Arkansas State Police Seize Nearly 200 Pounds of Illegal Marijuana

Above: ASP seized 94 lbs. of illegal marijuana during a traffic stop earlier this month.

Last week the Arkansas State Police reported that troopers recently seized nearly 200 pounds of illegal marijuana over the course of multiple traffic stops.

According to an official press release, the suspects apprehended and charged with drug possession were from Texas, Nevada, and Florida.

Stories like this one serve as a reminder that marijuana’s legalization in other states has actually fueled the black market and the drug cartels rather than weakening them.

For example, California’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce seized nearly $162 million worth of illegal marijuana during the first half of 2023.

Oregon has been inundated by industrial scale marijuana cultivation sites operated illegally by organized crime and drug cartels. Some of these marijuana operations are tied to labor trafficking and violent crime.

If Arkansas had passed marijuana amendment Issue 4 in 2022, our marijuana laws arguably would be more lax than many states’. Fortunately, voters rejected that measure at the ballot box.

Contrary to popular belief, legalization does not decrease drug-related crime, and it does not alleviate drug abuse. If anything, it seems to make these problems worse.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

Pro-Life Activists Targeted by the DOJ: Guest Column

Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice put pro-life protestors on trial for their role in a 2021 sit-in at an abortion facility in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. Each protestor faces over a decade in prison, as well as hefty fines. America has a long history of civil disobedience and peaceful protests, but increasingly the state has grown quite selective in what is tolerated and what is condemned, and now, even convicted. Federal animus toward pro-life activism is increasing, as are examples of hostility from law enforcement. It’s especially odd when compared to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who “declined to comment” about the four men who were released after beating New York police officers. 

Beyond the complexities of the immigration debate and the ethics of civil disobedience, it reflects our cultural mood in which the moral status of individuals is predetermined, based on their group rather than their behavior. The more the state reflects this mood, the more elusive justice will be. 

Copyright 2024 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.