Big Alcohol
As it turns
out, alcohol companies are deadly afraid of competition from
cannabis, which is a much safer and therapeutic drug than
alcohol.
From the
National Beer Wholesalers Association to the
Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America, these organizations
have spent more money on political candidates as the demand for
legal cannabis goes up.
So far in 2018,
the Beer, Wine & Liquor industry spent a total of roughly $7.7
million on lobbying efforts and super PAC's, with the biggest
offenders being,
Ironically,
that number is down greatly from a peak of over $30 million in
2017.
Big Police
In order to
meet the proper quotas, police need to arrest a certain number
of people each week.
Without proving
their necessity with these numbers, police departments don't
have the same ability to gain funding than they otherwise would.
Because a significant number of arrests come from cannabis, this
makes them afraid of legalization.
In 2012, the
National Fraternal Order of Police spent a peak $110.2k on
lobbying and super PAC spending, while the
National
Association of Police Organizations have
spent a consistent $160k from 2008-2017.
When you take
into account statistics from the ACLU such as the fact that
52% of all 2010 drug arrests were from cannabis while making
a pot bust every 37 seconds on average, the situation looks more
like a government subjugation of the people than "protect and
serve".
Big Prison
As prisons gain
prisoners, they also gain profit and the
prison-industrial
complex is no stranger to this controversy.
These are the
corporations and state facilities which are most likely to lobby
for stricter enforcement, longer sentences, and overall greater
criminalization of innocuous activities such as smoking cannabis
because it means higher profits for them.
Although
cannabis is not proven to be heavily addictive and much of the
violent drug-related crime problem in America is due to
prohibition, prisons still lobby for the criminalization of
cannabis under false pretenses of addiction and violence.
Not to mention
the fact the illegality of marijuana has created a massive black
market and has never been proven to reduce its use.
In the face of
all this, organization such as,
...have
all spent large sums lobbying for greater criminalization.
Big Pharma
Perhaps the
most unsurprising
is Big Pharma.
Due to a
growing awareness of the medicinal benefits of cannabis oils and
cannabis-derived
CBD, pharmaceutical companies are having a frenzy trying to
suppress its use.
For the full
fiscal year of 2017, Pharmaceutical Health Product companies
spent a
combined $280 million on annual lobbying.
More
specifically in the realm of pharmaceuticals,
Big Government
Last but not
least comes big government.
According to an
economist, prohibition has essentially become a $20 billion
federal jobs project. In 2010, Jeffrey Miron, a senior
lecturer at Harvard University studies the impact that drug
legalization would have on the American economy.
What he found
was that roughly $8.7 billion could be saved on law enforcement
spending, while another $8.7 billion would be obtained through
taxes on cannabis alone.
After inflation, that number would add
up to more than $20 million today.
However, the
current bloated government does not take this situation lightly.
As government overreach is often fueled by drug war policies,
government bureaucrats are spending a lot of money to keep
cannabis illegal.
These include,
