RSS15 pounds of marijuana results in possession charges
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YAKIMA, Wash. — Two California men face trial after being stopped in a car that state troopers said contained 15 pounds of marijuana.
The men — 21-year-old Fernando Mendoza of Santa Maria and 24-year-old Jose Rosales-Rodriguez of Visalia — were charged Wednesday in Yakima County Superior Court with possessing marijuana with the intent to deliver.
State troopers said they encountered an overwhelming smell of marijuana after pulling over a Toyota Camry on U.S. Highway 97 south of Toppenish on Saturday. The car was recorded going 73 mph in a 65 mph zone, according to the arrest report, which indicated the men were reportedly returning south after selling two pounds of marijuana in Wenatchee.
The troopers who made the arrests were working as part of the State Patrol’s Serious Highway Crimes Apprehension Team, an agency news release stated. The team’s troopers are trained to detect vehicles that may be transporting drugs.
Although Yakima and Sunnyside troopers are not assigned full time to the criminal interdiction team, patrol officials say they still make significant drug arrests.
Earlier this month, another trooper on the interdiction team reported seizing a pound of marijuana from a driver. Since the start of the year, local troopers have made 74 felony drug arrests, seized nearly $20,000 and six vehicles, and referred eight cases for follow-up investigation by drug agents, according to the news release.
more waste on prosecution of a marijuana conviction. Our prison system is over crowded, millions spent on incarceration and prosicution. Just yesterday the news reported about the couny jail being full and how some cases may not make it to court due to vast amount of cases that need to be prosecuted. its time to have a real conversation on Marijuana. We need to stop providing the atmospher and black market that prohibition creates, Making the cartels very wealthy and giving them power. Marijuana is a schedule 1 drug bundled in the same catagory as heroin and other dangerous drugs. Time to tax and put the money in public programs instead of cartels hands. Where there is demand, there will be supply, no matter the risk and cost.
Report ViolationFifteen pounds of pot in the hands of possibly malcontent criminal men. I'm all for the idea that the prosecution of general posession should stop, however suggesting that decriminalizing marijuana is going to make these guys go away simply ignores the other markets for methamphetamine, heroin, coke and all the others Yakima is known for. If it's not pot, then there will be something to replace it in the supply/demand scheme of things.
I do agree that the amount of prosecution of simple posession is counter-productive though. Last few years there have been nearly a million posession-only arrests. That's a pretty big strain on the system, and then as much as everyone is looking at the money that could be made by taxing it... No one wants to pay attention to the billions--perhaps trillions--of dollars that are floating from American hands into other countries. I guess the idea here is that, the more users we lock up, the less people there is going to be around to purchase the drug... But I think the system will break going about it that way.
Really, though, just saying the system is broke is no way to fix it. Myself personally, I've been questioning why with all of these state-level polls concerning medical marijuana, why there hasn't been something similar at a federal level. Personally I would like to see the DEA dismantled or supervised, because when you really think about it, the people whose job it is to enforce illegal drugs shouldn't be allowed to determine which drugs are illegal. No brainer, but I'll save that thought in the event that it some day actualy becomes a possibillity.
Fifteen pounds of Pot could make a gangster a couple thousand dollars easy. Way to go state patrol.
Report ViolationFYI- I could not disagree more with your theory of time to legalize and tax, with that mindset we should make all things legal and just over tax it to justify. A felon wants a gun for “self protection”, awe heck just tax it big. Little Johnny wants some meth, awe he is cute and it offsets his A.D.D. so just a little tax is fine there. Quit justifying and allowing criminal behavior.
Not to mention I have heard it makes people terrible at spelling! (”prosicution”, “atmospher”, ”couny”, “catagory”) You have become a poster child for why it should remain illegal.
Way to go WSP! Thanks for taking a commodity that would have made money for criminal organizations not only out of their hands, but took some of the runners off of the streets. These are the guys that often stop at nothing to get away and they don’t care if they put you or your family in danger to do it.
To say marijuana should be legalized is a joke. Some people say they are violent or hurting anyone by doing it; I beg to differ. So since they are OK on it so is everyone else? In that case if one person is happy as a clam on meth or coke then we should legalize it for all right? Obviously not! It is well documented that cartels and even terrorism is directly funded by the illegal drug trade, and that includes marijuana. If you are buying weed either by the ounce or by the pound, then you are vicariously are supporting these organizations which easily translates that you are part of the problem, not the solution. If people quit smoking weed, then criminal enterprise would quit selling it, simple as that. When you legalize it people will do what ever it takes to get it, including illegal activities such as burglary, theft, and shoplifting. Heck they already do that, it would just get worse.
They should probably decriminalize ALL drugs and spend the money they have wasted on the failed "War o drugs" on education and rehab.
We will NEVER eliminate the demand for drugs in this country, just as in alcohol and tobacco addictions, but like those, we can at least reduce the usage by quite a bit. Prohibition on ly made things worse - and still does, in my opinion.
FYI is correct about the "supply/demand" law, that is we didn't demand the drugs, we wouldn't have to deal with the supply of them. Since we can't eliminate the demand, hopefully, we could nearly eliminate the black market, (cartels and retailing of drugs by local gangs) by legalizing them and regulating them as we do tobacco and liquor.
Meanwhile, DEALERS should NEVER get a pass, even if users did get one. These guys should go to prison for a LONG time.
I do not have any problem what so ever with legalizing pot. I do have a problem with the other drugs and agree that the importation problems will not go away by simply legalizing pot.
The problem would still remain however because the legalization means you can buy the drug. It does not provide the money to do so however and the crime rates would go up for stealing and all the other related crimes.
At time for conversation may be here now, but discussing it is only the beginning.
15 pounders was a little over a $20,000 pay day. Depending on the quality of the BUD, Smoke. Legalizing pot on the economic side and not letting other countries get our money would be good, but I think alot of kids would start smoking weed and end up in drop outs and failed lives, dreams. Along with all other problems drugs come with.
Report ViolationAurelius, how does the result differ from the result of drink and legal smoke?
Report ViolationI mean if our law and society made pot acceptable to use then more people and kids would use more freely and use way more. The money side would be agood fix but it would be bad for the peoples principles. Does that answr it? May be I ddnt undrstand the ? ????
Report ViolationSo ya I'm against legalization of pot. People who smoke it are gonna smkoe any way unless they in jail.
Report ViolationOur whole country or most of it would turn into one big burnout. Stoned and burned out. Weak. Weak minded. But then again Pot helps some certain people and some who are sick. Any way all I know is I can't smoke it, It's not for me.
Report ViolationAurelius,
My thinking was that pot, tobacco and drink are all the same. If pot is illegal while tabacco and drink are legal, we have an inconsistancy. So with tobacco and drink being legal, pot should also be legal. They can regulate the same as with tobacco and drink, and we will have the same problems as we currently have with the 2.
I certainly was not critizising your stance on the issue or your opinion, just raising the question.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Its all cool. This is just a very open and versatile topic. Good point though. That sounds logical.
Report ViolationI am a ex pot smoker and it really dragged me down. Thats why I quit and thats why I think the way I do. Everybodys different. Actually ya alcohol is just as bad or worse.
Report ViolationIn my younger days in Vietnam and for a while after I did my share also. I didn't have any what I'd call ill effects and quit doing the smoke and drink early in my 30's. I just recently quit with tobacco and am proud of not doing anything, but don't see much of a problem with any of it. I see it as a personal decision and nothing more. A tax revenue source I don't have a problem with as long as there are some restrictions to it all, something like being 18 and aware of what you are doing and the problems it can cause you such as cirosus(spelling) of the liver with booze and impared driving and the like.
If you think we are a bunch of fattys now, just wait and see what this country will look like after the "munchie" hungry pot heads start chowing down! YIKES!...ha!
Report Violationoverfifty, you might be on to something, if fast food industry was in a strain this could boost sales.
bornandraised
posterchild for an ad hominem fallacy.
You may attack me for my spelling, but my opinion is just that. Mine.
huh-"I do not have any problem what so ever with legalizing pot. I do have a problem with the other drugs"
"My thinking was that pot, tobacco and drink are all the same. If pot is illegal while tabacco and drink are legal, we have an inconsistancy."
I understand what you are saying, but I guess I don't understand how you are saying other drugs are anymore worse than the other. I bet you can justify ALL drugs to some extent have a beneficial side effect. A.D.D. can be calmed by Meth (in some cases w/ moderation; cocaine has been used to stop uncontrollable nose bleeds; heroin is a mega-pain killer. And on the flip side high quality pot can cause hallucinogenic effect like acid and it is by far more carcinogenic than tobacco is.
"In my younger days in Vietnam "- thank you for your service and sacrifice, happy early Veteran's Day.
FYI-"You may attack me for my spelling, but my opinion is just that. Mine."
Fair enough, please note I am not trying to change your opinion but rather share mine and display their contrasts. It is what discussion and blogs are all about (in my opinion of course.
And, all you guys that admit, or infer here, that you were pot smokers in "the old days", how have you turned out now? It seems that you have awakened to the "error of your ways" and found a better thing to do with life.
If true, why can't the current crop of kids do the same? Sure, some will go off the deep end, but some always do. They might experiment for a while, but then discover that such behavior is a loser way to waste your time - and money.
The best way to keep your kids off drugs is to start the conversations early - not lectures, but down to earth discussions. Kids these days are into drugs as early as the third grade! It is never too soon to start the process.
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