told his chief of staff Bob Haldeman, “I want a goddamn strong statement on marijuana ...I mean one on marijuana that just tears the ass out of them.”

But that war appears to be winding down—potentially quickly. The summer of 2015 could be viewed historically as the tipping point against Nixon’s war on pot, the time when the DEA, a federal drug-fighting agency created by Nixon in 1973, found itself in unfamiliar territory as a target of congressional scrutiny, budget cuts and scorn. In a conference call this week, the new acting DEA administrator repeatedly downplayed marijuana enforcement efforts, saying that while he’s not exactly telling agents not to pursue marijuana cases, it’s generally not something anyone focuses on these days: “Typically it’s heroin, opioids, meth and cocaine in roughly that order and marijuana tends to come in at the back of the pack.”

What a difference a year makes.

...

read more:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/sto...l#.Vb0Jc_NVhHw

[Working Poor]

bump

[Christopher A. Brown]

bump

hemp

[Christopher A. Brown]

hemp

A major hemp agriculture action needs to take place soon.

Seems like the medical and recreational reality is going to get attitudes straight and the USDA/FDA will allow mass hemp agriculture which is going to change a lot of things.

[surf]

The national tide is clearly not in the DEA’s favor. Since Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in January 2014, three additional states have followed suit with full legal weed

and this is why I supported the Washington State initiative, even though it was incredibly flawed and pathetically written by folks trying to appease bureaucrats.

[muh_roads]

They have to at least pretend to listen now since gen-x & millennials finally make up the largest voting block and are only growing. Generation Z or Generation Digital starts voting 2018 as well.

A big portion of why things suck is because "the greatest gen" and baby boomers are so easily fooled by MSM propaganda it is sickening. Die off already. kthxbye. And when they die, so will old-school TV news and old-school radio.

The future is bright, IMO. It will just take more time.

[Christopher A. Brown]

They have to at least pretend to listen now since gen-x & millennials finally make up the largest voting block and are only growing. Generation Z or Generation Digital starts voting 2018 as well.

A big portion of why things suck is because "the greatest gen" and baby boomers are so easily fooled by MSM propaganda it is sickening. Die off already. kthxbye. And when they die, so will old-school TV news and old-school radio.

The future is bright, IMO. It will just take more time.

Hmm. you might be right about the boomers being fooled by MSM. But the gen-x seems to only absorb that of its own generational approval, while gen-y will believe almost anything.

The fact is that the increasing governmental acceptance of cannibis should be leading to massive hemp agriculture if any generation has lick of sense in what they can get behind and support.

It is one of the best cures for environmental issues we can find. Economy will improve too.

[dannno]

Ya I'm wondering what kind of restrictions are in place in these hemp cultivating states - why aren't we seeing more hemp products on the market yet?

[Christopher A. Brown]

Ya I'm wondering what kind of restrictions are in place in these hemp cultivating states - why aren't we seeing more hemp products on the market yet?

The fabric and garment industry is mostly in China, but paper and building materials are wide open. However, the timber industry is what created the existing product lines for the most part. This means that the hemp agriculture industry has to create its own processing, development, manufacturing, marketing and distribution methods/systems.

The public is going to have to help in order for hemp to get up and running without subsidies. Otherwise we are looking at 10 years minimum before any positive impacts are seen. Environmentalists should be in the drivers seat. They need to start hammering on the various environmental non profits to get active support from the public. I can see that temporary programs assisting for-profit-start-ups in processing, for example, would be a legitimate activity within mission statements. But its such an alien notion to them that they are having a hard time grasping how functional and needed it is.

[Acala]

They have to at least pretend to listen now since gen-x & millennials finally make up the largest voting block and are only growing. Generation Z or Generation Digital starts voting 2018 as well.

A big portion of why things suck is because "the greatest gen" and baby boomers are so easily fooled by MSM propaganda it is sickening. Die off already. kthxbye. And when they die, so will old-school TV news and old-school radio.

The future is bright, IMO. It will just take more time.

Dream on. The gen-x and millenials are no more rational than the Boomers. They will just fall for different varieties of propaganda. They are already so deep in student loan debt that they will NEVER get out. Looks to me like they have already taken the bait. Watch and see.

[NoOneButPaul]

Wait a minute... if this is the case why are my employers still giving us paystubs and then paying us in cash? Are you saying they can actually bank now? No one out here in Colorado apparently got the memo because we're all still being forced to pay for everything in cash - the owners of my dispensary still have to bring in tens of thousands of dollars to the government just to pay for licenses.