Tag: the war on (some) drugs

DEA Report Shows Marijuana Arrests And Seizures Up In 2020

Data recently released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency shows that federal law enforcement agents and their state and local partners seized more than 4.5 million marijuana plants in 2020, a figure that is up nearly 20% over 2019. The annual DEA report also shows that federal law enforcement officers made nearly 5,000 cannabis-related arrests in 2020, a year wracked by the social and economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the data published in the DEA’s yearly Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program Statistical Report, approximately 4.54 million cannabis plants were seized and eradicated in 2020, up from about 4 million plants in 2019. The totals include more than 3.7 million cannabis plants seized from 4,151 outdoor grow sites and more than 830,000 plants confiscated from 1,286 indoor cultivation operations.

“In 2020, the DEA continued its nationwide cannabis eradication efforts, providing resources to support the 127 state and local law enforcement agencies that actively participate in the program,” the agency wrote on its website. “This assistance allows the enhancement of already aggressive eradication enforcement activities throughout the nation.”

The data in the DEA report also showed that nearly 5,000 arrests for federal marijuana-related offenses were made by law enforcement officers in 2020. That figure is up slightly over 2019 when 4,718 arrests for federal marijuana crimes were made by agents. 

California saw the largest percentage of both arrests and confiscated cannabis plants in the country, a trend that continues from previous years. In 2020, approximately 82% of the seized cannabis plants and 40% of the marijuana-related arrests nationwide occurred in California. Nationwide, agents seized more than $41 million in assets related to the DEA’s marijuana eradication efforts in 2020.

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Instead of Decriminalizing Cannabis Like He Promised, Biden Pushing Ban on Menthols

In 2020 when the Democratic party nominated Joe Biden for president, the party had him sign onto the platform calling for decriminalizing and rescheduling marijuana through executive action. Included in this platform were the plans for legalization of medical marijuana and expunging the convictions of those who have been kidnapped and caged over this plant.

“Democrats believe no one should be in prison solely because they use drugs,” the platform stated. “Democrats will decriminalize marijuana use and reschedule it through executive action on the federal level.”

Biden himself also said he was going to “reschedule cannabis as a Schedule II drug so researchers can study its positive and negative impacts.”

At the time, TFTP predicted that none of this would happen and that Biden would not keep these promises. We were right.

Last month, some folks in the media started asking the Biden administration why the president hadn’t moved forward with marijuana reform. Their answer? Biden is too busy saving the country.

In an interview with The San Francisco Chronicle, police state advocate and champion of the drug war, who is also the Vice President, Kamala Harris said “we haven’t yet taken that on” despite the campaign promises to do so.

“Honestly, right now, we’ve been focused on getting people food, helping them stay in their apartments or in their homes, getting kids back to school, getting shots into arms,” she said. “That has been all-consuming.”

No one can argue that people are suffering right now and so this excuse almost sounds believable but in true hypocritical and outright laughable fashion, the Biden administration showed us that the “too busy” claim was an outright lie. Last week, while seemingly taking a break from saving starving children, Biden’s FDA announced their plan to ban menthol cigarettes.

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