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Christopher Ingraham writes in the Washington Post that many countries are taking a close look at what's happening in Colorado and Washington state to learn lessons that can be applied to their own situations and so far, the news coming out of Colorado and Washington is overwhelmingly positive. Dire consequences predicted by reform opponents have failed to materialize. If anything, societal and economic indicators are moving in a positive direction post-legalization. Colorado marijuana tax revenues for fiscal year 2014-2015 are on track to surpass projections.
Lisa Sanchez, a program manager at México Unido Contra la Delincuencia, a Mexican non-profit devoted to promoting "security, legality and justice", underscored how legalization efforts in the U.S. are having powerful ripple effects across the globe: events in Colorado and Washington have "created political space for Latin American countries to have a real debate [about drug policy]". She noted that motivations for reform in Latin America are somewhat different than U.S. motivations - one main driver is a need to address the epidemic of violence on those countries that is fuelled directly by prohibitionist drug war policies. Mexico's president has given signs he's open to changes in that country's marijuana laws to help combat cartel violence. Sandeep Chawla, former deputy director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, notes that one of the main obstacles to meaningful reform is layers of entrenched drug control bureaucracies at the international and national levels - just in the U.S., think of the DEA, ONDCP and NIDA, among others - for whom a relaxation of drug control laws represents an undermining of their reason for existence: "if you create a bureaucracy to solve a particular problem, when the problem is solved that bureaucracy is out of a job".
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday October 22 2014, @02:59PM
That's not how it works. Federal law always trumps state law, not the other way around. Tenth amendemnt says the states have all powers *not already designated to the feds*, but the courts have ruled that drug enforcement is the power of the feds through the commerce clause. The states can pass whatever laws they want, it's still technically illegal. Growers complying with state laws are still being arrested by federal agents. If they wanted to they could arrest the state officials doing things like collecting these taxes, possibly even those who passed the law, but that would almost certainly end in disaster. So instead they pick off a few small sellers hoping to keep people scared. And it seems they're starting to give up, because there's no way to win in the states that have legalized.
The root of their problem is that there really aren't that many federal agents. The DEA currently has about 5000 field agents. That's 100 per state. 1.5 million people are arrested annually for drug charges. Assuming they're working normal hours, that gives ~1.2 arrests per agent per day -- just to enforce the status quo! I bet it takes more than one day just to do the paperwork for one arrest, let alone the investigation and prosecution and everything else. They simply can't afford to enforce these laws without cooperation from the states, and now that the states can start to see that this money is being wasted, they're going to stop cooperating.
Might actually be beneficial if it takes a while for the federal law to reverse. Because if the states legalize, the federal law becomes unenforceable anyway. BUT...it'll keep the corporate interests out. The DEA can't raid every single dispensary selling a few ounces a week. But if Philip Morris starts cultivating this stuff in fields measured in square miles? THAT will still get raided as long as those federal laws stand. Easy target, easy morale boost for soldiers who know they've already lost. Keep the federal ban until all states have legalized and a solid supply chain has been established. Give small business a solid head start.