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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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DEA Gets Flack For Bogus Claims [CO]
#8309788 - 04/21/08 07:09 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Federal Drug Agency Gets Flack For Organized Crime Claims April 16, 2008 - mpp.org
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration is claiming that proposals to legalize marijuana in Colorado are causing an increase in organized crime, but the agency says it doesn't have any hard data to back up such statements.
Now proponents who worked to push pot legalization measures in Denver and throughout the state are crying foul over what they say are baseless claims.
CBS Channel 4 news in Denver broadcast a story on Saturday featuring DEA special agent in charge Jeffrey Sweetin.
In the spot reported by anchor Karlyn Tilley, Sweetin cites a law to legalize small amounts of marijuana in Denver and a failed state ballot initiative to do the same thing as making Colorado a good market for drugs and organized crime.
Denver voters passed an initiative legalizing personal possession of up to an ounce of the substance for adults 21 years and older in 2005, and another measure to make such cases a "lowest law enforcement priority" for police in 2007.
A state ballot measure to legalize an ounce of pot for adults failed with 41 percent of the vote in 2006.
No hard data were cited in the Channel 4 story regarding the reported increase in organized crime, and there was a good reason, according to a drug agency spokesman.
"I don't think there's any numbers I can give," said DEA media representative Mike Turner about the crime connection to legalization efforts. "It's just that the ongoing cases we're seeing I think reflect the fact that that's what's going on."
The Channel 4 story sparked harsh criticism from Denver resident Mason Tvert, the executive director of Safer Colorado, the pro-marijuana legalization group that was behind the ordinance efforts in Denver and the state ballot proposal.
"If the DEA were a student submitting a report on organized crime in Colorado, they'd get a 'D,' assuming they spelled 'DEA' correctly," said Tvert. "It is unacceptable for our federal law enforcement agencies to be making such broad and baseless claims without any evidence to support them."
Turner contended that special agent Sweetin was also trying to present the idea that pot legalization efforts have sent a message to criminal organizations that it's OK to do businesses in Colorado--a similar claim that federal law enforcement officials made before such legalization measures were decided by Denver and state voters.
The broadcast on Channel 4 also used images taken from a methamphetamine raid conducted by the North Metro Task Force, a law enforcement coalition in the Denver area.
In the video, SWAT officers wearing gas masks carry an infant out of a recently raided meth lab. (Denver alternative-weekly newspaper Westword created a video essay about the raid in June.) Images from the raid were shown alongside pictures of marijuana, with no indication that the operation was not targeting cannabis drugs.
Reporter Karlyn Tilley did not return a request for comment regarding the broadcast.
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ComputerTekGuy
Teh Awesome



Registered: 01/15/07
Posts: 1,150
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Re: DEA Gets Flack For Bogus Claims [CO] [Re: veggie]
#8309932 - 04/21/08 09:10 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
"I don't think there's any numbers I can give," said DEA media representative Mike Turner about the crime connection to legalization efforts. "It's just that the ongoing cases we're seeing I think reflect the fact that that's what's going on."
Quote:
In the video, SWAT officers wearing gas masks carry an infant out of a recently raided meth lab. (Denver alternative-weekly newspaper Westword created a video essay about the raid in June.) Images from the raid were shown alongside pictures of marijuana, with no indication that the operation was not targeting cannabis drugs.
These people are half retarded
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TheHauntingSoul
Not really that cool



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 810
Loc: Ottawa, Canada
Last seen: 13 years, 9 months
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Re: DEA Gets Flack For Bogus Claims [CO] [Re: ComputerTekGuy]
#8309940 - 04/21/08 09:15 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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They should pass a bill that would make it manditory to fire as well as fine the hell out of ANY law enforcement official that is abusing his power by procuring propaganda, they can't just keep letting these people get away with this injustice.
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HighHat
Repeat Gold Medal eBay -TiVoist



Registered: 01/24/08
Posts: 303
Loc: Delocated
Last seen: 14 years, 15 days
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Re: DEA Gets Flack For Bogus Claims [CO] [Re: TheHauntingSoul]
#8310144 - 04/21/08 10:49 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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God I'm so glad that I'm going to be living in CO again soon(ish). A report countering DEA claims would never even air where I live now. I'm glad people are using the mass media to destroy it's own bullshit.
-------------------- Have you ever felt like you were wearing a hat, but you weren't? "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" -Letter from the Pennsylvania Assembly, November 11, 1755 This profile is strictly for role-playing. Any alleged association with illegal activities is purely fictional. Any images depicting illegal activities are photo-shopped or stolen.
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Taharka
The Root of the Problem

Registered: 09/29/05
Posts: 686
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Re: DEA Gets Flack For Bogus Claims [CO] [Re: HighHat]
#8310189 - 04/21/08 11:11 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Just a thought here: legalizing possession, but not manufacture, of a drug increases a demand that only the black market can fill. If I were in the Mafia, I wouldn't mind having only possession legalized. We need to go the whole hog, completely decriminalizing all drug-related activities.
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DarkLotus55
Lucifer's Cohort


Registered: 04/09/07
Posts: 65
Loc: Sadly, in the meth capita...
Last seen: 15 years, 9 months
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Re: DEA Gets Flack For Bogus Claims [CO] [Re: Taharka]
#8310251 - 04/21/08 11:37 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Nevada almost legalized possession, manufacture, and consumption in 2007. The vote was something like 53% No to 47% Yes. We were so close but now I wish we never had even tried, or waited a couple more years. We're fucked for at least the next 5-10 years now.
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 15 days, 19 hours
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Re: DEA Gets Flack For Bogus Claims [CO] [Re: ComputerTekGuy]
#8311285 - 04/21/08 04:57 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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> These people are half retarded
You are nicer than I am... only half?
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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fastfred
Old Hand



Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 6,899
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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Re: DEA Gets Flack For Bogus Claims [CO] [Re: Seuss]
#8313334 - 04/22/08 04:42 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
We're fucked for at least the next 5-10 years now.
How do you figure? The issue is now acceptable to talk about, the gains made during the campaign aren't going to fade anytime soon, and the state's voters will now have no problem finding it acceptable to side with the 47% pro-legalization side.
-FF
-------------------- It drinks the alcohol and abstains from the weed or else it gets the hose again. -Chemy The difference between the substances doesn't matter. This is a war on consciousness, on our right to the very essence of what we are. With no control over that, we have no need to speak of freedom or a free society. -fireseed "If we are going to have a war on marijuana, the least we can do is pull the sick and the dying off the battlefield." -Neal Levine (MPP) I find the whole "my drug should be legal but yours should be illegal" mindset disgusting and hypocritical. It's what George Bush and company do when they drink a cocktail and debate the best way to imprison marijuana users. -Diploid
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sinenomine
Stranger
Registered: 12/02/06
Posts: 557
Last seen: 10 years, 8 months
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Re: DEA Gets Flack For Bogus Claims [CO] [Re: fastfred]
#8313459 - 04/22/08 06:59 AM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
We're fucked for at least the next 5-10 years now.
Well, every year is a round of people turning 18, and every year is also a round of 80 year old's kicking the bucket.
So that margin should get better every year
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