On Dec.10, 2010, on a statewide ballot, California voters narrowly struck down the Regulate Control and Tax Cannabis Act. If passed, Prop 19 would have allowed marijuana to have been bought, sold and taxed like alcohol or tobacco. The proposition got more votes than the republican gubernatorial candidate that year and ultimately failed due to a massive lobbying and propaganda campaign which confused and misled voters and lawmakers alike. With more than 47% of respondents in California saying they had smoked marijuana at least once in the past year and 50% saying they were in favor of decriminalization (in 2010), one may rightly wonder how such a proposal failed to pass. Following the massive amounts of money put behind the campaign to squash Prop 19 offers insight into the interests fueling and propagating our nation’s ravenous war on drugs.
Police Association Lobbyist John Lovell is one of the people behind the campaign squash Proposition 19. Lovell has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the Police Association Lobby to strategically propagate and disseminate misinformation about the relative risks and medical benefits of cannabis. As I discussed in a previous post, Obama’s stimulus plan has incentivized police departments across the nation with federal grant money to militarize their units and increase the number of drug busts. Getting the money out of your pocket and into police coffers can be done in two ways: The police can come to your house, steal everything of value, and make you pay to get it back under current forfeiture laws; or they can get money through grants by “creating” programs and fluffing up their stats with petty possession busts. When the Stimulus Plan passed, an email was sent to dozens of police departments highlighting the opportunity for more funding, providing Lovell’s direct line if they had more questions. Soon after, programs such as the “Marijuana Suppression Program,” and the “Campaign Against Marijuana Planting,” sprang up. The former garnered some $2.2 million in federal grants, while CAMP drew almost $7.6 million. Most of this money went directly into the paychecks of police officers. When the “North California Eradication Team” was formed, $550,000 in federal grants were directed toward three police departments that spent the money on the costs associated with overtime, hiring a new officer, and flight operations. Though legalizing the drug would have generated billions of dollars in revenue for the State, the benefits of millions of Californians paled in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of dollars that Lovell’s firm would collect in fees after securing tax dollars for police.
But it’s not just police who would lose big bucks if marijuana were decriminalized; the beer industry, Alcohol corporations, and prison guard interests all contributed to Lovell’s campaign to stop Proposition 19. Drug Companies, too, would hate to see marijuana legalized, as they see it as a low-cost alternative to the dangerous opiates they sling from sea to sea. With over 50% of Americans now in favor of legalization, I am confident that the will of the people will prevail over the power of a very rich few.
