Just 1% of people caught with illegal drugs are being sent to prison

FEARS are mounting that drugs are being legalised “by the back door” — because hardly anyone is jailed for having them

Colorado politicians ignore major pot problems

by Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board | 10/1/18

Colorado politicians need to stop pandering and start leading, which means telling the truth about the severely negative consequences of big commercial pot.

Hickenlooper, Gardner, and other politicians tell us everything is rosy, but that\’s not what we hear from educators, cops, social workers, doctors, drug counselors, parents, and others in the trenches of the world\’s first anything goes marijuana free-for-all. It is not what we see in the streets.

If Hickenlooper and Gardner cared to lead on this issue, they would tell the world about the rate of pot-involved traffic fatalities that began soaring in their state in direct correlation with the emergence of legal recreational pot and Big Marijuana. They would talk about Colorado\’s status as a national leader in the growth of homelessness, which all major homeless shelter operators attribute to commercialized, recreational pot.

They would talk about the difficulty in keeping marijuana from crossing borders into states that don\’t allow it. They would spread the words of classroom educators and resource officers who say pot consumption among teens is out of control.

Honest leaders would talk about illegal grow operations invading neighborhoods and public lands. They would stop selling false, positive impressions about a failed policy for the sake of \”respecting the will of voters\” who made a mistake. They would not follow public perception but would lead it in a truthful direction.

Hickenlooper says legalization has eliminated illegal pot in Colorado, which is laughable to men and women who enforce the law and talk to us.

El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder speaks of more than 550 illegal rural home-grow operations in El Paso County alone.

Mayor John Suthers – Colorado\’s former U.S. attorney, attorney general, district prosecutor and state director of corrections – speaks of hundreds of illegal pot operations in Colorado Springs he hopes to raid. We could go on with countless accounts of leading law enforcers who describe illegal pot activity that exceeds limits of departmental budgets and personnel.

For complete story http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/colorado-politicians-ignore-major-pot-problems/article/2645486

New Report by National Families in Action Rips the Veil Off the Medical Marijuana Industry

Research Traces the Money Trail and Reveals the Motivation Behind Marijuana as Medicine  2017 | Source: National Families in Action

• Tracking the Money That’s Legalizing Marijuana and Why It Matters documents state-by-state financial data, exposing the groups and the amount of money used either to fund or oppose ballot initiatives legalizing medical or recreational marijuana in 16 U.S. states.
• NFIA report reveals three billionaires — George Soros, Peter Lewis and John Sperling — who contributed 80 percent of the money to medicalize marijuana through state ballot initiatives during a 13-year period, with the strategy to use medical marijuana as a runway to legalized recreational pot.
• Report shows how billionaires and marijuana legalizers manipulated the ballot initiative process, outspent the people who opposed marijuana and convinced voters that marijuana is medicine, even while most of the scientific and medical communities say marijuana is not medicine and should not be legal.
• Children in Colorado treated with unregulated cannabis oil have had severe dystonic reactions, other movement disorders, developmental regression, intractable vomiting and worsening seizures.
• A medical marijuana industry has emerged to join the billionaires in financing initiatives to legalize recreational pot.

For complete article. NFIA

HEADQUARTERS NEWS

January 05, 2018 – Contact: DEA Public Affairs – (202) 307-7977

China announces scheduling controls on two fentanyl precursor chemicals

WASHINGTON — China’s Ministry of Public Security last week announced scheduling controls on two fentanyl precursor chemicals — NPP and 4ANPP, substances that can be used to make illicit drugs. The scheduling controls will take effect on February 1, 2018 and is the result of the ongoing collaboration between the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Government of China and their shared commitment to countering illicit fentanyl-class substances.

“Fentanyl compounds significantly contribute to the current opioid crisis in the United States. By stemming the chemicals used to make these substances, this latest Chinese scheduling action will help save lives,” said DEA Acting Administrator Robert W. Patterson. “This scheduling action is an important step and a testament to the progress our countries are making together in addressing this epidemic.”

DEA and Chinese officials maintain frequent contact to collaborate and share data on the threat from fentanyl-class substances and their impact on the United States. Information-sharing includes scientific data, trafficking trends, and sample exchanges. This dialogue has resulted in improved methods for identifying and submitting deadly substances for government control.

The Chinese Government previously controlled four fentanyl-class substances — carfentanil, furanyl fentanyl, valeryl fentanyl, and acryl fentanyl — which took effect on March 1, 2017, and another four new psychoactive substances/fentanyl-class substances – U-47700, MT-45, PMMA, and 4,4’ DMAR — which took effect on July 1, 2017.

https://www.dea.gov/divisions/hq/2018/hq010518.shtml

If You Don’t Like Federal Marijuana Laws, Change Them – Don’t Ignore Them

Sessions has repealed 25 other Obama Justice Department “guidance documents.” The “Cole Memo” was an inherently dishonest backdoor gift to white-collar, Wall Street pot dealers.

Yet many of us, like the Cory named “Gardner,” who love seeing any lawless thing Obama did rolled back, suddenly find ourselves awkwardly supporting this one.

Americans enjoy a modicum of protection from illegal drugs stemming from duly enacted and thoroughly adjudicated federal laws separating legal and illegal controlled substances. Should one state be allowed unfettered production of any dangerous substance if it cannot prevent the flow of that substance into neighboring states? Should Colorado replace, or even in effect partner with Mexican drug cartels, enjoying huge profits from drugs distributed to neighboring states that are left only with the downsides?

With the secretive Cole Memo, Barack “pen and phone” Obama effectively voided federal law, for a time, and foisted a new pot industry onto an unsuspecting public.

Setting aside one’s views of pot legality, consider the process. Passing ballot measures is extremely expensive. Passing good laws is, in essence, free. If legal pot makes sense, why would pot proponents not make their case before the public and lawmaking bodies, holding public hearings to change the law?

It is clear that consultants to would-be pot investors informed them that pot is illegal under federal law and 50 state statutes because legalization cannot withstand the scrutiny of public hearings and dueling experts. Thus, the well-heeled pot industry chose the path of backroom deals and direct democracy. They financed ballot issues nationwide that exploited the natural tendency of people of good will to want to ease the suffering of medical patients. They lobbied heavily for the Cole Memo, which gave pot investors the green light to put millions of dollars into state ballot measures, knowing the Obama administration would look the other way.

For complete article http://www.breitbart.com/california/2018/01/07/marijuana-laws-cory-gardner-cory-booker/

Key findings Data from the National Vital Statistics System, Mortality

● In 2016, there were more than 63,600 drug overdose deaths in the United States.

● The age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths in 2016 (19.8 per 100,000) was 21% higher than the rate in 2015 (16.3).

● Among persons aged 15 and over, adults aged 25—34, 35—44, and 45—54 had the highest rates of drug overdose deaths in 2016 at around 35 per 100,000.

● West Virginia (52.0 per 100,000), Ohio (39.1), New Hampshire (39.0), the District of Columbia (38.8), and Pennsylvania (37.9) had the highest observed age-adjusted drug overdose death rates in 2016.

● The age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone (drugs such as fentanyl, fentanyl analogs, and tramadol) doubled between 2015 and 2016, from 3.1 to 6.2 per 100,000.

Complete Report Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 1999—2016