So, what do you do if you have tanked the economy, exploded inflation, driven energy costs sky-high, begged the Saudis, and been humiliated? Then insulted and de-funded police, opened the border, and face record homicides? When you have run away from the Taliban, leaving 100,000 US allies to die, invited Russia to war, sold yourself to China, invaded a former president’s home, sent the FBI to harass parents and pro-lifers, condemned words like “woman,” given away three trillion dollars, forgiven loans for votes – and are still losing? You pull the big “pot pander!” That is what Biden just did.
What? Yes, that is right. You pretend you are a pro-pot, civil liberties, anti-police, fair-minded, gotta-save-millions-from-prison guy, and announce are freeing all those in prison for possession of pot. You hold a press conference and don the cloak of liberty lover.
Only “facts are stubborn things” as Ronald Reagan once said, and they are. Like so many Democrat – and Biden – narratives, this one is untrue, absurd, and shamelessly self-serving.
Fact: More than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, incidentally markedly up after border crossings jumped in 2021, COVID lockdowns persisted, schools were only partially opened, police were de-funded, businesses faced high bankruptcies, and federal money flowed.
Fact: Roughly 400,000 drug traffickers are in prison today for meth, cocaine, and heroin, and only a small fraction for fentanyl. Nevertheless, fentanyl is the leading illegal opioid killing young Americans. The use of synthetic opioids jumped 15 percent in 2021, a record for all time.
Fact: As of three months ago, Mexican drug cartels – specifically the Sinaloa and CGNG – dominate wholesale trafficking in fentanyl, cocaine, and meth inside the US, while trafficking heroin, marijuana, and women – into and throughout the United States.
Drug abuse, overdoses, trafficking, and drug-related crime exploded over the past two years. While marijuana contributes substantially to narcotics initiation, mental psychoses, drugged driving fatalities, and poly-drug tragedies, Mexican traffickers chiefly ship higher potency drugs north – and recently legal US pot south.
Two facts rise above all others.
First, President Biden and his party – knowing the facts listed above – have done little to prioritize and get ahead of this high-potency, cartel-driven national tragedy.
Second, those in prison for “possession of marijuana” – whom he is now “freeing” with pro-pot fanfare – are virtually non-existent. Over the past 30 years, only 6,500 have even been charged with possession, typically part of more serious charges.
Think about it. If 6,500 faced charges that included possession over 30 years, the average number facing charges that included possession was roughly 217. Seasoned officers – at every level –affirm lesser-included charges are added to an indictment to allow a plea bargain, flipping one high-volume trafficker against another larger one. This is standard practice.
So, almost assuredly, those pleading to possession pled down from a trafficking charge, to allow conviction of a larger trafficker. Does that make them harmless, innocent, victims of an unfair criminal justice system? Hardly.
Official US Justice Department numbers confirm that 90 to 95 percent of all convictions are pleas, a lesser charge accepted to accelerate proceedings. Since most federal convictions are for drug trafficking, pleas to possession from trafficking fit the profile.
Net-net, the notion that anyone – honestly – is in federal prison for possession of some small amount of marijuana is utter fiction. That is another White House narrative permitting this President to pull a rabbit from his hat and make a fake declaration about freeing countless Americans unfairly held while allowing the commercialization of a Schedule 1 narcotic, THC.
What has Biden done? He sent Big Tobacco a “pedal to the metal” message to commercialize pot and initiate more young Americans into habituated use, dependence, addiction, and worse. He sent all those who want pot legal, forgetting health and other costs a “go.” He did this when American kids wrestle record drug abuse and addiction.
Finally, he put on this show with a “blind eye” to what is REALLY killing young Americans – drugs that produced a 15 percent jump in death last year, and likely more this year.
So, congratulations Mr. Biden, for sending another mixed message, creating another false crisis, fake rescue, and ignoring the American people’s concern over a society-rupturing issue, drug addiction, trafficking, and overdoses, along with your economy, border, and disinterest in security. Pot pandering may look good to you, but out here in Real America – it looks craven.