Opponents Play Rope-A-Dope On Marijuana Legalization
Cutting red tape for business only extends to providing get-out-of-jail-free cards to serial polluters, not to assisting proponents of creating a new revenue source. Gee, who didn’t see this coming?
From the linked News-Journal story:
“We’re pleased more time will be allotted,” said Cathy Rossi, vice president of public and government affairs for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “The legalization of marijuana is fraught with financial, criminal and social problems and we’ve got to weigh whether it’s worth it.”
Jee-zus. How about bleeping looking at the states that have approved it? Look at the people expressing concerns. The bankers, the Secretary of State’s office. Not mentioned, but always present, the cops.
So, the delay ensures that the prospective availability of this revenue stream will not be considered during Joint Finance Committee hearings. Meanwhile, in New Jersey:
New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy, who leads his Republican opponent in several polls, has promised to sign a legalization bill into law during his first 100 days in office.
In other words, it’s gonna happen in our region. Thanks to the blinkered obstructionists, Delaware won’t be first.
(An aside: I don’t give a bleep whether the News-Journal has an editor or not. How the bleep can the reporter misspell Helene Keeley’s name half the time in an article, but spell it correctly the other half? Was he just hedging his bets?)
But I digress. We’ve seen Delaware mobilize time and time again to push through legislation to gain a competitive advantage for business. Emergency legislative sessions, even. When you see some of the same players dragging their feet and hemming and hawing, you know that they’re trying to kill marijuana legalization. They will succeed.
21st century Carrie Nations… I just hope in 10 years when recreational cannabis is legal here and another 20-30 states we remember how these clowns wasted our time and money over very little.
They’re not Carrie Nations when it comes to legalizing usury, enabling drug dealers and arms smugglers via LLC’s, cutting secret business deals using millions of taxpayers’ dollars as incentive.
But when it comes to doing something that other states are already doing, to great financial benefit, they stand around scratching their collective empty heads, and become worry trolls anguishing over the smallest of details to cover their deliberate and successful attempt to kill marijuana legalization.
The. Delaware. Way.
The reason is simple: The state cops don’t want legal marijuana. They want to be able to say they smelled marijuana smoke so they can conduct warrantless searches of vehicles.
They said so in hearings on this and I’ve seen nothing to indicate their stance has changed. Their arrest statistics are more important than anything else the state does, doncha know.
Accurate. A county officer told me this almost verbatim. The cop even couched it with the idea that I should “feel safer” because this is how they search for guns.
Stupid and typical.
It’s also how they use the ‘I smell pot’ claim to take away just about all the suspect’s belongings, including their car. ‘Civil forfeiture’, a money-making scheme that ONLY benefits the cops.
Delaware will legalize a year after Jersey legalizes it….
Maybe they should consider legalizing pot at the casinos.