Expect Desperate, Insane Behavior From Government In 2018 – Part 1

Authored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

I heartily accept the motto, “That government is best which governs least”; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe — “That government is best which governs not at all”; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.

– Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

As we head into 2018, I believe governments around the world will become increasingly insecure about their positions of power and control, which will result in increased paranoia about whether or not they have the consent of the governed.

Being a global empire in decline, the U.S. power structure has the most to lose, making it particularly vulnerable to such panic. I suspect forces within the U.S. government are likely to engage in various attempts to reestablish authority via desperate and authoritarian moves as 2018 unfolds. I don’t say this to spread fear; rather, I think such moves will result in considerable pushback from the population at large, particularly from younger generations who are intimately aware of how spectacularity the status quo has failed them. Panic and desperation from those in control shouldn’t be feared, it should be expected and contemplated ahead of time. That’s why I’m writing this series. I want as many people as possible to start thinking about this now so we aren’t caught off guard.

The areas I’ll be diving into with these pieces consist of cannabis, Bitcoin, and war against Iran. I’m sure there are plenty of other areas government will target in its last ditch effort to exert control over a populace sick and tired of these busybody, corrupt authoritarians, but these are issues I follow closely and have a certain degree of familiarity with. As such, they’ll be the focus of this series.

Today’s topic is cannabis. This seems the least likely area for government action, specifically because it would be such a monumentally stupid move. That said, just because something’s idiotic doesn’t mean we should simply discount it, particularly with human fossil Jeff Sessions continuing to chirp on the issue every chance he gets.

Although Sessions has been threatening to stomp on states’ rights and freedom of choice when it comes to cannabis ever since he became Attorney General, he hasn’t done anything yet. Nevertheless, he continues to issue threats.

As Axios reported yesterday:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions suggested in a press conference on Wedenesday that the Department of Justice is looking at changing Obama-era policies that allowed states to decide what to do about marijuana despite the drug remaining illegal under federal law, according to McClatchy DC.

 

Why it matters: This could have a huge impact on the 6 states and D.C. which will have legalized marijuana by January, 2018. Places that have already legalized marijuana and have seen the marijuana industry boom in their states could face particularly tricky legal situations.

 

Key quote: “In fact, we’re looking at that very hard right now, we had a meeting yesterday and talked about it at some length. It’s my view that the use of marijuana is detrimental, and we should not give encouragement in any way to it, and it represents a federal violation, which is in the law and is subject to being enforced.”

 

Meanwhile, bipartisan groups of Senators and House members have been pushing for criminal justice reform bills, which would lower minimum mandatory sentences for non-violent drug crimes. A crackdown on drug crimes is not what they’re looking for from Sessions. 

If Sessions decides to do something, I predict he’ll have his ass handed to him in spectacular fashion. First of all, I can’t think of a single issue that unites Americans at this time more than the belief cannabis should be legalized. A recent Gallup poll proved this in spades. We learned:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans continue to warm to legalizing marijuana, with 64% now saying its use should be made legal. This is the highest level of public support Gallup has found for the proposal in nearly a half-century of measurement.

 

Gallup first asked national adults about their views on the topic in 1969, when 12% supported legalization. Support had more than doubled by the end of the next decade but changed little throughout the 1980s and 1990s. By 2001, however, about a third of Americans favored legalizing marijuana, and support has steadily increased since. A majority of Americans have consistently supported legalizing marijuana since 2013.

 

That looks like the chart of Bitcoin.

More significantly, we live in an era in which basically no issue issue successfully crosses partisan political lines. Except cannabis. Also from Gallup:

Democrats and independents have historically been much more likely than Republicans to say marijuana should be legalized. In 2009, Democrats were the first partisan group to see majority support for legalization, followed by independents in 2010.

 

This year for the first time, a majority of Republicans express support for legalizing marijuana; the current 51% is up nine percentage points from last year.

Moreover, many of those against legal cannabis in their particular state still accept the right of people in other states to decide for themselves. The idea of the federal government going into states and denying the will of the citizens who voted to legalize it would be extraordinarily unpopular across the board. It’ll be completely obvious to everyone that if the feds think they can tell people their votes don’t matter on that issue, there’s zero freedom of choice for anything in this country. It’s the ultimate canary in the coal mine.

In fact, I’ll take this one step further and say if Sessions dares to make this move, it’ll accelerate secessionist movements across the country and delegitimize government credibility more than any other single act in the forty years since I’ve been alive.

The clowns in D.C. have no conception of how fragile this nation is right now.
One more gigantic policy disaster and the whole thing could fall apart.

— Michael Krieger (@LibertyBlitz) November 30, 2017

If the Trump administration actually moves on this issue, we’ll know for sure how completely inept and desperate it is. Part of me almost wants to see them try, because the resulting monumental fail will demonstrate the power of the people and give a gigantic black eye to authoritarians in government.

Stuff like this is all part of the process we’ll be going through over the next few years, and we need to be mentally prepared for it. We the people will increasingly move to take sovereignty back in a variety of ways, and government will respond with panic. The good news is they’ll be reacting from a position of weakness, not strength.

Which brings us to the topic of Bitcoin. As the price crossed $10,000 recently, I noticed increased squeamishness and fear on behalf of various banksters, economists and other assorted statists.

Monday’s post will dig into what all of that means.

*  *  *

If you liked this article and enjoy my work, consider becoming a monthly Patron, or visit our Support Page to show your appreciation for independent content creators.

How Sane Cannabis Policy is Blocked by the Machine

Via The Daily Bell

The federal ban on cannabis is one of those policies which make living in Americ feel like the dark ages. It wastes tax dollars with enforcement, and it tramples states’ rights to make their own laws.

Worst of all though, it threatens legal businesses in states which are pot friendly and threatens the life, liberty, and property of countless individuals who harm no one while using marijuana for recreational or medical purposes.

That’s why it is an exciting development to see Congress taking steps towards solving these issues. But it’s not all cut and dry yet. A provision expires next week that needs to be renewed in order to:

…prohibit the Justice Department from cracking down on medical marijuana companies that follow state laws. Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) are teaming up to push the renewal of those protections, which will otherwise expire at the end of April.

This could spell trouble if the provision is not continued as it is hard to tell how the Trump administration will treat businesses in states that have legalized marijuana.

But at the same time other provisions are being introduced to expand these protections for marijuana companies to not just medical, but recreational cannabis businesses as well. If both provisions pass it would mean all businesses in the 29 states which legalized medical marijuana, and the 8 states which legalized recreational use of marijuana, would be safe from federal prosecution.

But again, it may not be as easy as it sounds. If these bills are attached to other more controversial bills they might get caught up in the fight over funding things like a border wall. While the marijuana bills each have bipartisan support, there is no guarantee they will pass in a hostile legislative environment.

McClintock and Polis want to attach their recreational marijuana amendment to the Justice Department’s funding bill later this year — and they believe it has the votes to pass — but if GOP leadership elects to lump all of the government spending bills together in what’s known as an “omnibus,” that could spell trouble for pot advocates.

So they’re hoping the Justice Department’s spending bill get its own vote.

“If the bill comes to the House floor, the McClintock-Polis amendment will pass,” said Michael Collins of the Drug Policy Alliance.

Root Issues

This whole marijuana fight highlights some deeper issues with the USA’s entire legislative and government process.

First, there should be only one subject per bill. A bill was introduced in January which would do that, but it hasn’t gone anywhere yet, and past bills have likewise floundered. But if this bill passes, it would not only bolster good reforms like allowing states to make their own pot laws, it would also stop bad bills hidden in the depths of other bills, like funding laws.

But it also points to the fact that states have lost basically all their power to govern. It’s not like their policies would be necessarily saner or just if states were released from their federal tethers, but there would at least be more competition to attract residents with better government policies.

So even though the majority of states clearly believe it is time to stop treating the use of marijuana as criminal, the federal government that these states supposedly control keeps them from allowing businesses to operate under normal conditions. Things might be different if the Senate was still controlled by state legislators electing representatives, as opposed to electing Senators by popular vote, which went into effect in 1913.

It is also still difficult for marijuana businesses to find banks to accept their money, based on federal regulations against cannabis. And furthermore, businesses cannot plan ahead, crippling long-term success. The worst thing for a business is uncertainty, and the federal and state sparring over pot laws creates massive uncertainty in the marijuana market.

The bottom line is that the federal government needs to back off states and back off businesses. Marijuana should not be restricted, as basically, everyone agrees. Yet despite the widespread approval of cannabis, government policies prevent individuals and businesses from being able to go exercise their basic rights.

Canada Officially Moves To Legalize Recreational Marijuana Nationwide

Authored by Carey Wedler via TheAntiMedia.org,

Canada officially moved to legalize recreational marijuana on Thursday when the government introduced legislation allowing the possession of small amounts of cannabis. The new law also sets regulations for the sale, growth, and purchase of the plant.

USA Today reports:

“Canada’s federal government set the age at 18, but is allowing each of the provinces to determine if it should be higher. The provinces will also decide how the drug will be sold and distributed. The law also defines the amount of THC in a driver’s blood, as detected by a roadside saliva test, that would be illegal. Marijuana taxes will be announced at a later date.”

Vox notes that “Canadians will be allowed to grow up to four marijuana plants per household and possess up to 30 grams per person. For the most part, the bill follows the recommendations made by a recent federal task force on marijuana legalization.”

The outlet points out that the details of the bill could change as the bill works its way through Parliament, adding that if the legislation passes, it could be illegal under international law, which still favors prohibition. Canada joins Uruguay, the only other nation to have fully legalized recreational marijuana (Portugal has had great success with its decriminalization of all drugs).

Canada first allowed medical marijuana for terminal illnesses in 2001, and in some parts of the country, like Vancouver, weed shops are legal and law enforcement tolerates use of the plant. But the new legislation codifies the rights of all Canadians to use it, even if it still places restrictions on use (for example, attempting to regulate THC blood content in the context of driving  a car is a controversial practice in the United States, where studies show driving while high is far less dangerous than driving drunk)

If the law is passed, it will undoubtedly cut into crime rates in Canada, where tens of thousands of marijuana users are still arrested for possession every year.

As the Liberal Party, which introduced the legislation, argues:

“Arresting and prosecuting these offenses is expensive for our criminal justice system. It traps too many Canadians in the criminal justice system for minor, non-violent offenses. At the same time, the proceeds from the illegal drug trade support organized crime and greater threats to public safety, like human trafficking and hard drugs.”

If the bill passes, Canada will join multiple U.S. states, including California, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska, which have all legalized recreational marijuana. It will join an even longer list of U.S. states and other countries relaxing laws, even if they are not outright repealing them.

Canada has taken a forward-thinking approach to drug addiction in general; last year the country began sponsoring injection centers where heroin addicts could consume their narcotics under the supervision of a doctor.

As mounting research shows the plant offers a wide range of medical benefits, and as the drug war continues to prove itself inefficient, ineffective, and destructive around the world, Canada’s recent move signals legalization is all but inevitable. As the Liberal Party of Canada’s website has argued:

“Canada’s current system of marijuana prohibition does not work. It does not prevent young people from using marijuana and too many Canadians end up with criminal records for possessing small amounts of the drug.”

The High Life: Here Are The States Where The Most People Are Tokin' Up

After a slew of states across the country have decided to legalize medical and/or recreational use of marijuana, the Washington Post decided to take a look at the impact this new legislation has had on weed consumption by state.  Ironically the map looks a lot like the 2016 electoral college map with the highest levels of consumption per capita coming from the liberal strongholds of New England and the West Coast.  Meanwhile, Montana seems to be the one conservative outlier where people love both their individual liberties and tokin" up on the reg.

Overall, a study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that 22 million Americans like to light up on a monthly basis with closer to 37 million admitting they partake at least once a year.

According to one estimate by ArcView Group, a marijuana industry consulting firm, the legal marijuana market rang up $6.7 billion in sales in 2016.

Legal or not, millions of Americans already use marijuana regularly. According to the most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 8.3 percent of Americans age 12 and over -- 22 million people -- used marijuana on a monthly basis in 2015. And close to 37 million people used marijuana at least once that year.

Meanwhile, it"s readily apparent that the highest marijuana use per capita comes from states where the drug has been legalized for medical and/or medicinal purposes.

In the 2014-2015 period (years are paired for state-level data to provide bigger sample sizes), nearly a quarter of people in places where recreational pot is legal -- like D.C. and Colorado -- used some form of marijuana at least once a year.

That"s nearly double the national average, and it"s close to three times the rate for the most pot-abstinent states, like Alabama, Mississippi and Iowa, where around 8 or 9 percent of people age 12 and older use pot yearly.

Generally speaking, the Northeast and the West Coast are the two major marijuana hotbeds in the country. Marijuana use between the coasts is generally lower, with the notable exception of Colorado.

The state-level data shows that places with the most marijuana use generally have some form of legal medical or recreational marijuana available. This is likely a two-way street: places with lax attitudes about marijuana use are more likely to approve legal marijuana, and marijuana availability probably leads to more lax attitudes about use.

Finally, for our entrepreneurial readers, we just wanted to highlight that we see staggering opportunities for new KFC and Taco Bell franchises in parts of Montana, Colorado and New England.