Homeless in Arizona

Sadly Finn Selander hasn't done his research on the two marijuana initiatives in Arizona and supports the phoney baloney MPP or Marijuana Policy Project initiative.

If Finn Selander had done some research he would realize the MPP initiative doesn't actully legalize marijuana and instead creates a new cartel of "recreational marijuana drug dealers" which will be handed over to the current cartel of "medical marijuana drug dealers".

The only way Arizona voters can legalize marijuana the right way, and end all the crime associated with the failed "War on Drugs" is to support the RAD or AZfmr initiatives to legalize drugs.

While neither of these articles mention the phoney baloney MPP "Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol", in an editorial called "My Turn" in today's Friday, March 25, 2016, Arizona Republic titled "Why ex-DEA agent backs legalization of marijuana", Finn Selander says he supports the phoney baloney MPP initiative to legalize marijuana.

Maybe Jason Medar should take Finn Selander to lunch and show him why the phoney baloney MPP initiative will make things worse rather then better.

Bother of the following two articles have the usual lies about the "War on Drugs" from drug war nut jobs Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery.

Source

Former DEA agent supports recreational marijuana

Kim Tobin

10:38 PM, Feb 18, 2016 4:44 AM, Feb 19, 2016

PHOENIX - The fight over legalizing recreational pot in Arizona is heating up. A retired DEA agent with 18 years of experience tells ABC15 he believes it should be legalized, taxed and regulated.

“What we're talking about, is prohibition and ending prohibition,” said retired DEA agent Finn Selander.

Selander says he wants to see the money and taxes go back into the state. He believes the U.S. is responsible for creating big business for the drug cartels running marijuana.

“They're an army and it's strictly because it is still black market,” said Selander.

Even with the tax money Arizona could see, many groups like "Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy" say voters shouldn't fall for the idea.

“Watch out for easy money because that comes with significant health consequences that we all pay,” said Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk.

Polk says more kids could have access and a chance to get hooked on weed and other drugs.

“The best way to keep it out of the hands of kids is to keep it illegal,” Polk said.

When it comes to the initiative making the ballot, Selander expressed that he is very hopeful and believes it will.

Polk says she’s hopeful too. “I'm confident it will make the ballot,” said Polk. “But I am equally confident that we will defeat it.

The group pushing to put recreational pot on the 2016 ballot needs 150,000 valid signatures by the July 1 deadline.

They currently have 160,000 but know a large percentage may be invalid. They are working to reach 225,000 and expect to have that by March.

Source

Former DEA agent speaks out in support of legalizing recreational marijuana

Lauren Gilger
5:33 PM, May 1, 2015
10:22 AM, May 4, 2015

Finn Selander spent his career fighting the drug war. As a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent, he served as the DEA’s Marijuana Coordinator in Miami and New Mexico for six years, conducting marijuana investigations.

He told the ABC15 Investigators he’s put a lot of people away on marijuana charges. “As an agent, I was doing my job. I was enforcing the law,” he said.

But, he said those are laws that he now thinks need to change.

Selander now is a member of LEAP, or Law Enforcement Against Prohibition , a nationwide organization of more than 150,000 former law enforcement offices, criminal justice professionals and supporters working to end the drug war.

Prohibition of marijuana has created a black market of gang violence, corruption and racism, according to a LEAP spokesperson.

And, for Selander, the work he’s doing now is the most important he could do.

As a law enforcement agent, “it was definitely hard, at times,” he said, “When I would see that injustice in a number of cases.”

He’s speaking out in support of an initiative set to show up on Arizonans’ 2016 ballots to legalize recreational marijuana in the state.

The initiative proposes legalizing marijuana for recreational use for those over the age of 21, creating a network of shops licensed to sell and distribute it and taxing it 15 percent on top of the regular sales tax.

Selander said he’s seen too many young lives ruined because of strict marijuana laws.

“Let’s say you’re in college and you actually get busted,” he said. “You would lose everything. You could be an A student, it wouldn’t matter.”

Federally, marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 drug , up there with the most dangerous drugs on the market like heroin and ecstasy. Possession or sale of them is also punished the most harshly.

Classifying marijuana with drugs like those, Selander said, has turned an entire generation into criminals.

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, a staunch opponent of legal marijuana, told ABC15 that we’re not fighting a drug war, “we have sought to limit the availability, use and addiction to drugs and the consequences.”

And, he said, it’s working. Montgomery cited statistics that show, while more than 50 percent of Americans use alcohol, less than 10 percent use illegal drugs.

“But we will lose ground with mixed messaging,” he said.

See Montgomery’s complete statement below.

But, for Selander, there’s one organization that wants marijuana to remain illegal: the cartels.

“Right now, the individuals that are absolutely against [sic] legalizing it and taxing it would be the cartels,” he said. “That is their main money maker.”

Montgomery’s complete statement:

We are not fighting a "drug war". We do not shoot dealers on site or napalm marijuana or poppy fields. We have sought to limit the availability, use, and addiction to drugs and the consequences. And we have been successful. While over 50% of Americans aged 12 and older regularly use legal regulated alcohol and over 27% of the same demographic uses legal regulated tobacco, less than 10% use illegal drugs. But we will lose ground with mixed messaging. As for taxing benefits, in FY2014, Arizona took in roughly $70 million in alcohol revenue and approximately $320 million from tobacco. Yet, alcohol related collisions cost Arizona nearly $500 million and healthcare related costs of tobacco over $1 billion. You can't raise enough money in taxes to cover the costs.