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trampis
mad hatter


Registered: 01/01/06
Posts: 3,545
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Legalizing Cannabis: Prison Food Provider Donates To Keep Marijuana Illegal In Arizona
#23745456 - 10/17/16 12:28 PM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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Source.
A deep-pocketed coalition is spending big to keep marijuana illegal in Arizona. Drug companies, the Chamber of Commerce, and the alcohol industry, have together poured millions of dollars into the campaign to defeat Proposition 205, a ballot measure that would legalize marijuana for those over 21. And as opinion polls show a tight race, another industry entered the fray: prison food providers.
Services Group of America, whose subsidiary Food Services of America sells meals to correctional facilities, devoted $80,000 to defeat the measure in late September. The money-flow was first revealed by Tom Angell, the chairman of the pro-legalization nonprofit Marijuana Majority.
Arizona is one of five states -- including California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada -- where marijuana legalization is on the ballot in November. With polls in Arizona showing a particularly tight race, money is pouring in from groups trying to tip the balance in the homestretch.
The main anti-legalization group, Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, has raised nearly $2.7 million — $900,000 in the last three weeks alone. Pro-legalization groups raised more than $3 million — including over $100,000 last week from the company that makes Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap.
On both sides of the issue, donors writing checks have business interests at stake. The legalization-side is largely funded by through the Marijuana Policy Project, which takes donations from dispensary owners and marijuana entrepreneurs. The largest donor to the prohibitionists' side is the drug-maker Insys Therapeutic—which is developing synthetic marijuana product of its own. In addition to a $500,000 donation from Insys Therapeutic, the Chamber of Commerce of commerce spent $498,000, and Arizona Wine and Spirits Wholesale Association devoted $10,000.
Services Group of America’s donation seems to fit into that trend: Around 20 percent of those incarcerated in Arizona are drug offenders. The company, which is privately owned, sells food services to a range of facilities including schools, hospitals and cruise ships -- it's not clear what portion of its business involves prisons and jails, and how many of those facilities are in Arizona.
In 2013, a jail in Montana that contracted with Food Services of America was at the center of a scandal after local reporters discovered that some days, inmates were fed only 1,782 calories — far less than the recommended daily intake.
While pro-legalization groups have outraised their opponents, they spent most of the money collecting signatures to get the initative on the ballot. Over the course of the campaign, anti-marijuana groups outspent them 6-1, according to an analysis by ABC News Arizona affiliate.
Flush with cash, Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy has been running TV ads, warning voters that the initiative would hurt the state’s already functioning medical marijuana dispensaries. The fact-checking website PolitiFact rated the ads “mostly false.”
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durian_2008
Cornucopian Eating an Elephant



Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 16,693
Loc: Raccoon City
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Re: Legalizing Cannabis: Prison Food Provider Donates To Keep Marijuana Illegal In Arizona [Re: trampis]
#23746361 - 10/17/16 04:46 PM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
...inmates were fed only 1,782 calories — far less than the recommended daily intake.
You could have increased sales by petitioning for the rights of prisoners.
Also, say they should eat nice food, which is more profitable, for you.
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Konyap

Registered: 06/30/07
Posts: 33,945
Loc: Planet Piss
Last seen: 4 years, 2 months
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Re: Legalizing Cannabis: Prison Food Provider Donates To Keep Marijuana Illegal In Arizona [Re: durian_2008]
#23747038 - 10/17/16 07:57 PM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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Hey they were smart enough to spend that money on something useful like prison
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ChinChiller



Registered: 07/03/10
Posts: 3,270
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Re: Legalizing Cannabis: Prison Food Provider Donates To Keep Marijuana Illegal In Arizona [Re: trampis] 1
#23751204 - 10/19/16 05:55 AM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
trampis said: Source. The largest donor to the prohibitionists' side is the drug-maker Insys Therapeutic—which is developing synthetic marijuana product of its own. In addition to a $500,000 donation from Insys TherapeuticPolitiFact rated the ads “mostly false.”
Same company that got in trouble for giving doctors kickbacks for prescribing subsys, a form of fentanyl.
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tarlin
Beginner Hunter


Registered: 10/09/16
Posts: 214
Loc: Virginia, USA
Last seen: 7 years, 3 months
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Re: Legalizing Cannabis: Prison Food Provider Donates To Keep Marijuana Illegal In Arizona [Re: trampis]
#23763400 - 10/23/16 07:27 AM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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Having worked and been incarcerated in Arizona prisons, this whole "anti-legalization" bull shit is a ploy to fund a private industry. The VAST majority of inmates in low custody, 1-3, are there for drugs offenses. There are inmates in the prison with 10 year sentences for 2nd time convictions for ONLY marijuana possession. The Sherriff, Joe Arpio, has based his entire career tenure on these harsher sentences and "crackdowns".
Imagine what would happen if marijuana became legalized. All marijuana possession charges would be up for review and release. The service industry at the prisons, which is blatantly awful to begin with, would take a financial hit. Arpio's reputation would get smudged, and private funders to Arizona prisons would take a profit loss. Not all prisons in Arizona are privately funded, but those that are... An EMPIRE of wealth. Take a percentage of their clientele, inmates, and release them over a very short spam and it would be like the Huns getting through the Great Wall into China. Chaos! To the private industry, service industry, and 'reputable' people who have placed their careers mark on harsher punishments.
Legalization absolutely should happen, and not for the purpose so the 'stoner' can now get high without risk, but because it would be a very large economic boost. Marijuana sales, taxes on such sales, and besides that munchies lead to buying of food lol. The big picture is though that crime would actually go down. Its a large concern to anyone overseeing the institutions that house 'criminals'.
Prop 205 needs to pass, it would start a chain of events that would challenge the overall corruption and profiteering of individuals who press for harder sanctions, stricter punishments, and bonuses based of capacity of incarcerated 'felons'.
*Steps off his pedastool*
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tarlin
Beginner Hunter


Registered: 10/09/16
Posts: 214
Loc: Virginia, USA
Last seen: 7 years, 3 months
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Re: Legalizing Cannabis: Prison Food Provider Donates To Keep Marijuana Illegal In Arizona [Re: tarlin]
#23763430 - 10/23/16 07:41 AM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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And by the way anyone who has not seen the inside of a jail in Arizona. They grind up ALL the food together into a big pile of 'stew' (also know as slop) and remove any seasoning from the food. They push it through a tube that spits it out in rationed portions onto your tray. It has a terrible taste, gives you the shits or makes you sick to your stomach, and you are not allowed any fresh fruit. This is done to demoralize the inmates, prevent the inmates from making 'hooch' and to discourage people from coming back to jail. It is a low calorie meal every time and you lose more calories when you get the shits. You sleep in tents when you are a low risk inmate that are outside, old GP Large military tents that were donated, and your only form of cooling off is a warehouse fan that is not allowed to be run on high meanwhile it can be up to 125 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Combine this with the lack of nutritional intake, dehydration and poor morale... You lose a shitload of weight, you become weak and lethargic, and you lose a majority of your inhibitions and desire to do anything. It's all based around the same concept as pharmacological restraints and is a legal form of control that is comparable to the conditions enforced on Jews in the concentration camps, although at a lesser extreme. While living in the tents you are on a mandatory work crew, and can spend weeks at a time literally just breaking rocks and moving them from one side of the yard to the other.
Its deplorable to sa the least!!
And people are praised for getting these people of the streets, but let me remind you these are your security threat classifications 1 and 2 with the rare class 3 who is on a work program. These are not your killers, rapists and other array of dangerous felons.
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