However, for decades, a war has been waged in our own backyards that has only received public attention in recent years. The War on Drugs has accomplished little other than being a drain on the government’s budget, while incarcerating people mostly for non-violent offenses. One of the more important contributing factors to the War on Drugs was the ban on marijuana. 

Historical Significance of Marijuana

Marijuana is not just known for getting people high; it is a plant with a variety of other uses. The term itself only relates to parts of the plant that contain large amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is responsible for affecting a person’s mental state. It is “cannabis” that refers to all products derived from the Cannabis sativa plant. “Hemp” refers to variations that have less than 0.3% of THC, while “marijuana” refers to plants that have a higher percentage of the chemical.

This differentiation is important when it comes to the context of the War on Drugs. Throughout human history, the plant itself has been used for a variety of purposes. In the American colonies, for instance, it was used to make products such as rope and textiles. At the end of the era of major cotton cultivation in the United States, cannabis became the dominant cash crop in the South. During this time period, the positive health effects it had were discovered. It was used to treat various ailments and was sold in pharmacies in the United States and Europe. Only in the early 20th century, however, was the plant used for recreational purposes.

In the 1930s, everything changed due to explicitly racist policies by J. Anslinger, who was the head of the Bureau of Narcotics. He claimed that the plant needed to be banned, as its usage had negative effects on minorities, or “degenerate races” as he called them. This was also done to reduce immigration from Mexico into the United States, using cannabis as a scapegoat. The various restrictions and subsequent bans did not occur during the War on Drugs, as many might believe, but during the Great Depression. In 1931, the plant was outlawed in 29 states spurred by the “reefer madness” propaganda promoted by the government with great public support, while in 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act was passed which taxed the sale, possession or transfer of the hemp plant. This applied not only to strains which contained THC, but to all plants derived from Cannabis sativa, which hurt cultivation even for the creation of various products.

Marijuana’s Health Benefits and Common Misconceptions

When did the War on Drugs begin? In 1970, under the Nixon administration, Congress passed the Controlled Substance Act, in which marijuana was listed as a Schedule I drug, along with other substances such as heroin, LSD, and ecstasy. This category classifies that specific drug as having no medical use with a high potential for abuse.

This is not true for many reasons. First, marijuana is often used as a pain reliever for chronic pain. Its main appeal is that it is not as strong or addictive as various opiates and is impossible to overdose on. It helps ease the pain of multiple sclerosis, while not causing the drowsiness that other drugs may that are used to treat the illness. Another important use is preventing nausea and helping facilitate weight loss, as well as reportedly helping to reduce tremors from Parkinson’s disease.

Beyond the health benefits, there seems to be no physical addiction from marijuana use, although there are signs that it can be psychologically addictive. While this may be true for some people, nearly anything can be psychologically addictive. America has an obesity problem, and although that is caused by a variety of reasons, one of them is that people may get addicted to sugary drinks. Why is marijuana treated differently? Even the non-THC strains are still illegal in many states and for what purpose? The government does not regulate how much food one should consume on a given day. Obviously, it would be logistically impossible , and is a violation of people’s liberty to do with their body as they please. If someone smokes marijuana, they should be responsible for their own actions, even if they were under the influence and hurt someone else. Yet, this drug became a major substance that many people were and are convicted of illegally possessing in the War on Drugs. 

Impact of the War on Drugs

There are a few major things that happened as a result of the policy itself. During the 1990s, an average of three 500-bed prison facilities were opening up every week in the U.S.. They were filled with drug offenders. In 1979, 6% of all inmates were jailed on drug offenses. That figure rose to 21% in 1988. This disproportionately affected minorities and low-income citizens.

Under the Reagan and Bush administrations, mandatory sentencing laws were passed regardless of the circumstances, which in turn led to more arrests. There was an increase in border security to prevent traffickers from bringing over marijuana, yet Colombia became a major exporter of it during this time period. Ironically enough, the usage of the plant among teenagers continued at similar rates throughout the mid to late 1990s, and the enforcement of various laws did not help the government at all in reducing drug usage. 

Today, the picture is not much different. One in five people are incarcerated for a drug offense. In 2019 alone, there were over 1.5 million arrests—87% of those were just for possession. Marijuana led as the most common drug to be found in the possession of those arrested. This means most of those people were arrested for a victimless crime and had their lives ruined as a result. If a college student, goes to jail on a possession charge, he would have great difficulty getting a job with that record, and would likely either end up in and out of jail and on welfare. In terms of finances, over $1 trillion dollars has been blown on these useless cat and mouse games with the government and its citizens. This is another drain on taxpayer dollars that could have been used elsewhere.

Solutions to the Problems Caused by the War on Drugs

How can the War on Drugs be brought to a close and the damage done repaired? There have been a few steps taken. Over the years, more and more states have decriminalized, and even legalized marijuana to certain capacities. As of June 2019, 29 states have legalized medicinal marijuana and a total of 11 permit recreational use. Yet, many other drugs remain illegal in the United States, contributing to the high incarceratino rate.

Oregon is one state that has taken a stand in decriminalizing the use of all drugs, including cocaine and heroin in 2020. To be more specific, criminal penalties have been removed for those possessing small quantities, and offenders would instead pay a $100 fine, or be required to get a “completed health assessment”. Yet the sale of these drugs is still illegal. The tax revenue from marijuana sales, however, would be redirected to fund drug addiction programs instead of spending them on incarceration. The impacts of the legal policy have yet to be studied, and will need to be revisited in the long-term. However, we do have data of a country that did end the criminalization of drugs more or less successfully—Portugal.

For many years, Portugal was riddled with crime and drug use. They began to institute new policies in 2001. Instead of jail time, offenders might receive a small fine, given a warning, or asked to appear before a local commission to provide support services to addicts. As a result, there was a large drop in drug use, HIV and hepatitis infection rates. HIV cases fell from 104.2 new cases per million to just 4.2 cases per million in 2015. One major thing to note, is that a cultural shift was required to help pass the law, as well as change the way citizens viewed drug addicts. Instead of treating them with disgust, they became viewed as people who needed help, just like anyone else with a medical condition. Portugal has been successful in its efforts to decriminalize not just marijuana, but drugs as a whole with positive outcomes as a result. The United States could borrow this idea, and try to pass it in Congress, though this seems unlikely due to the partisan attitudes toward drugs overall.

Conclusion

Although important measures to address the War on Drugs have been implemented, there is still a lot of work to do. Many states have not yet decriminalized marijuana, much less all drugs. With the success of the program in Portugal, there is a good chance it would work here in the United States.

Throwing people in jail for what they choose to do on their own time is a violation of their own personal liberty. Since they are not hurting anyone in the vast majority of cases, the government has only made things worse instead of better. While the future remains unclear about what will happen next, two-thirds of the public support marijuana legalization. Perhaps the country is now ready to acknowledge and correct the mistakes of 50 years ago.

The post Is This the Beginning of the End for the War On Drugs? appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Police Officer or Nanny?

Wooldridge was a police officer for 18 years: 15 in patrol and 3 years as a detective. He worked throughout the late 70s, 80s, and early 90s. As the Drug War heated up, he saw a shift from police officers focusing on protecting the community from outside threats to protecting people from themselves, “I watched colleagues spend hours ripping apart a car to find a little bit of marijuana.”

The waste in taxpayer money, officers’ time and effort, and diminishing of good law enforcement motivated him to become a force in ending harsh drug policies. After retiring as a police officer, he became a lobbyist in the late 90s, “As a former police officer, I had some credibility on the issue.”

Future of Reform

Wooldridge tells me that the most realistic hope to reform drug laws is simply to go back to the Constitution. “The most impactful thing that could be done is to bring 10^thAmendment [state’s] rights’ back to drug policy.”

An example of this is the STATES Act,which was initially sponsored by Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma) and Cory Gardner (R-Co). Obviously, there is broad bipartisan support for drug reform and the states are showing this by legalizing marijuana and decriminalizing drugs. Wooldridge points out that extremely liberal California and conservative Oklahoma have something in common; “they both have legalized marijuana.”

“Eight to one of those I talked to at CPAC [Conservative Political Action Conference] agreed –after I gave my explanation– that heroin should be legal.” However, he adds, “Probably 95% of people who didn’t hear my argument would answer no”. Wooldridge believes that this change in conservatives’ opinions on the Drug War is because drug addiction has hit all demographics, including those at CPAC. “Nearly everyone I talked to had a heroin overdose death in their family.”

He is clear that legalizing drugs does not mean that drugs are good. In fact, he knows exactly how deadly and harmful drugs like heroin are, and “that is why addiction should be treated in hospitals, not prisons”.

A prison only perpetuates the problem because “once you get out, you have lost rights like voting.” Wooldridge is referring to the black mark of a felony offense that dubs you a felon for the rest of your life, makes it difficult to find legal employment, and be a productive member of society.

Yet, CPAC denied Wooldridge an opportunity to present and explain why cops say legalize heroin. He tells me that about two years ago, he talked to Matt Schlapp at the American Conservative Union (the ACU runs CPAC). They reviewed his presentation and turned him down, “it is just my prejudice that makes me think my presentation [questioning the drug war] would outrage some of CPAC’s older donors”.

Packing Up His Horse

Wooldridge –who goes by the nickname “Cowboy”– makes it clear that the criminal justice reforms recently signed by President Trump are just a tiny part of what needs to be done. “I tell people on Capitol Hill, legalize all drugs and I’ll pack up my horse and go home.”

He refers to the Portuguese model as the ideal way to proceed. The Portuguese have legalized all drugs and treat addiction as a medical problem, instead of criminal. “There is a bill that will be introduced in Congress that is calling for something similar to Portugal.”

However, he is well aware that at this moment the bill is not going to pass, “but that’s how we start talking about things.” He knows that nothing is going to change dramatically by tomorrow, but he’ll accept incremental progress on the subject while fighting for the future… in his shirt that reads “Cops Say Legalize Heroin”.

The first major person in the modern era to call for legalization of heroin was in the mid-70s by the Baltimore Mayor Curt Schmoke. I stand on his shoulders.

– Howard Wooldridge

Follow Howard on Twitter: @CannabisCop

Lears more about his organization here: Citizens Opposing Prohibition

The post Howard Wooldridge: Cops Say Legalize Heroin appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

But this “beating a dead horse” is not unique to just my father and his joke-telling. Just as my father does not learn from his not-so-witty mistakes, the state of Missouri does not learn from theirs as well.

Repeatedly, the state meddles in what should be decided by the private sector, not learning that this intrusion brings more harm than good. The most recent occurrence of this was just announced a few days ago, with the state releasing the names of the businesses that received licenses to sell medical marijuana in Missouri. 

Over 900 applicants sought a license to sell medical marijuana in Missouri. To obtain a license, they were tasked with filling out a lengthy application that included writing responses to numerous questions regarding how they would impact the community and their plans for marketing among other valuable questions. These answers were then judged and scored by a third-party company that the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services delegated the process to.  

This is the first of many problems in the process. According to the Kansas City Star, to find a third party to judge the applications, Missouri “put out a call for bids for companies to score the medical marijuana applications, [but] it got no responses.” This should have been the first red flag that this process was a horrible idea.  Nonetheless, the state was undeterred and on its second call, received interest.

To judge the third party, Missouri instituted a scoring system that would rate the prospects. The highest possible score of this system was 218, but the highest scorer and ultimate winner of the job to judge the medical marijuana applications, a company called Wise Health Solutions, received a whopping 106! This is red flag number two because Missouri handed out the task of judging the applications to a company that received less than 50% on its scoring test.

This does not exactly inspire confidence in this third-party scorer and whatever confidence that the state of Missouri had in Wise Health Solutions should be erased after the licenses were released. Since those who qualified for medical marijuana licenses became public, numerous applicants and lawyers who were associated with the process have cited irregularities and inconsistencies within the scoring process. 

One notable instance of this was applicants provided the same answer to a question and received wildly different scores. Some applicants who applied for multiple licenses “copy and pasted their answers on basic questions. But those identical answers received wildly different scores”. This happened even though the Missouri scoring guide stated that the same answer should receive the exact same score. This is red flag number three, with Missouri blatantly disrespecting the rules that it set out for applicants to follow. 

But the abuses don’t end there. In addition to indiscriminately giving the same answer different scores, applicants also received zeros for lengthy responses to application questions. One applicant stated that she received zero points on a question even though she provided exactly what the questions asked. The Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association ascertained that about 67 percent of the application pool received a score of zero on a question about marketing plans. The Association that this was so egregiously bad that it had to have been an error in the process.

Another applicant had support from the Mayor and 297 out of the 300 people in the small town that he planned to build his dispensary. In addition to this support, he planned to use revenue from the dispensary to aid the local police force. But this got him nowhere on the question on the application about the economic impact on the local community as he scored poorly on it. This apparent lack of attention to the application process earns Missouri a fourth red flag.

Apparently, though, Missouri is blind to the faults of this process. State officials still claim that the process was “secure and legitimate”, even though it was obviously not. Disgruntled applicants and their lawyers have started to file lawsuits against the state, causing an unnecessary headache for the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS). The DHSS has already begun soliciting bids from attorneys who can defend the state in these lawsuits, which will be a misuse of taxpayer dollars.

But the underlying point remains: all of this could have been avoided if Missouri had left the task to the private sector. Hopefully, Missouri voters and legislators will learn their lesson so they will not repeat the same mistakes when recreational marijuana becomes legal.  I am not optimistic though. Missouri loves to beat a dead horse.

Image: Paul Sableman

The post Don’t Give Missouri License to Beat a Dead Horse appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

To add insult to injury, the head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, Ed Mullins, claims that Majors was buying marijuana in the park and that is what put her in this dangerous scenario. He explains how he believes that recent limits on enforcement of marijuana laws in New York City contributed to this deadly situation.

What I am understanding is that [Majors] was in the park to buy marijuana….We don’t enforce marijuana laws anymore. We’re basically hands-off on the enforcement of marijuana. I understand the mayor made statements that this is surprising on how this can happen in New York City….I really have to question what world he’s living in to think that this is surprising, when we are watching the city slowly erode, with shootings, stabbings, an increase in homicides and, most importantly, a hands-off policing policy.

Majors’ family is taking offense to Mullins’ comments because, “…they intentionally or unintentionally direct blame onto Tess, a young woman, for her own murder.”

Nick Gillespie at Reason sees Mullins’ words as yet another reference to the old “reefer madness” hysteria, “…in which devil weed is the source of all forms of evil and criminality, even when it remains illegal.”

I can’t define what Mullins meant in his comments. I don’t read hearts and minds and, honestly, I don’t want to. But I did listen to the entirety of his radio interview. It doesn’t strike me as blatant victim-blaming. In actuality, he is taking way more swipes at NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio.

Furthermore, his comments are not textbook “refer madness” stuff because he never once says that these young teens went on a murderous rampage because they took a few too many hits of the devil’s lettuce. In context, Mullins blames the violence on the city (including Majors’ murder) – on somewhat of a lawless society that allows offenders to spin down a more violent hole.

There are many things that Mullins said in the interview that are questionable. Maybe he does hold to disproved parts of “reefer madness” and blames victims for being victims of violent crime, but I didn’t get that from this one radio appearance. He could be giving listeners a probable reason that an eighteen-year-old would be alone in a questionably safe park at night. But don’t take my word for it, listen to it here.

The problem is that NYC law enforcement might have given up on enforcing laws against marijuana consumption and trade, but it is still not legal to be bought and sold. (There is some liberalization on patients using it for medicinal purposes, but its effects are minimal).

In the same way alcohol prohibition enriched criminals, the marijuana black-market just proliferates and seedy characters take advantage of the fast cash they can make while providing consumers with a product that they demand.

The post NYC College Student Stabbing: Reefer Madness Murder? appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

“So what do you do if you’re minding your own business, breaking no laws and some official or officials, the cops or whoever, plants an illegal substance on you and you know it was planted on you and they know they planted it on you. Well, listen, this is the simplest of all f*cking problems.

Number one, be aware you have zero chance of being arrested and sent to jail. Why? They planted the weed to make some money, right? If they take you to jail, they got to fill out f*cking forms, the boss is going to get whatever money you might have made, and you will have wasted your time. So no, you’re not going to jail. The cops are intimidating you. Now, you don’t want to go, ‘not my drugs’. That’s an offensive attitude to a cop trying to make a decent living by scamming tourists by planting weed on them or whatever. No, that’s the wrong approach! You go something like, ‘oh f*ck me that’s the third time this week please God don’t tell Commissioner Adams about this he’s a good friend, and I swear to God he will be so pissed at my actions.” McAfee said while smoking a joint.

“Well, that usually gets you off without paying anything. If you’re not coherent enough to come up with a similar story which will get you off scot-free, then don’t pay a single penny more than five f*cking dollars. This is how policemen make their money. Listen, in countries like Belize and Guatemala, policemen make three dollars a f*cking day..three dollars and they can’t live on that. So what do they do? They put up roadblocks in rural villages and charge people a couple of pesos to go across. If you’re a tourist, you’ve got to pay more. It’s not corrupt. It’s just the way things are, but you ain’t going to jail”, McAfee continued.

If you follow Mr. McAfee on Twitter, you’ll know that he releases videos on a wide range of topics from his political philosophy to his outlook on life as he campaigns (not) for the White House  – mostly in international waters, as he is running from authorities on wrongful charges.

The post John McAfee Tutorial: What to Do If a Cop Plants Drugs on You appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Gun control is fashionable at the moment. But in reality, it is just another government program that will grow bureaucracy and diminish individual liberty. The same knee-jerk mob reaction that pleads for the government to “f*cking do something” about gun control is the same mentality that started the Drug War.

Musgraves’ passionate plea was in response to two mass shootings in the same week in America. She was pleading for something like governmental regulation to solve the heinous tragedy of mass shootings. It’s not the first time that America has faced scary situations and reacted by asking the government to solve it.

Through the 1970s to the 1990s, America struggled with drug abuse never seen before. The public clamored, “somebody f*cking do something”. What was the policy response? Massive law enforcement campaigns that spent tons of money and incarcerated countless people for answering consumer demands.

The hysteria of the time wasn’t completely unfounded. Americans were dying of overdoses all over the country. However, as most panic-induced government solutions do, the fix was too expansive and had some nasty side-effects. It created a system that harassed, arrested and sentenced people to long prison terms for marijuana charges. Even though, the plant has never caused an overdose death by itself.

Republicans played a role in perpetuating the war on drugs boondoggle, but it was far from ONLY a Republican mistake. Many Democrats played their part in it too (looking at you, Joe Biden). Some of them have owned up to their past and helped in bipartisan criminal justice reform.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill) recognized that he played a role in creating the disparity between sentencing for crack cocaine versus powder during the 1990s. The disparity was created in a hysterical rush and inadvertently caused a disproportionate number of non-white offenders receiving harsh sentences for drug offenses.

For example, in 1994 at the age of 25, Alton Mills was sentenced to life without parole for a low-level nonviolent drug offense. Senator Durbin started arguing on Mills’ behalf and in December of 2015, he was released from prison after serving 22 years.

There are numerous similar cases where unduly harsh sentences were given to offenders, and that is why there is bipartisan dislike of the Drug War. That should remind us how panicked government action can be dangerous, and result in toxic solutions that have long-lasting repercussions.

Drug overdoses are terrible… just like gun violence. Blindly begging the government to “f*cking do something” isn’t the answer, whether it’s drugs or guns.

The post History Rhymes: From The War on Drugs to The War on Guns appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

This is how US Congressional candidate Adela Wisdom answered my question of “How are you?” She and her husband have been fearful of the community authorities ever since September 17th when her home in Williamsburg, Missouri was raided by armed state and local law enforcement in a search for a marijuana grow.

The local Sheriff deputies and masked state agents (known as the Mustang Task Force) broke into her security gate days after a large helicopter flew over her house and hours after a drone was spotted hovering over the Wisdoms’ yard. As Wisdom was recalling this day to me, a helicopter roared above her home. She quickly added, “That is fine, people are allowed to fly over our house; I just get a little paranoid after everything that has happened.”

All three of her properties were searched, even though the search warrant only had one address listed. Wisdom said her property is specifically broken into three different pieces with three different addresses “I get three tax bills.” The agents were at Wisdom’s property for nearly an hour, but found nothing illegal.

When the officers also asked if they could search the inside of her house, Adela exercised her 4th  Amendment right and politely denied the request because the warrant was only for the outside of her property. As a proud “Constitutional Republican”, she knows her rights and will be practicing them.

Adela Wisdom is not your average victim of government encroachment. She is a candidate for Congress running in Missouri. Wisdom has advocated for criminal justice reform for years. She has traveled around the world to bring awareness to what she deems “unjust” laws and testified at the United Nations about judicial reform.

Wisdom is running to unseat incumbent Republican Blaine Luetkemeyer. She explains she is running to bring a fresh perspective to a stale political system. Mr. Luetkemeyer has been in Congress for twelve years. “He has been in politics since I was 21-years-old and I am 42 now”, Wisdom tells me. She is a firm believer in term limits, but those do not exist at the federal level. So, conducting a primary campaign against the incumbent is the best way to let her voice be heard.

She finds one of the most egregious parts of this harassment is the taxpayer money that was spent. “I’m just amazed at how much money was used, how many times a helicopter went over our property, and the amount of law enforcement officers that were here. It has got to be in the 100,000 dollar range.”

After the authorities searched her property, they found no marijuana. The Wisdoms shook the agents’ hands and parted ways. But she thinks about the people who aren’t so lucky. The Americans who lose their freedom and are hauled away in handcuffs for growing a plant. The plant, that Wisdom tells me, has a long and proud history in her neck of the woods. Local farmers were formally thanked for growing and providing much needed hemp during World War II.

Adela and her family are uncertain about the future of their life and legal case. They were in the process of adopting a child and are unsure whether this will hinder that. They are in the process of applying to find out more about the search warrant. Who is the judge that scribbled his signature in approval of this document? Who submitted the application for the warrant? What prompted them to come to the Wisdoms’ property? Adela still has no answers to these questions.

The irony of the situation is not lost on her. She is on a first-name basis with the Sheriff. She and her husband thank him for his service at every community event where they see him. She even voted for him. All he had to do was come talk to her and they could have looked at her property without the harassing raid.

You can find more about Adela and her campaign at adelawisdom.com

The post Missouri Republican Congressional Candidate Raided for Marijuana Grow appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Eager for a solution, President Trump was quick to propose banning flavored vape cartridges on the federal level, while New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday that he was seeking an emergency ban on flavored e-cigarettes within the state. But in rushing to outlaw potential culprits of this problem, the government is actually worsening the situation and placing individuals in harm’s way.

The truth of the matter is, if we really want to know how this problem came about—and how it can be solved—we need to take a closer look at the role marijuana prohibition has played in making vape products less safe for consumers.

The Rise of Vaping

Currently, flavored e-cigarettes are bearing the brunt of the public’s fears surrounding the vaping issue, but this blame may be almost entirely unwarranted.

While the first e-cigarette came on the market in 2006, it wasn’t until a handful of years ago that vaping became a mainstream alternative to smoking cigarettes. Walk past any bar on any given weekend and you are now sure to see groups of young hipsters huddled outside, taking drags off their Juuls and other e-cigarettes, as clouds of strawberry- and mint-flavored vapor fills the air. You can now buy JUUL in Canada at 180 Smoke.

Many of these young people have never been traditional smokers; they just like vaping. In fact, a recent study found that fewer young adults are using drugs these days, but more and more have reported using e-cigarettes.

As trendy and cool as vaping has become, it initially appealed to consumers because it offered them what was thought to be a safe alternative to ingesting the toxic ingredients found in every cigarette. Instead of lighting up, users could now vape liquid nicotine, giving them their fix without the threat of developing lung cancer from other chemicals and additives.

While the safety of vaping is now in question, there are some studies that suggest that it is 95 percent safer than smoking. In fact, Britain’s Royal College of Physicians released its findings a few years ago and the results seemed more than hopeful that vaping was a viable alternative to cigarettes.

The study is especially interesting, considering that Britain’s Royal College of Physicians was one of the first groups to link cigarettes to lung cancer—a warning America ignored for several years, mind you.

However, now that there are confirmed deaths linked to vaping, the public has grown understandably concerned. These fears have only been exacerbated by the CDC’s recent warning that, ”people should consider not using e-cigarette products.” Some vape users have become so worried, they’ve taken the CDC’s warning to heart and abandoned their e-cigarettes, choosing instead to switch back to regular cigarettes.

As of now, we still do not have a conclusive answer as to what precisely is causing all these new cases of respiratory illness. We do know, however, that cigarettes cause lung cancer. Yet, the CDC is advising nicotine-dependent individuals to forego vaping, effectively sending them right back into the arms of a known carcinogen. For those young people who vape but who have never smoked, this may draw them into cigarettes, posing severe health problems down the road.

Worse still, the CDC’s advice completely ignores vital information that could potentially exonerate nicotine vapes from these speculative charges.

Will the Real Culprit Please Stand Up?

According to a new report that looked at respiratory cases in Wisconsin and Illinois, 83 percent of the patients suffering from this illness admitted to using black market cannabis products. While 17 percent said that they had only used nicotine products, it should be noted that marijuana is still illegal in Wisconsin as well as federally, meaning patients might naturally be more reluctant to admit using it. It is likely, then, that the percentage of cases arising from THC products is higher.

So far, 21 patients in California, all eight in New Mexico, and 24 of 27 patients in Wisconsin have admitted to using black market THC products, while information in other states is still unclear.

And even though the New England Journal of Medicine has suggested that both THC and nicotine products are to blame, as of now, no legitimate vape company has been implicated, giving further credibility to the claims that this is a black market THC problem, not a vape problem.

When you visit a cannabis dispensary in California, Colorado, or Nevada, the products available for purchase list the ingredients used on the package so consumers know exactly what they are getting. And since this is a regulated industry, certain additives are banned from being used in commercially-sold vape cartridges. When you purchase something from the black market, on the other hand, you are not always entirely sure what you are getting.

In order to get the vape liquid to its desired thickness, many black-market producers will “cut” the product with vitamin E oil, which many now believe is to blame for the current crisis. Citing Byrn Mawr chemist Michelle Francl, The Washington Post explains why vitamin E presents such a problem to the respiratory system:

When that vapor cools down in the lungs, it returns to its original state at that temperature and pressure, she said, which means ‘it has now coated the inside of your lungs with that oil.’

Essentially, this oil is turning back into its original state in your lungs after it is inhaled, causing problems for users. While this explanation is consistent with many of the symptoms associated with the reported cases, vitamin E could not be linked to every case of this respiratory illness, which has some cautioning that it is too early to blame this whole debacle on just one additive.

One thing that does seem clear is that the rise of this new lung condition is more closely linked to black market THC than it is to legal nicotine vape products. Which begs the question, why don’t we just legalize cannabis and cut out the black market threat altogether?

What’s to Be Done?

Unfortunately, the government has taken its typical “ban all the things” approach to this problem, even though this tactic is exactly how we ended up in this situation in the first place.

Black market THC vape cartridges, for example, are already illegal. Even in states where cannabis use is legal, you still have to purchase these products from licensed dispensaries. Yet, that hasn’t stopped state entities from proposing more bans on products that are… already banned.

But if more states follow New York’s lead and begin to ban flavored nicotine products along with cannabis products, consumers will just take their business to the black market where they run the risk of coming in contact with these hazardous products. And with an increased demand for flavored nicotine products, it’s likely that more black market dealers will begin dabbling in nicotine as well as THC vape cartridges, putting more people at risk.

If government officials were serious about solving the vape crisis, they wouldn’t waste their time trying to ban nicotine vapes. Instead, they would end federal marijuana prohibition, thereby creating a legitimate market where consumers could safely purchase products.

The reason these illnesses are coming from THC vapes and not nicotine is precisely because the latter is legal while the former is not. By keeping THC illegal, you push consumers and producers underground, where accountability is less likely to occur.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

The post Want to Solve the Vape Crisis? End Marijuana Prohibition appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

In March of 2012, law enforcement came to Charles White’s farm in rural Polk County because of an identity theft case. Instead of finding evidence related to their initial investigation, the agents became suspicious that marijuana was being grown on the premises. Upon further investigation, they found over 1,000 marijuana crops growing on White’s land.

White’s defense team first argued that authorities entered his property under false pretenses and they did not have proper authority to search his property when they found the illegal substance. But they eventually acquiesced and he pleaded guilty to growing marijuana. White was a previous offender of marijuana laws and therefore, in 2017, he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for his felony offense.

White Appeals to the First Steps Act

In December of 2018, the First Steps Act passed the US Senate after being approved by the House in May. It then made its final lunge to a welcoming White House where it was gladly signed by the president. One of the benefits of the law was to extend early release to elderly, ailing, and low-risk prisoners.

In January of 2019, White’s lawyers filed for a compassionate early release from prison. They cited his legal blindness and worsening macular degeneration in his eyes as a reason for early release. White said his vision problems made it difficult to navigate hallways and stairs amidst “an aggressive prison population”.

The prosecution countered that White did not prove “extraordinary and rare” circumstances that merited early release. The judge agreed and denied White’s appeal for release.

The judge claimed a few reasons for rejecting White’s motion. First, White needed to serve at least half his sentence to be eligible. The judge added that he doesn’t believe White’s health has reached the severity needed for a “compassionate release”.

As of July, White was still being held in a federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas. He was hopeful that he would be moved to a medical facility soon that would meet his needs better.

Progress Depends on the Unreasonable Man

Our society, individual states, and country are liberalizing laws regarding marijuana. But are we forgetting the Americans who didn’t wait for society to progress? Steps were taken to reform the justice and legal system to benefit those like Charles White, but it might be too late for him.

You can sign a Change.org petition for Charles White here.

“One may well ask: ‘How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?’ The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

The post The War on Drugs: When Progress Comes Too Late appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

One of those victims is an elderly, sick Missouri man recently imprisoned and facing years more for possessing and using marijuana.

Steven Sutherland is a 60-year-old man with chronic heart disease, diabetes, and neurological issues. He has been on prescription medication for years with little relief of his medical issues. Sutherland argues that marijuana self-medication reduced the severity of his seizures. In 2015, the authorities raided his home and found 110 grams of marijuana along with 21 marijuana plants.

He had previously been found guilty of marijuana possession in 1996. Because of this previous non-violent offense, he was charged with a Class B felony, which is usually found in violent crimes like armed robbery and rape.

In April of 2019 after repeated delays due to his illness, a jury convicted Sutherland of marijuana possession. A judge sentenced him to ten years in prison.

Sutherland claims he has consumed the plant for decades in order to alleviate debilitating symptoms of his illnesses. He previously had a prescription from California for medicinal use and was buying it from there for years until he could no longer afford it. He then started growing the plants at home as an alternative.

In a letter to the court, his doctor from Mercy Hospital wrote that she had prescribed, “multiple seizure medication without much benefit.” She added, “I believe medical use of marijuana may help his seizure[s].”

In the 2015 raid where marijuana was found, Sutherland was also in possession of weapons. Sutherland was legally prohibited from having guns due to his status as a convicted felon. The prosecutors filed yet another felony against him that would carry multiple more years in prison. This charge was eventually dropped after Sutherland and his lawyers filed an appeal.

Sutherland is still in prison in ill health, and has been damned to years more in prison. Generally, even if a prisoner gets released early, they must serve 30 percent of the original sentence. He is concerned that he won’t last that long.

Sutherland and others in similar positions are caught in a decades-old struggle between our government and a plant. Ironically, his punishment is coming at the exact time our society is liberalizing for the benefit of forgotten Americans like him.

[RELATED: Police Raid Stage 4 Cancer Patient’s Hospital Room for Suspected Marijuana [VIDEO] ]

The post Missouri Sentences Elderly, Ailing Man to 10 Years for Possession After Passing Medical Marijuana appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.