(NaturalSociety) American law enforcement is really having a meltdown when it comes to accepting the growing momentum of legalized medical marijuana. Los Angeles county prosecutors have accused two former sheriff’s deputies of planting weapons at a legal pot dispensary in an attempt to establish grounds for arrest.
According to an article in the LA Times, the district attorney’s office has charged Julio Cesar Martinez and Anthony Manuel Paez with multiple offenses, ranging in severity from obstruction of justice to perjury and tampering with evidence. These ex cops are joined with other dinosaurs who oppose marijuana in the name of the ‘drug war’ which has wasted billions in tax payer money, and incarcerated people for no more than carrying a few ounces of weed.
Police chiefs, and DEA officials have been trying to derail the legalization of marijuana for decades. After four presidents have tried to wage the war against drugs, our own CIA and other government agencies have been caught smuggling much worse drugs than marijuana across our borders.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LACSD) is already rife with controversy over other indiscretions, and has a reputation for corruption. It has even been the center of recent federal investigations. Officer Martinez, of the LACSD, filed a report stating that he witnessed a man conducting a drug deal while armed with a gun tucked into he front of his shorts. He also accused the man of dumping the firearm in the trash at which time he found a second firearm next to some ecstasy.
This was enough to give the police an opportunity to arrest one men for possession and an unregistered gun, and a second ‘accomplice’ with charges of possession of a controlled substance while armed. Later, an internal investigation found that this cop was planting evidence, and caught on video doing it. Martinez is now unemployed and faces seven years in prison.
Another police chief from Annapolis recently apologized for promoting a hoax story about marijuana legalization that painted it as a devil’s work, stating falsely that 37 people had died the first day marijuana was legalized in Colorado. This was verified as a lie.
You would think that law enforcement would be happy to use their resources to fight other, more serious crimes, rather than rail against marijuana use. It’s high time that the police state gets a grip on its outdated views on legal medical marijuana and starts fighting the real bad guys.
i left baltimore / maryland , could not take the corruption , and out right lies of the police and politicians .