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The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying To Keep Marijuana Illegal
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Last year, more than 850,000 people in the U.S. were arrested for marijuana-related offenses.
Despite public opinion, the medical community, and human rights experts of all movement in favor of relaxing the laws of marijuana prohibition, little has changed in terms of policy.
There have been many great books and articles detailing the history of the war on drugs. Part of fixing America with maintaining green leaf plant illegal is rooted in the cultural and political clashes of the past.
However, there are entrenched interest groups that are spending large sums of money to keep the broken drug laws on the books:
1) The police unions: Police departments across the country have become dependent on federal subsidies war on drugs to finance their budget. In March, an article revealed that a police union lobbyist in California coordinated the effort to defeat Proposition 19, a ballot measure in 2010 to legalize marijuana, while helping their clients from the police department to raise tens of million in federal grants marijuana eradication. And not just in California. Federal lobbying disclosures show that other police union lobbyists have pushed for stiffer penalties for marijuana-related crimes across the country.
2) The private prison corporations: Private prison corporations make millions for jailing people who have been incarcerated for drug offenses, including marijuana. Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest for-profit enterprises in prison, said in a statement that the regulator to continue the war against drugs is integral to their business strategy. Prison companies have spent millions of dollars funding pro-drug war and politicians have used secret front groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council, to barely exceed the requirements for drug offenses.
3) Corporations producing alcohol and beer: Fearing competition for dollars spent on entertainment, alcohol and snuff interests have lobbied to keep marijuana out of reach. For example, the California Beer and Beverage Distributors contributed campaign contributions to a committee set up to prevent the legalization of marijuana and taxed.
2013-04-23 22:32:04
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