New Cop on Alaska Marijuana Control Board: "War on weed is a waste of time."

[moose eater]

New Cop on Alaska Marijuana Control Board: "War on weed is a waste of time."

There's a law enforcement position on the Board that regulates cannabis in Alaska. Not an uncommon circumstance or requirement in places with regulated substances to have a law enforcement opinion and presence in their midst.

The previous law officer on the Board resigned after the verbalized changes voiced by Jeff Sessions and the DoJ, as he saw it as a conflict with his job. He was from Soldotna, known to be a fairly conservative community, on the Kenai Peninsula, near the town of Kenai.

The new officer on the Control Board is the Chief of Police from Sitka, also known to be a relatively conservative town; an Island community in S.E. Alaska. His attitude seems to be an improvement, even over the 'willingness' and tempered tolerance of his predecessor.

Speaking preliminarily, and acknowledging that this cop's stint has just begun, I think Governor Walker has made a good choice in this person.

I can remember when cops criticizing the War On (Some) Drugs, whether in B.C., Alaska, or where ever, frequently found their careers in question, or at least new duty assignments in retribution for their opinions being voiced publicly..

"Come gather 'round people, where ever you roam, and admit that the waters around you have grown..... for The times, they are a'changin'.." (Bob Dylan)

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https://www.newsminer.com/news/alaska_news/alaska-police-chief-war-on-weed-a-waste-of-time/article_9f29f5de-6b14-574f-8caf-8df76c3e11bd.html

Alaska police chief: War on weed a 'waste of time'

 

[troutman]

I bet you're happy the new Sheriff in town sees the light.

 

[moose eater]

I'm happy to see the Law making some progress in discontinuing their 80-year penchant for pushing Anslinger's propaganda.

I'm cynical about the fact that while they could've done what some truly independent and enlightened thinkers among their ranks did years ago, folks like Gil what's-his-name, the Canadian cop in Vancouver, B.C., and some others, years earlier, they chose to wait to stand up in public until after they were unbridled by the voters' initiatives.

Many of them apparently needed someone to tell them it was OK to be honest.

But yes, I'm glad to see the changes.

At the same time, Anchorage, Fairbanks, and elsewhere in the State, have been categorized as 'Drug Corridors,' and with this comes a request from the State, and added officers from the feds, to crack down on those areas that are thus labeled.

And my hunch is that while they'll be chasing crank, black market opiates, and other narcotics, they won't turn a blind eye to the black market's mom & pop operations of any size, and they'll be continuing to use the same old tools that failed miserably already for 8+ decades.

It's slow changes, trout.

 

[MJPassion]

State & Fed law conflicts do not exist!
State lands are not under federal jurisdiction... only lands that have been ceded by the states to the federal government for legal purposes are eligible for federal jurisdiction.
ANY LAND OUTSIDE THOSE BOUNDARIES ARE INVALID for federal prosecution since federal cops DO NOT have jurisdiction on State lands. As well, State cops DONT HAVE JURISDICTION to enforce Federal laws!

COPS ARE IDIOTS!
If you don’t fight for your Rights you may as well be a SLAVE!

 

[moose eater]

Memorandums of Agreement and grant monies under any number of federal administrations changed much of what court rulings hadn't already killed where the 10th and 9th Amendments are concerned.

For years up here, under the Ravin Decision of 1975, I used to taunt the local and State cops in commentary, telling them they took a fed to nearly every raid like a red-neck takes a six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon to a family reunion at a county park.

The 'Drug Corridors' agreement means the feds are invited in by the State (not that they wouldn't simply come on their own), and there's extra funding for enforcement. The long-failed enforcement that they still seem so attached to. The interdiction that never curtailed ANY drug activity in the Country, that I know of..

In my observations, we now live in a quasi-mercenary country, where nearly everyone, from the bottom up, whether law enforcement or other, seems willing to do what ever, for whom ever, as long as the money is good enough. Even when it violates their sense of justice.

Make the pay-check big enough, and it's amazing how much shit people can forget about themselves, the Universe, their neighbors, etc.

I knew environmentalist folks who worked for Alyeska Pipeline Service Co when Uncle Al was pumping poorly or untreated sludge into Prince William Sound through a grand-fathered conduit, and lying about vapor recovery at the Terminal, and when asked if Uncle Al was running a clean show, these Audubon and Sierra Club members, whom I knew personally, said, "Why yes, he is..." contrary to known science at the time.

Make the paycheck and perks big enough, and blindness can be had.. Sometimes surprisingly cheaply.

As far as rights here, we had personal rights of privacy protecting (originally unlimited amounts; 19785-1983) under Ravin, in the homes of adults, where cannabis was concerned. During that time, courtesy of the 1975 legislative part of early decrim that coincided with then-Chief Justice Rabinowitz's ruling in Ravin (1975), we could also possess up to an oz. in public, provided it wasn't publicly displayed or used.

To that extent, I was somewhat of an expert on what our rights were and weren't, both after the legislature compromised and initiated the 4-oz. restriction that took affect in March of 1983, where at over a lb. back then became an inherent felony by the ticking of a clock the night the new laws went into effect, but we were permitted 24 plants without too much hassle, and public possession was terminated.

Then in 1990 with the unconstitutional vote to recrim, and feds campaigning on a State ballot Initiative here (in violation of the Hatch Act) with that high-profile fellow whose name escapes me now, who was later outed as a drinker and gambler, preaching the Gateway Drug Theory that NIH shot to shit in 1999 in the cumulative analysis titled, 'Marijuana as Medicine,' or 'Marijuana & Medicine' (I have a copy or three in my activist archives in the basement still).

The feds helped leave us with nearly 11 years or so of unconstitutional recrim, and as long as the State didn't appeal any Ravin-qualified dismissals that might've resulted in over-turning that law at the Appellate Court or State Supreme Court levels (the place where any meaningful entries into Ravin would matter for a binding ruling), then they maintained the right to bust down doors, and pretend that pot was illegal across the board, despite small possession and horticulture cases being dismissed in lower courts left, right and center.

Then came the Noy Decision in North Pole, Alaska (Fairbanks court; Attorney Billl Satterberg), and the 11 years (+/-) of unconstitutional official harassment of adult pot heads slowed dramatically, despite pissing off local and federal authorities who believed their birth-right was to fuck with hippies and pot heads.

We were engaged in Prop 5 near that time when Noy won his case..

The law is a circus that sometimes operates within its bounds, where causing them to comply with their OWN laws may require any number of expensive appeals, for which, hopefully, the appellant is either supported by an org with $$, independently wealthy, or has an attorney (or team of them) who is down for the cause..

I lived through that entire time without arrest, and only minimal harassment, as a fairly high-profile activist in a professional position, frequently doing interviews on the subject matter..

When it comes to grow operations that exceed our fairly conservative limits 'won' through legalization, there's no doubt in my mind that the feds will march happily down what ever trail, hand in hand with the State, to continue prosecuting the non-compliant growers and dealers.

And these days, the commercially licensed growers and retailers will be applauding them as they do so, just as they did during the indictments of Discrete Deliveries and AC/DC (two cannabis delivery companies that operated as mere transport companies, several years ago) down in the Mat-Su Valley/Eagle River/Anchorage.