Derrygal

This is one of the most disgusting and disturbing news reports I have read in a long time. Unbelievable. Only in America...................

BEVS

More than 100% agree. Beyond inhumane and disgusting.

Pulaski

I mentioned the report to little Miss P, who responded that it is probably a HIPAA violation (I'm not sure why my 15 year old knows anything about HIPAA violations? ), but whether it is a HIPAA violation, or just a violation of common sense and reasonableness, I hope that the hospital sacks whoever made the report to the police.

Giantaxe

I don’t think HIPAA protects information about potential criminal activity. And marijuana usage is illegal everywhere under federal law.

Meanwhile, “what’s the matter with Kansas”???

Jack_Russells4ever

America has become a nation of snitches and clueless people and leaders who care more about enriching themselves and making certain that you use the proper woke term in regards to certain hot button topics. Law enforcement need to refocus and go after the real criminals not the ordinary person trying to live their lives and who are hurting no one. IMHO cannibis is a plant that has helpful properties just liike many other plants and natural derived extracts from these plants as long as they are not abused.

Lion in Winter

I would go further than that. The criminalisation of cannabis is making a LOT of money for some at the cost of a vast number of lives. All the cannabis coming in from Mexico has blood on it before it crosses the border due to the cartels. It then picks up more blood as works through the US street gang system where children and teenagers, especially from economically deprived communities, distribute and sell for the financial benefit of the adults at the top of the heap, killing each other, and other people, and/or permanently blighting their lives in prison. My son lost a friend to this exact thing, age 18 and two weeks after his high school graduation - had half his head blown off at a street party in a drive by shooting intended for others nearby.

If you criminalise a product people want, then you will get criminal behaviour to provide it. The US proved that with alcohol, and now with cannabis. It's just the same with other, actually noxious drugs, like fentanyl, meth and heroin. People's addictions to the non-cannabinoids are a huge health and social problem - criminalising them has not reduced supply, it has only enriched murderers and ruined the lives of countless numbers of people.

Jack_Russells4ever

One of the best comments I have ever seen anywhere about cannabis. I will go further and add not only the USA but here in Europe and back in the UK the criminalisation of ANY product or for that matter anything always winds up with blood being spilled and the solicitors and justice system profiting at the expense of peoples lives.

Pulaski

I don't disagree with any of your post, but the current situation is a lot more complicated now that most US states have legalized marijuana on some level, and several, including most notably California, have legalized it for recreational use. The problem is in those states marijuana has switched from being a prohibition & supply issue to being a tax fraud racketeering issue, where criminals are willing to supply un-taxed marijuana* for less than it would cost to buy legal weed.

In California, this problem is exacerbated by the permitting process, which requires a legal dispensary to be approved by the municipality in which it will operate, and something like two thirds of municipalities in California are refusing to approve permits for any dispensaries, so for all intents and purposes, legally approved, taxed marijuana is unavailable.

For context, trafficking of cigarettes remains an issue in the US, primarily the transport of cigarettes from Native American reservations where the tax is low, for illegal sale in markets far from a reservation.

* IIRC in the spring of 2022 an illegal marijuana farm and processing center in California was raided and over $2bn, yes billion, of untaxed contraband marijuana was seized.

Pulaski

"Anything"?

What about pistols (in the UK)? Explosives? Child p0rn? Counterfeit designer handbags? Parts of protected species (ivory, tiger pelts, canned turtle meat, etc.)....

There are many things which it is illegal to import, possess, and/or sell, but only a few things apparently lead to supply by violent criminal gangs, and as we are now discovering in the US, legalization is not a perfect solution, or at least not a complete one.

Nutmegger

George Santos got elected to Congress in November after lying his rear end off about absolutely everything! Said he was Jewish, worked at various top firms, graduated from university, etc., etc., all of it total lies. And the Republicans are loath to call him out on it because of the tenuous balance of power in the House. Every day there's a new wrinkle -- including being charged with fraud in Brazil.

Rep. elect admits fabrications

Santos lied about attending prestigious school

Santos claims wealth came from selling used luxury goods

morpeth

I lived in a Midwest town near the South for a while , and among some less educated residents the word was used casually, as was the word cracker in nearby city used by African Americans about whites. Yet African Americans I knew all said they encountered more widespread racism in California by whites even though the N word not used as much. In Silicon Valley where I worked , even though town only one mile from largely African American neighborhood , no shop employed African Americans in any position. At my kids' school when it was decided to offer scholarships to have at least one minority child in each class, it was quite evident many mothers were opposed justifying themselves by bringing up safety concerns. Unfortunately in America race relations in some respects seem to worsening on both sides.

Lion in Winter

It is certainly complicated, and also complex. Assorted social ills combine with the legal situation to make solutions very hard to find. Having said that, just as I think that US society needs disarming in order to recover from violence, it also needs to invest in making people better by removing another cause of so much harm - criminalizing drugs. Was it Zappa who said something along the lines of "drugs - some are legal, some aren't, and the difference is politics"? Which is true. Politics and wealth, anyway. The prison industry has profited immensely from criminalised drugs, for example. We could start by treating users of narcotics for health and social issues rather than punishing them. And legalising weed has to include allowing people to grow their own and making it as common and cheap as chips, because it's just a plant, in order to avoid the very problems you mention. Dispensaries started legally where I was living in the US, but the price was four times what it was to buy the blood-soaked stuff on the corner. Won't stop the criminal industry that way.

Pulaski

Another tier of complexity is added by criminal gangs moving to other products if one is legalized, as it appears that legalization of weed just caused the gangs to increase their focus on meth and opioids.

The suggestion that all narcotics should be legalized is an interesting debate to have, and isn't entirely without merit as it appears that voluntarily acquiring a heroin or meth habit is very unlikely if you're someone who hasn't any interest in "experimenting" with drugs.

Lion in Winter

Yes, now that there is a huge business structure in place with hefty profit being made (even if it is illegal) then those profiting from the gang and cartel activity aren't going to just want to stop. They will look for new "products", hence the argument for legalising it all. It's worth trying. I frankly don't see how the situation could get any worse. Won't happen of course, not any time soon.

Another place to start is with alleviating social and economic deprivation. The kids running the county lines in the UK aren't the ones doing well at school and going home to a comfortable family life..... People will make money illegally if they cannot find or hope for a legal future for themselves that will allow them to do well.

Jack_Russells4ever

Pulaski, Tell me how well oulawing firearms worked in the UK, Outlawing child porn has not stopped the problem. You have made it your goal to attack almost every comment I have made in the past year on the American part of the forum. Respectfully I ask you to not respond to my post .in the future. Have a nice day.