Tag: legalized marijuana

Cops Brag About Forcing Lies About Marijuana on School Children Using Bogus “Weed Googles”

As the following example shows, even in Illinois where it is legal, police are still devoting resources — using scare tactics and propaganda — to deter its use. The Moline police department took to Facebook this week to brag about AAA giving them a grant to propagandize school children with false information about marijuana.

“These goggles model the effects of recreational marijuana, so the user can experience the impact of what it’s like to be under the influence of marijuana while driving,” police said in the Facebook post. “Marijuana affects the brain differently than alcohol, and the goggles simulate marijuana’s true effects — they diminish the participant’s capacity to make quick, accurate decisions, and that causes a driver to miss important external cues that could lead to a crash.”

Police said in their Facebook post that these “kits will be brought to area schools and community events as a way to educate people about the effects marijuana impaired driving.”

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House Speaker Admits Marijuana Could Save Texas Economy, But Won’t Pursue It

Recent polls show a plurality of Texans support fully legalizing the plant. But impassioned attempts to legalize medical marijuana fell short in the last legislative session. Bonnen added he wouldn’t pursue recreational cannabis as a post-pandemic economic solution and doesn’t believe it has the votes to pass.

“No, [I would not,]” he replied. “I think it creates other financial costs outside of the benefit of the tax income.”

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If weed is legal, why are so many people still being arrested and locked up for it?

While Michigan dispensaries collectively bring in millions of dollars every month, Michael Thompson is serving a de facto life sentence in the same state for the very same reason — selling cannabis. 

As the country grapples with both a global pandemic and nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism, cannabis remains at the forefront of the cultural and political conversation. Cannabis was deemed an essential business by nearly all states with a medical or adult-use market during COVID-19, yet its criminalization has resulted in the arrests of millions of Americans, with Black individuals arrested at significantly higher rates than their white counterparts. 

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