NRLEA

Harmful marijuana initiative to be on November ballot?

Posted by NRLEA under Articles, Latest News, NRLEA

SAVECALIFORNIA.COM NEWS RELEASE
January 28, 2010

Defeat of marijuana initiative is Job #1 for pro-child voters
Pro-family organization speaks out as pot initiative backers turn in signatures

Sacramento, California – A leading California pro-family organization is warning voters not to support the marijuana legalization initiative, which today turned in around 700,000 signatures, likely enough to qualify for the November ballot.
 

NRLEA against marijuana legalization in California

“Voters must rise up and defeat this foolish initiative, which, if passed, would irreparably harm the lungs and brains of teenagers and young adults,” said Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, a statewide pro-family, pro-child organization. “Stopping this harmful marijuana initiative must be Job #1 for every voter who cares about children.”
 
“Four times the strength of marijuana in the late 1970s, today’s pot is more addictive than alcohol, more toxic than cigarettes, and will causing disease, disability and early death in those who regularly smoke it or use it as a gateway drug,” Thomasson said. “Legalizing marijuana means many more DUIs and more Californians dying on the road. It means marijuana can and will be sold in grocery stores, normalizing this unhealthy substance in children’s eyes.”
 
“Good government is supposed to protect the innocent,” Thomasson said. “But legalizing marijuana would victimize people by promoting a bad thing as something good, cause irreversible harm by putting powerful carcinogens and other toxins into their lungs and brains, empower crime organizations that will dominate a much-larger marijuana trade, and deny healthy lives to teenagers who will definitely get their hands on this harmful new marijuana.”
 
“With the proliferation of pot stores throughout the state, Californians now realize they were fooled into approving so-called ‘medicinal marijuana’ on the 1996 ballot,” Thomasson added. “Unless they’re smoking something, voters won’t make that mistake again.”
 
The harms of today’s marijuana is why the federal government has been educating teens about the dangers of marijuana, and is why law enforcement leaders and addiction experts testified against marijuana legalization at a Jan. 12, 2010 legislative hearing in Sacramento.
 
In December, a nationwide study of teen substance abuse from the University of Michigan reported that youth marijuana use increased last year, despite a nationwide prohibition. The study found 27 percent of 10th graders and a full third of 12th graders had used marijuana.
 
Comparatively, the rates for having had any alcohol to drink in the past 30 days are 15 percent, 30 percent and 44 percent in 8th, 10th and 12th grade. When asked how easy it would be to get alcohol if they wanted some, the majority of students in all three grades said it would be “fairly easy” or “very easy.”
 
“The facts show that legalizing marijuana for adults will significantly increase marijuana smoking by teenagers,” said Thomasson. “If something is legal for adults, children can and will get their hands on it. Some very selfish adults are leading young people astray.”
 
“So-called medicinal marijuana was a hoax designed to fool the public into full legalization,” Thomasson said. “Before Prop. 215 passed, patients could receive, and can still get today, prescriptions of Marinol, derived from marijuana without all the toxins and carcinogens, from bona fide physicians. This renders marijuana dispensaries completely unnecessary for those who ignorantly or deceptively claim they need it.”
 
Other states and nations demonstrate the harm done by marijuana legalization:
 
Alaska: After the Alaska Supreme Court legalized marijuana in 1975, teen marijuana use jumped to 51%. According to a 1988 University of Alaska study, the state’s 12 to 17-year-olds used marijuana at more than twice the national average for their age group. This clear harm motivated Alaska voters to recriminalize marijuana in 1990.
 
The Netherlands: From 1984 to 1996, the Dutch liberalized the use of cannabis. Surveys reveal that lifetime prevalence of cannabis in Holland increased consistently and sharply. For the age group 18-20, the increase is from 15 percent in 1984 to 44 percent in 1996. When law enforcement officially turned a blind eye to marijuana, there were three criminal organizations in Amsterdam. Despite marijuana “regulation” in 1996, today there are many more criminal organizations in the city than before legalization.
 
California’s failed experiment with so-called “medicinal marijuana” in 1996 has resulted today in the half-legalization of marijuana, where most adults and even minors can buy and smoke pot. “In Los Angeles County there are more marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks,” said Assemblyman Curt Hagman, a Chino Hills Republican and vice-chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee.
 
Background from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
Legalization of drugs leads to increased use and increased addiction »
“Medical” marijuana facts »

– end –

SaveCalifornia.com is a leading West Coast nonprofit, nonpartisan organization representing children and families. We stand for marriage and family, parental rights, the sanctity of human life, religious freedom, financial freedom, and back-to-basics education.

NRLEA Says No To Senate Healthcare Reform Debate

Posted by NRLEA under Articles, Latest News

The NRLEA and membership have voiced their opinion that no U.S. Senator should be voting for debate on the health-care reform.  This is a terrible bill and would damage our countries excellent health-care system and is also unconstitutional. 

This bill will cause unwarranted taxes and burdens on all citizens of this country and affects all of us.  S-chip covers many people under the age of 26 and is no excuse for this debate.  This bill should be dead on arrival and any vote for debate is a vote for this bill. 

This vote on Saturday will determine who will be supported and not supported in any future elections and re-elections of  U.S. Senators starting in 2010.  A ‘Test’ vote will equal a ‘Real’ vote from citizens in 2010.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to decriminalize undermines police

Posted by NRLEA under Articles, Latest News

California Governor

With a current budget of 26.1 billion dollars and with a plan to reduce 1.2 billion dollars from the California State Department of Corrections yearly budget, the governor wants to reduce the number of inmates going to prison by changing the criminal justice system.

One example is to reduce the amount of a vehicle theft valued from $2500 or less as a misdemeanor.

It makes this crime a catch and release and puts the criminal back out on the streets.  The over-crowding of jails and prisons is already a burden and instead of cutting the fat from legislators who appoint their buddies and term-limited politicians from positions that only require them to show up once a year for one vote and get paid a whopping $280,000.00 and all the other pork feed machines, the real criminals need to be reduced from the Capitol first.

If this passes we can rest assured that crime will increase especially since vehicle thefts have been dropping in the State of California at record numbers.  This plan is a disaster and severely undermines police and their efforts to protect the communities in which they serve.

Some provisions of Schwarzenegger’s plans are:

- making the writing of bad checks, receiving stolen property, and petty theft misdemeanors instead of felonies. The proposed change would mean the crimes will no longer be publishable with prison sentences. This will simply encourage more criminals to pursue identify theft.

- raising the threshold for grand theft from $400 to $2,500 which means the theft of an item valued at $2,300 would be considered a misdemeanor. The end result is no state prison time and minimal time in the San Joaquin County Jail due to overcrowding.

- placing paroles who commit some parole violations to be eligible for GPS supervision outside of prison by eliminating the current law requiring them to be automatically sent back to prison.

- possibly commuting the sentences of illegal immigrant inmates to allow them to be turned over to federal officials for deportation. His plan calls for starting with low level cases and proceeding on an individual basis. Up first on the list are those who have committed just one felony and have never committed violent acts or a sexual offense.

- inmates released who are considered low to moderate risk will not be subject to supervision by parolee officers in a bid to get the case load down from 70 to 1 to 45 to 1 per probation office. They would still be subject, however, to warrantless searches by police.

- allowing some prison inmates deemed low-risk offenders to serve their prison sentence in a home or a hospital treatment center wearing a GPS device on an ankle bracelet. Inmates eligible would be sick, elderly or have less than 12 months left on their sentences. The governor gives no indication of who would monitor these individuals.

This is very bad news for police and their communities and the NRLEA does not support this plan to put criminals back onto the streets.  However, we do support the sending home of illegal aliens and the passing of a law that would send them to prison for an extremely very long time if they return illegally.  Police chiefs will have a difficult time fighting the same criminals all over again.

The NRLEA Releases More Grants To Ohio

Posted by NRLEA under Articles, Latest News

The NRLEA Grant Fund with BobCOP has released a total of 80 grants today to the State of Ohio for police agencies to take advantage of.  This is for the citizens online police reporting system that is designed to save city entities money in non-suspect police reports allowing citizens to submit police reports online.

Total grants released to these agencies so far is $184,000.00.  “We’ve been working closely with the partners of the grant fund that is spearheading this project to put in the hands of police agencies all across the country in order to bring about a better informed police that can handle the calls of its citizens without having to show up in person, instead utilizing the technology instead,” says Samuel Anderson, Managing Partner of BobCOP, LLC.

The NRLEA understands that this saves considerable money and time and the effects of it are almost immediately noticed including being an energy saver.  “We sure hope these agencies take advantage of this opportunity because there can be more for them as time goes on,” says Samuel Anderson.  There is more to come.

California Marijuana Tax Binge Must Go to Pot

Posted by NRLEA under Articles

We’ve been hearing more and more in the news about California and its governor (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to pass legislation to legalize medical marijuana where it would (and already is) be available to even more people who don’t have a medical condition.

The news media are playing a role in providing a platform for it, but don’t seem to take a stand on it.  Why?  They do on just about everything else.  However, it’s not the news media that the focus.  We’re after the truth and the truth is taxing marijuana is the wrong thing to do.  Putting a monetary number in front of it to entice voters and citizens to go along with it and next to the fact that the State is bankrupt already is a rouse.

Politicians in favor of it have the wrong information and are using their power to cover-up their greed from the past by making up statistics that don’t reflect the values of the people of California who are in the majority in favor of keeping it an illegal substance and only for medical purposes which was the deal that was brokered concerning Prop 15 which made it legal.  There were fears that this first step would be the precursor for making it legal and taxing it later on, but politicians and advocates promised this was not the case, it was purely for medical reasons and those in pain and in need of the substance.

Now we have a different tune that is playing and what these legislators are basically saying is exactly what a drug dealer would say, ’supply and demand’.  There is plenty of supply and we know where that comes from.  Let us also point out something.  Many police officers both in California and our nation and including Mexico have died because of marijuana.  Murdered to be exact and also in the line of duty.  The facts are being twisted on us again because of greed.  The bad guys and syndicates are profit driven and so now the politicians want to do the same thing as the growers and distributors of marijuana and the cover-up is calling it by another name, ‘tax’ and ‘for the people’.

It’s greed any way you look at it and just because California has a budget problem does not give it an excuse to endanger more police officers and agents who have risked their very lives and those who have already sacrificed for the sake of their mistakes in spending too much and they continue to do so and will not listen to the people who have strongly sent a message of NO NEW TAXES.  Yet California legislators continue to tax and spend out of control.

Until the legislator shows some common sense by cutting their pork and spending within their means, they can not be trusted.  How can we trust someone when they continue to be deviant and figure out ways around what the population has spoken and voted regarding no new taxes?  It is only the beginning of the State setting aside special land and agriculture to start growing their own marijuana and even offering grants and subsidies to farmers alike to grow it.  It will even begin an underground market separate from traditional drug dealing.  It will even open the door to more and more political favors and back-door deals and political extortion and corruption and cash payouts.

Who wouldn’t want to be in charge of that committee?  Who wouldn’t want to be the real CA Drug Czar, a whole new role in drug dealing?  The one who signs the contracts with marijuana vendors.  It’s a whole new underworld that is legal and free from prosecution.  We call that ‘Above the law’.  The abuse of power and position will start to be shown and then covered-up.  CA will have its own ‘Family’.  A political one that will have funds to support the dominate party in control.  Let’s take it to a new level of unionizing it. 

Let us point out that the current DOJ AG has stated he would not enforce federal laws on California unless both agencies are in one accord in enforcing.  What does this mean?  It means California will have a ‘pass’ and uninterrupted access to deal drugs and make money, not just for the States coffers, but it will eventually get into the hands of one political party.  And we mean ONE.  There will be no room for others, it will be used to dominate and probably only pay off the other side to keep their silence and ignorance in tact.

What does this mean to the cartels that will start to see a decline in their crops and tons of marijuana already traveling across our borders on a daily basis?  Do you think they will take revenge on those who grow it?  We think the possibilities are endless and they might even get the Mexican government to get involved in legally bringing into this country a new brand that will appear stamped, “Made in Mexico”.  By whom?  We don’t know, but as long as the government of Mexico says it’s OK, its fine. 

How many law enforcement across this country will say that the Mexican government does not have corrupt politicians involved in the drug trade?  Or, who get paid from it in one form or another?

The NRLEA vigorously is against this tax scheme because it ruins lives and it also will kill more police officers and agents.  Too many promises have been broken and we won’t show a blind eye to this.  Tell the Governor of California that this is a bad deal for everyone and the children and families in California as it sends a bad message to all of America.

Can you imagine a badge and ID card that says, “California Bureau of Marijuana”?  Pot Cop!  It’s time this taxation of marijuana goes to pot and burn out.  Nancy Reagan said it best, ‘Say ‘NO’ to drugs’.