Arkansas to Receive Opioid Settlement Money
Arkansas General Assembly will receive $140M in opioid settlement money that it can use to fight drug addiction.
Oregon Looks to Restrict Marijuana After Illegal Grow Operations Skyrocket
News outlets report that lawmakers in Oregon are considering legislation that would increase the penalties for illegal marijuana production.
Oregon was among the first states to legalize marijuana. At the time, many believed legalization would eliminate the black market and reduce drug crimes. Instead the opposite happened.
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.
Authorities in Oregon reportedly have seized 105 tons of illicit marijuana this year alone.
Oregon isn’t the only state that has had problems as a result of marijuana legalization. California created a legal framework for growing and selling marijuana in order to weaken drug cartels’ power in the state, but instead their illegal marijuana farms have grown.
It’s worth pointing out that if Arkansas had passed Issue 4 last month, our marijuana laws arguably would be more lax than Oregon’s and California’s in many ways.
Contrary to popular belief, legalization does not decrease drug-related crime, and it does not alleviate drug abuse. If anything, it seems to make those problems worse.
Authorities in NE Arkansas Seize Lethal Quantities of Fentanyl, Meth
Last week KAIT reported that the 2nd Judicial District Drug Task Force seized 100 pounds of meth and 390 grams of fentanyl in Northeast Arkansas earlier this month.
The drug task force reportedly is made up of law enforcement from multiple agencies.
According to the DEA, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.
Two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a potentially lethal dose.
That means 390 grams of pure fentanyl would be enough to kill as many as 195,000 people — nearly every man, woman, and child in Little Rock.
In 2019 and 2021 the DEA and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission reported that China and Mexico are the primary sources of illicit fentanyl in the U.S.
In November the U.S. Treasury Department issued sanctions against the La Nueva Familia Michoacana drug cartel from Mexico for smuggling illicit drugs — including fentanyl — across the United States.
Earlier this fall Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge warned parents about the increase in “rainbow fentanyl” pills that look like candy.
And last month the FBI arrested 45 individuals believed to be tied to large-scale trafficking of fentanyl, marijuana, and other drugs in Arkansas.
Nationwide, fentanyl, marijuana, and other drugs are big business for drug cartels.
States like California, Colorado, and Oregon hoped that legalizing marijuana would weaken the cartels, but instead the opposite happened. Illicit marijuana operations have skyrocketed in those states, and the opioid epidemic continues.
Arkansas needs to take steps to decrease drug crimes and alleviate drug problems, but legalizing drugs isn’t the answer. If anything, legalization seems to make those problems worse.