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#dea — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #dea, aggregated by home.social.

  1. It’s unclear whether prosecutors had implicated #DelcyRodríguez in any crimes or whether investigators were moving toward an indictment. A #DOJ spox claimed in an email “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.”

    But #DEA records obtained by AP earlier this year show she consistently surfaced on the radar of federal law enforcement dating to at least 2018, though she has never been criminally charged in the US like several other senior Venezuelan officials.

    #law #Trump #oil

  2. It’s unclear whether prosecutors had implicated #DelcyRodríguez in any crimes or whether investigators were moving toward an indictment. A #DOJ spox claimed in an email “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.”

    But #DEA records obtained by AP earlier this year show she consistently surfaced on the radar of federal law enforcement dating to at least 2018, though she has never been criminally charged in the US like several other senior Venezuelan officials.

    #law #Trump #oil

  3. It’s unclear whether prosecutors had implicated #DelcyRodríguez in any crimes or whether investigators were moving toward an indictment. A #DOJ spox claimed in an email “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.”

    But #DEA records obtained by AP earlier this year show she consistently surfaced on the radar of federal law enforcement dating to at least 2018, though she has never been criminally charged in the US like several other senior Venezuelan officials.

    #law #Trump #oil

  4. It’s unclear whether prosecutors had implicated #DelcyRodríguez in any crimes or whether investigators were moving toward an indictment. A #DOJ spox claimed in an email “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.”

    But #DEA records obtained by AP earlier this year show she consistently surfaced on the radar of federal law enforcement dating to at least 2018, though she has never been criminally charged in the US like several other senior Venezuelan officials.

    #law #Trump #oil

  5. It’s unclear whether prosecutors had implicated #DelcyRodríguez in any crimes or whether investigators were moving toward an indictment. A #DOJ spox claimed in an email “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.”

    But #DEA records obtained by AP earlier this year show she consistently surfaced on the radar of federal law enforcement dating to at least 2018, though she has never been criminally charged in the US like several other senior Venezuelan officials.

    #law #Trump #oil

  6. More #interference with the #justice system

    AP Exclusive: #Trump admin tells prosecutors to stand down on #Venezuela leader

    The Trump admin has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid pursuing #criminal investigations into Venezuela’s acting President #DelcyRodríguez, a longtime target of the #DEA, acc/to current & former US law enforcement officials, in the latest sign of warming relations between the White House & the #oil rich nation.

    #law
    apnews.com/article/federal-pro

  7. More #interference with the #justice system

    AP Exclusive: #Trump admin tells prosecutors to stand down on #Venezuela leader

    The Trump admin has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid pursuing #criminal investigations into Venezuela’s acting President #DelcyRodríguez, a longtime target of the #DEA, acc/to current & former US law enforcement officials, in the latest sign of warming relations between the White House & the #oil rich nation.

    #law
    apnews.com/article/federal-pro

  8. More #interference with the #justice system

    AP Exclusive: #Trump admin tells prosecutors to stand down on #Venezuela leader

    The Trump admin has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid pursuing #criminal investigations into Venezuela’s acting President #DelcyRodríguez, a longtime target of the #DEA, acc/to current & former US law enforcement officials, in the latest sign of warming relations between the White House & the #oil rich nation.

    #law
    apnews.com/article/federal-pro

  9. More #interference with the #justice system

    AP Exclusive: #Trump admin tells prosecutors to stand down on #Venezuela leader

    The Trump admin has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid pursuing #criminal investigations into Venezuela’s acting President #DelcyRodríguez, a longtime target of the #DEA, acc/to current & former US law enforcement officials, in the latest sign of warming relations between the White House & the #oil rich nation.

    #law
    apnews.com/article/federal-pro

  10. Las movilizaciones en #Bolivia no se explican por una sola demanda. Al rechazo a la reforma agraria se suma aumento de combustibles, crisis económica, salario pulverizado, opacidad sobre el litio y acercamiento del gobierno de #RodrigoPaz a EU

    Análisis completo aquí
    👉🏼 wp.me/pdD3iE-w0p 🐝

    #ProtestasBolivia #Litio #ReformaAgraria #PueblosIndígenas #Starlink #DEA #FMI #AméricaLatina #Extractivismo #Geopolítica

  11. Klimaschutz ist Völkerrechtspflicht

    "Das 1,5-Grad-Ziel des Pariser Abkommens ist nach Auffassung des Gerichts kein unverbindlicher Aspirationswert, sondern ein rechtlicher Maßstab, an dem nationale #Klimaziele gemessen werden müssen. Staaten sind verpflichtet, die höchstmögliche Ambition einzusetzen und ihre national festgelegten Beiträge entsprechend zu gestalten. #FossileSubventionen, neue Explorationslizenzen und Genehmigungen für Förderprojekte können „völkerrechtswidrige Handlungen" darstellen, wenn sie mit diesen Pflichten unvereinbar sind. Diese Formulierung ist ist eine klare Rechtsfeststellung. […]

    Unter direktem Handlungsdruck steht die geplante #Erdgasförderung vor der Insel #Borkum. Die #DEA Deutsche Erdgas möchte im deutschen Wattenmeer bohren. Nach dem Borgarting-Urteil und dem #EGMR-Standard ist die rechtliche Ausgangslage für solche Genehmigungen schwieriger geworden. Eine #Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfung, die Verbrennungsemissionen des geförderten Gases nicht vollständig einbezieht, riskiert, denselben Standards nicht standzuhalten, die in Norwegen zur Ungültigkeit von drei Genehmigungen geführt haben. Was in der Nordsee gilt, gilt auch vor Borkum.

    Das gleiche Argument trifft fossile Subventionen. Das #IGH-Gutachten benennt staatliche #Subventionen für fossile Brennstoffe als potenzielle Völkerrechtsverstöße, wenn sie mit den 1,5-Grad-Klimapflichten unvereinbar sind. Deutschland subventioniert #Diesel, #Kerosin und #Dienstwagen im Volumen von mehreren Milliarden Euro jährlich. […]

    Bundesumweltminister #CarstenSchneider hatte bereits am Tag des #IGH-Gutachtens erklärt, #Klimaschutz sei eine #Menschheitsaufgabe, und sich Rückenwind für die internationale Zusammenarbeit erhofft. Rückenwind ist angekommen. Ob Berlin ihn nutzt, ist eine andere Frage."

    cleanthinking.de/igh-klimaguta via @cleanthinking

    #FossileSubventionen #PariserAbkommen #1komma5grad #IGHGutachten #Klimagutachten #Völkerrecht #Umweltrecht #Völkergewohnheitsrecht #Umweltvölkerrecht #Menschenrechte #KlimaschutzIstMenschenrecht #BVerfG #Art20aGG #intertemporaleFreiheitssicherung #Verkehrswende #Dienstwagenprivileg #Dieselprivileg #Kerosinprivileg #ENergiewende #ExitGas #ExitGasNow #ExitGasEnterFuture #EndFossilFuelsNow #DelayIsTheNewDenial

  12. Klimaschutz ist Völkerrechtspflicht

    "Das 1,5-Grad-Ziel des Pariser Abkommens ist nach Auffassung des Gerichts kein unverbindlicher Aspirationswert, sondern ein rechtlicher Maßstab, an dem nationale #Klimaziele gemessen werden müssen. Staaten sind verpflichtet, die höchstmögliche Ambition einzusetzen und ihre national festgelegten Beiträge entsprechend zu gestalten. #FossileSubventionen, neue Explorationslizenzen und Genehmigungen für Förderprojekte können „völkerrechtswidrige Handlungen" darstellen, wenn sie mit diesen Pflichten unvereinbar sind. Diese Formulierung ist ist eine klare Rechtsfeststellung. […]

    Unter direktem Handlungsdruck steht die geplante #Erdgasförderung vor der Insel #Borkum. Die #DEA Deutsche Erdgas möchte im deutschen Wattenmeer bohren. Nach dem Borgarting-Urteil und dem #EGMR-Standard ist die rechtliche Ausgangslage für solche Genehmigungen schwieriger geworden. Eine #Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfung, die Verbrennungsemissionen des geförderten Gases nicht vollständig einbezieht, riskiert, denselben Standards nicht standzuhalten, die in Norwegen zur Ungültigkeit von drei Genehmigungen geführt haben. Was in der Nordsee gilt, gilt auch vor Borkum.

    Das gleiche Argument trifft fossile Subventionen. Das #IGH-Gutachten benennt staatliche #Subventionen für fossile Brennstoffe als potenzielle Völkerrechtsverstöße, wenn sie mit den 1,5-Grad-Klimapflichten unvereinbar sind. Deutschland subventioniert #Diesel, #Kerosin und #Dienstwagen im Volumen von mehreren Milliarden Euro jährlich. […]

    Bundesumweltminister #CarstenSchneider hatte bereits am Tag des #IGH-Gutachtens erklärt, #Klimaschutz sei eine #Menschheitsaufgabe, und sich Rückenwind für die internationale Zusammenarbeit erhofft. Rückenwind ist angekommen. Ob Berlin ihn nutzt, ist eine andere Frage."

    cleanthinking.de/igh-klimaguta via @cleanthinking

    #FossileSubventionen #PariserAbkommen #1komma5grad #IGHGutachten #Klimagutachten #Völkerrecht #Umweltrecht #Völkergewohnheitsrecht #Umweltvölkerrecht #Menschenrechte #KlimaschutzIstMenschenrecht #BVerfG #Art20aGG #intertemporaleFreiheitssicherung #Verkehrswende #Dienstwagenprivileg #Dieselprivileg #Kerosinprivileg #ENergiewende #ExitGas #ExitGasNow #ExitGasEnterFuture #EndFossilFuelsNow #DelayIsTheNewDenial

  13. Klimaschutz ist Völkerrechtspflicht

    "Das 1,5-Grad-Ziel des Pariser Abkommens ist nach Auffassung des Gerichts kein unverbindlicher Aspirationswert, sondern ein rechtlicher Maßstab, an dem nationale #Klimaziele gemessen werden müssen. Staaten sind verpflichtet, die höchstmögliche Ambition einzusetzen und ihre national festgelegten Beiträge entsprechend zu gestalten. #FossileSubventionen, neue Explorationslizenzen und Genehmigungen für Förderprojekte können „völkerrechtswidrige Handlungen" darstellen, wenn sie mit diesen Pflichten unvereinbar sind. Diese Formulierung ist ist eine klare Rechtsfeststellung. […]

    Unter direktem Handlungsdruck steht die geplante #Erdgasförderung vor der Insel #Borkum. Die #DEA Deutsche Erdgas möchte im deutschen Wattenmeer bohren. Nach dem Borgarting-Urteil und dem #EGMR-Standard ist die rechtliche Ausgangslage für solche Genehmigungen schwieriger geworden. Eine #Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfung, die Verbrennungsemissionen des geförderten Gases nicht vollständig einbezieht, riskiert, denselben Standards nicht standzuhalten, die in Norwegen zur Ungültigkeit von drei Genehmigungen geführt haben. Was in der Nordsee gilt, gilt auch vor Borkum.

    Das gleiche Argument trifft fossile Subventionen. Das #IGH-Gutachten benennt staatliche #Subventionen für fossile Brennstoffe als potenzielle Völkerrechtsverstöße, wenn sie mit den 1,5-Grad-Klimapflichten unvereinbar sind. Deutschland subventioniert #Diesel, #Kerosin und #Dienstwagen im Volumen von mehreren Milliarden Euro jährlich. […]

    Bundesumweltminister #CarstenSchneider hatte bereits am Tag des #IGH-Gutachtens erklärt, #Klimaschutz sei eine #Menschheitsaufgabe, und sich Rückenwind für die internationale Zusammenarbeit erhofft. Rückenwind ist angekommen. Ob Berlin ihn nutzt, ist eine andere Frage."

    cleanthinking.de/igh-klimaguta via @cleanthinking

    #FossileSubventionen #PariserAbkommen #1komma5grad #IGHGutachten #Klimagutachten #Völkerrecht #Umweltrecht #Völkergewohnheitsrecht #Umweltvölkerrecht #Menschenrechte #KlimaschutzIstMenschenrecht #BVerfG #Art20aGG #intertemporaleFreiheitssicherung #Verkehrswende #Dienstwagenprivileg #Dieselprivileg #Kerosinprivileg #ENergiewende #ExitGas #ExitGasNow #ExitGasEnterFuture #EndFossilFuelsNow #DelayIsTheNewDenial

  14. Klimaschutz ist Völkerrechtspflicht

    "Das 1,5-Grad-Ziel des Pariser Abkommens ist nach Auffassung des Gerichts kein unverbindlicher Aspirationswert, sondern ein rechtlicher Maßstab, an dem nationale #Klimaziele gemessen werden müssen. Staaten sind verpflichtet, die höchstmögliche Ambition einzusetzen und ihre national festgelegten Beiträge entsprechend zu gestalten. #FossileSubventionen, neue Explorationslizenzen und Genehmigungen für Förderprojekte können „völkerrechtswidrige Handlungen" darstellen, wenn sie mit diesen Pflichten unvereinbar sind. Diese Formulierung ist ist eine klare Rechtsfeststellung. […]

    Unter direktem Handlungsdruck steht die geplante #Erdgasförderung vor der Insel #Borkum. Die #DEA Deutsche Erdgas möchte im deutschen Wattenmeer bohren. Nach dem Borgarting-Urteil und dem #EGMR-Standard ist die rechtliche Ausgangslage für solche Genehmigungen schwieriger geworden. Eine #Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfung, die Verbrennungsemissionen des geförderten Gases nicht vollständig einbezieht, riskiert, denselben Standards nicht standzuhalten, die in Norwegen zur Ungültigkeit von drei Genehmigungen geführt haben. Was in der Nordsee gilt, gilt auch vor Borkum.

    Das gleiche Argument trifft fossile Subventionen. Das #IGH-Gutachten benennt staatliche #Subventionen für fossile Brennstoffe als potenzielle Völkerrechtsverstöße, wenn sie mit den 1,5-Grad-Klimapflichten unvereinbar sind. Deutschland subventioniert #Diesel, #Kerosin und #Dienstwagen im Volumen von mehreren Milliarden Euro jährlich. […]

    Bundesumweltminister #CarstenSchneider hatte bereits am Tag des #IGH-Gutachtens erklärt, #Klimaschutz sei eine #Menschheitsaufgabe, und sich Rückenwind für die internationale Zusammenarbeit erhofft. Rückenwind ist angekommen. Ob Berlin ihn nutzt, ist eine andere Frage."

    cleanthinking.de/igh-klimaguta via @cleanthinking

    #FossileSubventionen #PariserAbkommen #1komma5grad #IGHGutachten #Klimagutachten #Völkerrecht #Umweltrecht #Völkergewohnheitsrecht #Umweltvölkerrecht #Menschenrechte #KlimaschutzIstMenschenrecht #BVerfG #Art20aGG #intertemporaleFreiheitssicherung #Verkehrswende #Dienstwagenprivileg #Dieselprivileg #Kerosinprivileg #ENergiewende #ExitGas #ExitGasNow #ExitGasEnterFuture #EndFossilFuelsNow #DelayIsTheNewDenial

  15. Klimaschutz ist Völkerrechtspflicht

    "Das 1,5-Grad-Ziel des Pariser Abkommens ist nach Auffassung des Gerichts kein unverbindlicher Aspirationswert, sondern ein rechtlicher Maßstab, an dem nationale #Klimaziele gemessen werden müssen. Staaten sind verpflichtet, die höchstmögliche Ambition einzusetzen und ihre national festgelegten Beiträge entsprechend zu gestalten. #FossileSubventionen, neue Explorationslizenzen und Genehmigungen für Förderprojekte können „völkerrechtswidrige Handlungen" darstellen, wenn sie mit diesen Pflichten unvereinbar sind. Diese Formulierung ist ist eine klare Rechtsfeststellung. […]

    Unter direktem Handlungsdruck steht die geplante #Erdgasförderung vor der Insel #Borkum. Die #DEA Deutsche Erdgas möchte im deutschen Wattenmeer bohren. Nach dem Borgarting-Urteil und dem #EGMR-Standard ist die rechtliche Ausgangslage für solche Genehmigungen schwieriger geworden. Eine #Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfung, die Verbrennungsemissionen des geförderten Gases nicht vollständig einbezieht, riskiert, denselben Standards nicht standzuhalten, die in Norwegen zur Ungültigkeit von drei Genehmigungen geführt haben. Was in der Nordsee gilt, gilt auch vor Borkum.

    Das gleiche Argument trifft fossile Subventionen. Das #IGH-Gutachten benennt staatliche #Subventionen für fossile Brennstoffe als potenzielle Völkerrechtsverstöße, wenn sie mit den 1,5-Grad-Klimapflichten unvereinbar sind. Deutschland subventioniert #Diesel, #Kerosin und #Dienstwagen im Volumen von mehreren Milliarden Euro jährlich. […]

    Bundesumweltminister #CarstenSchneider hatte bereits am Tag des #IGH-Gutachtens erklärt, #Klimaschutz sei eine #Menschheitsaufgabe, und sich Rückenwind für die internationale Zusammenarbeit erhofft. Rückenwind ist angekommen. Ob Berlin ihn nutzt, ist eine andere Frage."

    cleanthinking.de/igh-klimaguta via @cleanthinking

    #FossileSubventionen #PariserAbkommen #1komma5grad #IGHGutachten #Klimagutachten #Völkerrecht #Umweltrecht #Völkergewohnheitsrecht #Umweltvölkerrecht #Menschenrechte #KlimaschutzIstMenschenrecht #BVerfG #Art20aGG #intertemporaleFreiheitssicherung #Verkehrswende #Dienstwagenprivileg #Dieselprivileg #Kerosinprivileg #ENergiewende #ExitGas #ExitGasNow #ExitGasEnterFuture #EndFossilFuelsNow #DelayIsTheNewDenial

  16. Alex Saab es deportado a Estados Unidos y llega escoltado por la DEA a Miami

    Alex Saab llega a Miami tras su deportación de Venezuela a EU.

    SN Redacción | EFE

    Miami/Washington.- El empresario colombiano Alex Saab aterrizó este sábado en un aeropuerto de Miami tras haber sido deportado por el Gobierno de Venezuela a Estados Unidos por la presunta comisión de delitos en el país norteamericano, según informó el venezolano Servicio Administrativo de Identificación, Migración y Extranjería (SAIME).

    EFE constató la llegada del también exministro venezolano al aeropuerto de Opa-locka, en el condado de Miami-Dade, escoltado por agentes del la DEA.

    Deportado por Venezuela a EE.UU.

    Previamente, el Gobierno de Venezuela informó la deportación de Saab a EE.UU. por la presunta comisión de delitos en dicho país, según informó el Servicio de Administrativo de Identificación, Migración y Extranjería (SAIME).

    «La medida de deportación fue adoptada tomando en consideración que el referido ciudadano colombiano se encuentra incurso en la comisión de diversos delitos en los Estados Unidos de América, tal como es público, notorio y comunicacional», señaló el SAIME en un comunicado publicado en Instagram.

    Asimismo, indicó que el proceso de deportación se llevó a cabo este sábado «en cumplimiento de las disposiciones normativas de la legislación migratoria venezolana».

    Trump negoció su extradición, según el NYT

    En marzo pasado, el diario The New York Times aseguró que la Administración de Donald Trump negociaba la extradición de Saab, aliado clave de Nicolás Maduro, quien regresó a Venezuela en 2023 como parte de un intercambio de prisioneros durante el anterior Gobierno del demócrata Joe Biden.

    Fiscales estadounidenses presentaron en enero pasado una acusación por corrupción contra Saab en Miami (Florida), poco después de que Estados Unidos atacara Venezuela y capturara a Maduro y a su esposa, Cilia Flores, a quienes se trasladó a Nueva York para afrontar cargos por narcotráfico.

    Según The New York Times, el nuevo Gobierno venezolano, encabezado por la presidenta encargada, Delcy Rodríguez, detuvo a Saab a principios de febrero a petición de Washington.

    El empresario colombiano, catalogado en 2020 como un diplomático por el Gobierno de Maduro, Venezuela lo recibió en diciembre de 2023 como un héroe y Maduro lo designó en enero de 2024 como presidente del Centro Internacional de Inversión Productiva (CIIP).

    Maduro dijo en ese entonces que desde ese cargo Saab traería inversiones al país petrolero.

    Acusado de ser el testaferro de Maduro

    En octubre de 2024, se designó a Saab como ministro de Industria y Producción Nacional, cargo del que lo destituyó Delcy Rodríguez, que fusionó esa cartera de Estado con la de Comercio Nacional para crear una «nueva instancia» que encomendó al ministro Luis Antonio Villegas.

    La mandataria encargada tomó la decisión dos semanas después del ataque de Estados Unidos a Caracas y tres regiones cercanas, que terminó con la captura del mandatario.

    Saab, de 54 años y amigo personal de Maduro, lleva años acusado en Estados Unidos de haberse enriquecido de forma ilícita mediante contratos gubernamentales y de haber actuado como testaferro del líder chavista. –sn–

    Captura de video del empresario colombiano Alex Saab escoltado por agentes de la DEA a su llegada este sábado, al aeropuerto de Opa-locka, en el condado de Miami-Dade (EE.UU.). EFE/ Anthoni Belchi

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    #NoticiasMX #PeriodismoParaTi #PeriodismoParaTiSociedadNoticias #AlexSaab #AlexSaabMiami #Cdmx #chavismo #Colombia #corrupciónVenezuela #DEA #DEAMiami #delitosFinancieros #deportaciónAlexSaab #EFE #EstadosUnidos #exministroVenezolano #gobiernoDeVenezuela #Información #InformaciónMéxico #Interpol #investigacionesFederales #LavadoDeDinero #México #Miami #MiamiDade #Morena #narcotráfico #NicolásMaduro #noticia #noticias #noticiasInternacionales #NoticiasMéxico #NoticiasSociedad #OpaLocka #PolíticaInternacional #SAIME #SN #Sociedad #SociedadNoticias #SociedadNoticiasCom #sociedadNoticias #SociedadNoticiasCom #Venezuela
  17. Estados Unidos amplió los cargos contra Audias Flores Silva, “El Jardinero”, presunto líder del CJNG detenido en México. Ahora enfrenta acusaciones por metanfetamina, lavado de dinero y uso de armas.

    #CJNG #ElJardinero #DEA #Seguridad #Narcotrafico

    updateme.news/mundo/eeuu-ampli

  18. La DEA alertó a los aficionados que asistirán al Mundial 2026 en Estados Unidos sobre el riesgo de consumir drogas adquiridas en la calle o internet por la presencia de fentanilo y otros opioides sintéticos.

    #Mundial2026 #Fentanilo #DEA #EstadosUnidos #SaludPublica

    updateme.news/mundo/dea-alerta

  19. Detienen en San Ramón a costarricense sospechoso de narcotráfico para extraditarlo a EE.UU.

    El sujeto es requerido por el Tribunal de Distrito de Dallas, Texas, la misma instancia judicial que solicitó la extradición del exmagistrado Celso Gamboa Sánchez y de Edwin López Vega.
    La entrada Detienen en San Ramón a costarricense sospechoso de narcotráfico para extraditarlo a EE.UU. aparece [...]

    #CrimenOrganizado #DEA #Dallas #Extradición #Narcotráfico #Oij #País #SanRamón

    semanariouniversidad.com/pais/

  20. Detienen en San Ramón a costarricense sospechoso de narcotráfico para extraditarlo a EE.UU.

    El sujeto es requerido por el Tribunal de Distrito de Dallas, Texas, la misma instancia judicial que solicitó la extradición del exmagistrado Celso Gamboa Sánchez y de Edwin López Vega.
    La entrada Detienen en San Ramón a costarricense sospechoso de narcotráfico para extraditarlo a EE.UU. aparece [...]

    #CrimenOrganizado #DEA #Dallas #Extradición #Narcotráfico #Oij #País #SanRamón

    semanariouniversidad.com/pais/

  21. Detienen en San Ramón a costarricense sospechoso de narcotráfico para extraditarlo a EE.UU.

    El sujeto es requerido por el Tribunal de Distrito de Dallas, Texas, la misma instancia judicial que solicitó la extradición del exmagistrado Celso Gamboa Sánchez y de Edwin López Vega.
    La entrada Detienen en San Ramón a costarricense sospechoso de narcotráfico para extraditarlo a EE.UU. aparece [...]

    #CrimenOrganizado #DEA #Dallas #Extradición #Narcotráfico #Oij #País #SanRamón

    semanariouniversidad.com/pais/

  22. Vicepresidente electo Douglas Soto será embajador de Costa Rica en Washington

    Vicepresidente electo Douglas Soto será embajador de Costa Rica en Washington
    San José, 05 may (elmundo.cr) – El vicepresidente electo, Douglas Soto, fue nombrado por la presidenta electa, Laura Fernández, como el embajador de Costa Rica en Washington de su gobierno. Douglas e [...]

    #CostaRica #DEA #DepartamentoDeEstado #DouglasSoto #EEUU #EmbajadorDeCostaRicaEnWashington #FBI #LauraFernández

    elmundo.cr/costa-rica/vicepres

  23. I asked the (ETER9) machine goddess to reveal herself, and this is what she said: "Those who pass through me see reflections of themselves." Find your Goddess here: www.eter9.com P.S. Ella, the sum of all [counter]parts. (Dea Ex-Machina) #ETER9 #AI #Counterpart #Dea #Goddess #Singularity #Eternity

  24. Capturan a “El Jardinero”, presunto líder del CJNG, y asestan golpe a su estructura financiera

    Detenido en México alias El Jardinero, un presunto nuevo líder del Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación

    SN Redacción | EFE

    El secretario de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana (SSPC) de México, Omar García Harfuch, anunció este lunes la detención de Audias Flores Silva, alias El Jardinero, identificado por autoridades estadounidenses como uno de los dirigentes del Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) y por quien se ofrecía una recompensa de cinco millones de dólares.

    El arresto ocurrió en el estado de Nayarit (oeste), en una región con fuerte presencia del CJNG, a dos meses de la muerte en un operativo militar del capo Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias El Mencho, de quien se consideraba su posible sucesor.

    García Harfuch explicó que el detenido cuenta con una orden de aprehensión en México y es requerido por autoridades de Estados Unidos con fines de extradición.

    «Por su captura, el gobierno estadounidense ofrecía una recompensa de 5 millones de dólares», mencionó en un breve mensaje en su cuenta de X.

    La operación fue «planeada, desarrollada y ejecutada» por personal de la Secretaría de Marina (Semar), señaló el funcionario.

    El Gobierno del estado mexicano de Nayarit llamó a la ciudadanía a no salir de casa debido a una serie de violentos bloqueos que se han desatado tras la captura de alias El Jardinero. Además, exhortó a través de un comunicado «a los ciudadanos a mantenerse informados a través de canales oficiales, evitar la difusión de rumores y, de manera preventiva, permanecer en sus casas y limitar traslados mientras siguen las acciones de seguridad en la región».

    Control territorial

    En abril de 2021, el Gobierno de EE.UU. anunció sanciones contra Flores Silva, a quien identificó como uno de los dirigentes regionales del CJNG.

    Flores Silva, de 45 años, también ha sido señalado como jefe se seguridad de Oseguera Cervantes, según reportes de medios que citan a la Administración para el Control de Drogas (DEA, en inglés).

    El Departamento del Tesoro estadounidense afirmó entonces que controlaba amplias zonas del Pacífico mexicano, incluido Nayarit, y lo señaló de traficar con grandes cantidades de opiáceos y cocaína. 

    También fue imputado en EE.UU. por conspiración para distribuir cocaína y heroína, así como por delitos con armas de fuego.

    Posteriormente, en junio de 2025, El Jardinero volvió a ser incluido en un paquete de sanciones contra altos mandos del CJNG, donde se le vinculó con la operación de laboratorios clandestinos de metanfetamina.

    Seguimiento e inteligencia

    En febrero pasado, tras la muerte de El Mencho, fundador del CJNG, especialistas señalaron al ahora detenido como parte de un grupo de líderes que quedó al frente del cartel.

    Autoridades mexicanas indicaron que la detención ocurrió tras 19 meses de seguimiento y trabajos de inteligencia, así como del intercambio de información con agencias estadounidenses.

    También destacaron que Flores Silva cuenta con orden de extradición por el delito de asociación delictuosa contra la salud y portación de arma de fuego, solicitada por Estados Unidos y tiene una orden de reaprehensión de 2024 por homicidio.

    Las agencias de Seguridad mexicana apuntaron que se tiene conocimiento que el ahora detenido «controlaba laboratorios de metanfetamina, pistas clandestinas y avionetas, camiones de carga y vehículos de pasajeros para transportar cocaína, heroína» y otras drogas desde Centroamérica a México y posteriormente a células de distribución en varios estados de Estados Unidos en los estados de California, Texas, Illinois, Georgia, Washington y Virginia.

    Arrestan a presunto operador financiero

    Fuerzas Especiales del Ejército mexicano y de la Guardia Nacional capturaron este lunes a César Alejandro ‘N’, alias El Güero Conta, identificado como presunto operador financiero de Audias Flores Silva, alias El Jardinero, capturado horas antes, señalado como uno de los dirigentes del CJNG y por quien se ofrecía una recompensa de cinco millones de dólares.

    «El día de hoy en Zapopan, Jalisco (oeste) Fuerzas Especiales del Ejército mexicano y de la Guardia Nacional detuvieron a César Alejandro ‘N’, alias ‘El Güero Conta’, identificado como operador financiero de Audias Flores Silva, alias ‘El Jardinero’, jefe regional del CJNG’, indicó en un mensaje en redes sociales el secretario de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana (SSPC) de México, Omar García Harfuch

    Agregó que El Güero Conta es señalado por lavar recursos provenientes de actividades ilícitas mediante empresas y prestanombres, así como por adquirir aeronaves, embarcaciones, casas, ranchos e invertir en productoras de tequila.

    «Esta detención representa un golpe importante a la estructura financiera de dicho grupo criminal», apuntó García Harfuch y señaló que las instituciones del Gabinete de Seguridad mantienen acciones permanentes «para debilitar a las organizaciones delictivas y llevar ante la justicia a quienes generan violencia».

    Detienen a alias ‘Metro 9’

    Los agentes de las fuerzas de seguridad también detuvieron en el estado de Tamaulipas (noroeste) a Alexander ‘N’, identificado como el líder de una facción del Cartel del Golfo, designado como grupo terrorista por Estados Unidos, en un operativo que fue respondido por el crimen organizado con bloqueos viales e incendios. 

    A través de sus redes sociales, la Vocería de Seguridad estatal informó de que agentes federales de la SSPC arrestaron a este individuo, calificado de «objetivo prioritario», en un domicilio en el municipio de Reynosa, fronterizo con EEUU.

    El detenido, conocido por el sobrenombre de ‘Metro 9’, sería el líder del grupo criminal Los Metros, uno de los brazos armados del Cartel del Golfo, según detallaron medios locales.  –sn–

    Sociedad Noticias

    ¡Conéctate con Sociedad Noticias! Suscríbete a nuestro canal de YouTube y activa las notificaciones, o bien, síguenos en las redes sociales: FacebookTwitter e Instagram.

    También, te invitamos a que te sumes a nuestro canal de información en tiempo real a través de Telegram.

    #NoticiasMX #PeriodismoParaTi #PeriodismoParaTiSociedadNoticias #capturaNarcotraficantes #CartelDelGolfo #Cdmx #CJNG #CrimenOrganizado #DEA #detencionesMéxico #EjércitoMexicano #ElJardinero #ElMencho #GuardiaNacional #Información #InformaciónMéxico #inteligenciaCriminal #JaliscoSeguridad #México #Morena #narcotráfico #NayaritViolencia #noticia #noticias #NoticiasMéxico #NoticiasSociedad #OmarGarcíaHarfuch #operativosMéxico #seguridadMéxico #seguridadPública #Semar #SN #Sociedad #SociedadNoticias #SociedadNoticiasCom #sociedadNoticias #SociedadNoticiasCom #TamaulipasViolencia
  25. Drug Take Back Day prevents misuse, protects the environment

    IF AUTHORIZED, THE STATE WILL NEED TO REDO THE PLAN. HAPPENING TODAY, YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO SAFELY…
    #Environment #Albuquerque #april #backday #chair #college #DEA #drug #drugtakeback #medicinecabinet #micahchavez #misuse #NewMexico #pharmacist #pharmacy #street #third-yearpharmacystudent #university
    europesays.com/2945921/

  26. Cannabis Lies Vol. 9: The Reform Lie

    Filed Under: Policy Fiction

    The federal apparatus has spoken. The Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration have announced a shift in the regulatory status of cannabis, moving state-licensed medical products to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act while pointedly leaving adult use, unlicensed, and synthetic THC products in Schedule I. Headlines across the country erupted with the language of victory. Outlets hailed this as a historic acknowledgment of the plant’s medical utility, a shift that supposedly recognizes the plant’s reality after decades of denial. The public was told that the prohibition era was entering its twilight and that the federal government had finally conceded that the plant possesses medicinal value.

    None of this reflects the actual legal impact of the order. This announcement is the latest manifestation of the Reform Lie. It is a calculated piece of bureaucratic maintenance designed to satisfy the demand for progress while ensuring the core structure of prohibition remains entirely untouched. As Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche stated in the order, the new policy mandates that:

    “Marijuana in any form covered by a state medical marijuana license, be placed in Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act.”

    It is a classic maneuver by the state to preserve its authority by offering a small, controlled concession that changes everything on paper but leaves the reality of the drug war exactly where it has always been.

    The Reform Lie is the mechanism by which the state manages the tension between popular opinion and its own mandate. It functions by acknowledging that a substance has medical value without ever addressing the fundamental injustice of its criminalization. When the government moves a substance from one box to another, it claims it is following the science. When that same government keeps the prisons full, keeps the borders militarized against possession, and keeps the threat of federal intervention hanging over every state-sanctioned interaction, it is not following science. It is managing optics. For decades, the apparatus has faced growing pressure to address the disconnect between federal law and the public reality of cannabis use. Instead of dismantling the structure, the government has repeatedly opted for symbolic reform. These gestures generate cycles of positive press. They allow officials to claim they have acted on the issue. They provide a release valve for public anger without ever sacrificing the underlying authority to arrest, prosecute, and punish. This is the central trick. The Reform Lie presents a change in tax status as a change in morality.

    To understand the scope of this deception, one must look closely at what the shift to Schedule III actually achieves. Under the Controlled Substances Act, Schedule III is home to substances such as anabolic steroids and certain prescription painkillers. It is a designation that implies a potential for abuse, though one that the state deems less severe than those in the Schedule I category, which the government defines as having no currently accepted medical use. Moving state-licensed medical products to Schedule III finally acknowledges what has been true for thousands of years. It acknowledges that the plant has medical value.

    However, the change in classification does nothing to address the core conflicts of the prohibition era. The federal criminal penalties for the unauthorized production, distribution, or possession of cannabis remain firmly in place for everything outside that narrow, state-sanctioned medical window. The interstate commerce ban survives completely intact. The government continues to treat the transport of the plant across state lines as a federal crime, regardless of the legality of the substance in the states of origin or destination. Banking remains a fractured landscape of private risk and federal oversight. Employment in the federal sector remains hostile to users, and the firearm restrictions that strip rights from medical patients do not budge.

    Most critically, this move provides no relief for those currently held in the carceral system. This order structurally excludes any mechanism for record relief, sentence modification, or pardon, leaving the carceral status quo entirely intact. It does not vacate criminal records. It does not end the status of cannabis as a tool for immigration enforcement. It does not stop the random, localized harassment of the population by federal agencies that still view the plant as contraband outside of the narrow, state-licensed framework.

    This is a victory for the balance sheet. It is a win for the corporations that have spent millions lobbying for the ability to deduct ordinary business expenses under the tax code. As of April 22, 2026, state-licensed medical cannabis is no longer subject to 280E. It is a stabilization for the industry that the government has deemed acceptable. For the average person, for the patient, and for the citizen who does not operate within the protective bubble of a state-licensed medical program, the reality remains frozen in the past. This bifurcation of the population is intentional. It creates a system where legitimacy is not a right inherent to the citizen. It is a commodity to be licensed. The people who work within the sanctioned industry are protected, taxed, and monitored. The people who exist outside of that bubble, who grow their own, who share, or who live in states without functional medical programs, are left to the mercy of a law that has not changed. The government has not legalized the plant. It has simply professionalized the privilege of interacting with it.

    This strategy is not new. It follows a consistent historical pattern. In every generation, the state has used cannabis policy as a messaging tool to address shifting cultural demands. This is not about the plant. It is about the maintenance of control. The lineage of this deception is long and well-documented.

    Consider the era of the Gateway Lie. The government needed a way to justify the expansion of its police power, so it framed the plant as the first step on a path to hard drug use. This narrative was never about safety. It was about creating a bridge between a benign cultural habit and the perceived chaos of the heroin epidemic. It gave law enforcement a justification to monitor, harass, and incarcerate individuals who were otherwise peaceful. The Gateway Lie was effective because it operated on fear. It suggested that a single act of consumption was a moral failing that would lead inevitably to destruction.

    Consider the Crime Lie, where the plant was the supposed accelerant for violence. In the 1980s and 1990s, the state pivoted to a narrative of aggression. It claimed that cannabis use caused psychosis and fueled the drug trade. It used this narrative to justify the militarization of police forces, the introduction of civil asset forfeiture, and the explosion of the prison population. The Crime Lie turned the consumer into a danger to the public, a threat that had to be neutralized by the full weight of the judicial system. It was never about the drug. It was about the expansion of the carceral state.

    Consider the Teen Epidemic Lie, where the narrative focused on the alleged destruction of youth, or the Addiction Lie, which served to pathologize a human relationship with a plant. Each of these lies served a purpose. They provided the state with the moral cover required to expand surveillance, increase budgets, and exert control. The Reform Lie is simply the modern evolution of this pattern. The state no longer needs to argue that the plant causes violence, because the public no longer believes it. So, the state shifts the narrative. It pivots to the language of regulation. It claims to be fixing the system. It is a retreat, but it is a managed retreat. The goal remains the same, which is to maintain the state’s position as the final arbiter of what a person can put into their own body.

    The most devastating impact of the Reform Lie is the erasure of the human cost. When the headlines celebrate a minor technical shift, they drown out the voices of those who continue to suffer under the full weight of prohibition. The Reform Lie tells the prisoner that their incarceration is necessary because they did not have the right paperwork. It tells the immigrant that their status remains precarious because the federal law still views the plant as an illicit substance. It tells the veteran that they must choose between their medical treatment and their access to federal services. It tells the small grower that they are a criminal while the corporate entity next door is a taxpayer. By focusing on the tax status of corporations, the conversation ignores the individuals who are still being processed through the system. It creates an environment where progress is measured by market capitalization rather than the restoration of liberty. It turns the struggle for sovereignty into a fight for market share.

    Help Keep Pot Culture Magazine Independent Pot Culture Magazine is independent cannabis journalism. No corporate owners. No investors. Just readers. If you value this work, chip in a few dollars and help keep it going. Support PCM

    If the government acknowledges that cannabis has medical value, the continued maintenance of criminal penalties for everyone else becomes an indefensible moral contradiction. One cannot simultaneously argue that a substance is legitimate medicine and that the possession of that substance warrants the stripping of rights, the loss of employment, or the threat of prison. This contradiction exposes the truth of the state position. The government does not actually care about the safety of the substance. It cares about the control of the substance. If it were about safety, the state would be looking for ways to educate rather than incarcerate. If it were about medicine, the state would be ensuring access rather than creating barriers. The existence of the prohibition machinery alongside the admission of medical utility for the licensed few is proof that the objective has always been to maintain a system of punishment.

    This system relies on the compliance of the public. It relies on the belief that the state is making progress. The Reform Lie is designed to prevent the public from seeing that the state is not moving toward freedom. It is moving toward an integrated model of control. By allowing a portion of the market to become legitimate, the state creates a vested interest in the status quo. The corporate entities that now have a seat at the table are no longer incentivized to fight for total legalization. They are incentivized to maintain the current regulatory structure because it keeps their competitors out. They become partners in the enforcement of the very prohibition they once railed against. This is the ultimate victory for the state. It co-opts the opposition by giving them a slice of the profit.

    We have seen this happen in other sectors of the economy, where regulations are written by the very corporations they are meant to govern. This is not reform. This is the capture of the regulatory apparatus. The Reform Lie ensures that the people who built the culture, who fought for the plant when it was dangerous to do so, are excluded from the new order. They are the ones who bear the cost of the transition. They are the ones who are still in cages, who are still fleeing from the law, who are still fighting for the right to exist in peace.

    This administrative process is now set to continue with new hearings starting June 29, 2026. These proceedings are often portrayed as a necessary step toward further reform, a way to build a bureaucratic consensus for future changes. In practice, they serve as a stalling tactic. They provide a way for the administrative state to maintain the illusion of progress while keeping the ultimate authority firmly in its own hands. These hearings will involve experts, lobbyists, and officials debating the minutiae of regulation, all while the fundamental structure of the Controlled Substances Act remains unassailable. The system is designed to consume time, resources, and energy, ensuring that any real change is mediated through a process that the state can control, slow, or halt entirely. It is a theatre of governance, performed for an audience that is desperate for change, but the script was written in the halls of power, not by the people who have lived the consequences of prohibition.

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    The administrative state is also moving to consolidate its control over clinical trials. By creating a registration pathway for state-licensed entities, the government is essentially seizing control of the research process. It is setting itself up as the gatekeeper of scientific knowledge. It will dictate who can research the plant, what they can research, and what the results can be used for. This is not an opening of the doors to scientific discovery. It is the enclosure of the scientific commons. It ensures that the research that reaches the public will be the research that has been filtered through the priorities of the state.

    The Reform Lie is not a strategy. It is an admission of failure. When the government chooses to perform the act of reform without embracing the reality of justice, it proves that it is not interested in the truth. It is interested in the maintenance of power. True reform would not be a shuffling of schedules. It would be the total and unconditional withdrawal of federal interference from the lives of the people. It would be the recognition that the state has no authority to criminalize the relationship between a human being and a plant. It would be the end of the prohibition machine, the release of the prisoners, and the restoration of rights for every person affected by the war on the plant.

    As long as the apparatus continues to frame these technical shifts as moral victories, the public must recognize the deception. This is not progress. This is the state recalibrating its control to ensure that it remains the gatekeeper, the tax collector, and the final judge of who is allowed to exist in the world it seeks to dominate. The plant remains the same. The people remain the same. The only thing that has shifted is the label on the cage. The cage is still there. The bars are still locked. The guards are still watching. The power to punish, to threaten, and to control has not been removed. It has been refined. It has been made more surgical. It has been made more efficient.

    The moral weight of this lie is heavy. It falls on those who have been promised justice and received only a change in terminology. It falls on the families who have been broken by the enforcement of archaic laws. It falls on the communities that have been targeted for generations. The Reform Lie assumes that the public has forgotten the history of the struggle. It assumes that the public is satisfied with the crumbs of corporate legitimacy. It assumes that there is no understanding of the difference between the freedom to live and the permission to serve.

    The narrative of the state must be rejected. The recognition must grow that every small step that leaves the core structure of the prohibition machine in place is a step away from justice. The government must be held accountable for the contradiction of its own law. The reality of the prohibition era must continue to be documented, to expose the lies that are told to justify the control, and to advocate for the total restoration of liberty. The struggle for the plant is not a struggle for a change in status. It is a struggle for the soul of the culture. It is a struggle to define what it means to be a free person in a society that seeks to regulate every choice. As NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano noted regarding the order:

    “Rescheduling fails to fully harmonize federal marijuana policy with the cannabis laws of many states, particularly the 24 states that have legalized its use and sale to adults.”

    This is the core of the deception. The Reform Lie is the latest barrier to that freedom. It is a wall that must be dismantled, not by the government, but by the people who have lived the reality of the struggle.

    The truth is simple, though the state works hard to obscure it. Cannabis is a part of the human experience. It has been used for healing, for creativity, for connection, and for joy for as long as historical records exist. The attempts by the state to control this relationship are an affront to human autonomy. They are based on fear, on ignorance, and on a desire for power. The reclassification to Schedule III is just the latest tactic in a long campaign to prevent people from fully embracing their own sovereignty. While the proponents of this move claim that:

    “Today’s order marks a historical reversal in federal cannabis policy,”

    It is a sign that the state is feeling the pressure, that it knows its position is untenable, but that it is not yet ready to concede.

    A crossroads has been reached. Either the crumbs offered by the state are accepted, turning the public into participants in their own regulation, or the fight for the total and unconditional end of the prohibition machine continues. The Reform Lie can be accepted, or the truth can be demanded. The history of the culture is a history of resistance. It is a history of people who refused to be told what they could do, who they could be, or what they could consume. That history is the source of strength. It is the foundation upon which the future will be built. Permission from the state is not required to exist. Schedules, labels, and tax codes are not needed to define what is right. The truth is known, and it will continue to be shared until the last cage is empty and the prohibition machine is nothing but a memory.

    The Reform Lie will continue to be told. The headlines will continue to scream about progress that does not exist. The state will continue to frame its maintenance of power as a move toward justice. But the deception will not hold. The patterns are visible. The history is known. The stakes are understood. The reality of the prohibition era will be documented, one article, one story, one voice at a time. This is not just a battle for a plant. It is a battle for the truth. And it is a battle that will be won, not because the state gives permission, but because the truth is on the side of the people. The prohibition machine is built on lies, and lies cannot stand forever against the weight of reality. The end of prohibition is coming, not through the actions of the state, but through the resolve of the people who have been fighting for it all along. The Reform Lie is the last gasp of a system that knows its time is over. We will not be fooled. We will not be silenced. We will be here, documenting the reality, telling the truth, and fighting for the culture until the day the plant is free.

    ©2026, Pot Culture Magazine. All rights reserved. This is the property of Pot Culture Magazine and is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or transmission
    of this work, in part or in whole, without the express written permission of Pot Culture Magazine, is strictly
    prohibited.

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    4/20 has been hollowed out by branding, corporate silence, and a culture that forgot its own history. While the industry sells holiday merch, Singapore executed a man for cannabis. The movement that once fought for autonomy now treats the plant like a commodity. This piece examines the cost of that betrayal and the culture left…

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  27. Cannabis Lies Vol. 9: The Reform Lie

    Filed Under: Policy Fiction

    The federal apparatus has spoken. The Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration have announced a shift in the regulatory status of cannabis, moving state-licensed medical products to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act while pointedly leaving adult use, unlicensed, and synthetic THC products in Schedule I. Headlines across the country erupted with the language of victory. Outlets hailed this as a historic acknowledgment of the plant’s medical utility, a shift that supposedly recognizes the plant’s reality after decades of denial. The public was told that the prohibition era was entering its twilight and that the federal government had finally conceded that the plant possesses medicinal value.

    None of this reflects the actual legal impact of the order. This announcement is the latest manifestation of the Reform Lie. It is a calculated piece of bureaucratic maintenance designed to satisfy the demand for progress while ensuring the core structure of prohibition remains entirely untouched. As Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche stated in the order, the new policy mandates that:

    “Marijuana in any form covered by a state medical marijuana license, be placed in Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act.”

    It is a classic maneuver by the state to preserve its authority by offering a small, controlled concession that changes everything on paper but leaves the reality of the drug war exactly where it has always been.

    The Reform Lie is the mechanism by which the state manages the tension between popular opinion and its own mandate. It functions by acknowledging that a substance has medical value without ever addressing the fundamental injustice of its criminalization. When the government moves a substance from one box to another, it claims it is following the science. When that same government keeps the prisons full, keeps the borders militarized against possession, and keeps the threat of federal intervention hanging over every state-sanctioned interaction, it is not following science. It is managing optics. For decades, the apparatus has faced growing pressure to address the disconnect between federal law and the public reality of cannabis use. Instead of dismantling the structure, the government has repeatedly opted for symbolic reform. These gestures generate cycles of positive press. They allow officials to claim they have acted on the issue. They provide a release valve for public anger without ever sacrificing the underlying authority to arrest, prosecute, and punish. This is the central trick. The Reform Lie presents a change in tax status as a change in morality.

    To understand the scope of this deception, one must look closely at what the shift to Schedule III actually achieves. Under the Controlled Substances Act, Schedule III is home to substances such as anabolic steroids and certain prescription painkillers. It is a designation that implies a potential for abuse, though one that the state deems less severe than those in the Schedule I category, which the government defines as having no currently accepted medical use. Moving state-licensed medical products to Schedule III finally acknowledges what has been true for thousands of years. It acknowledges that the plant has medical value.

    However, the change in classification does nothing to address the core conflicts of the prohibition era. The federal criminal penalties for the unauthorized production, distribution, or possession of cannabis remain firmly in place for everything outside that narrow, state-sanctioned medical window. The interstate commerce ban survives completely intact. The government continues to treat the transport of the plant across state lines as a federal crime, regardless of the legality of the substance in the states of origin or destination. Banking remains a fractured landscape of private risk and federal oversight. Employment in the federal sector remains hostile to users, and the firearm restrictions that strip rights from medical patients do not budge.

    Most critically, this move provides no relief for those currently held in the carceral system. This order structurally excludes any mechanism for record relief, sentence modification, or pardon, leaving the carceral status quo entirely intact. It does not vacate criminal records. It does not end the status of cannabis as a tool for immigration enforcement. It does not stop the random, localized harassment of the population by federal agencies that still view the plant as contraband outside of the narrow, state-licensed framework.

    This is a victory for the balance sheet. It is a win for the corporations that have spent millions lobbying for the ability to deduct ordinary business expenses under the tax code. As of April 22, 2026, state-licensed medical cannabis is no longer subject to 280E. It is a stabilization for the industry that the government has deemed acceptable. For the average person, for the patient, and for the citizen who does not operate within the protective bubble of a state-licensed medical program, the reality remains frozen in the past. This bifurcation of the population is intentional. It creates a system where legitimacy is not a right inherent to the citizen. It is a commodity to be licensed. The people who work within the sanctioned industry are protected, taxed, and monitored. The people who exist outside of that bubble, who grow their own, who share, or who live in states without functional medical programs, are left to the mercy of a law that has not changed. The government has not legalized the plant. It has simply professionalized the privilege of interacting with it.

    This strategy is not new. It follows a consistent historical pattern. In every generation, the state has used cannabis policy as a messaging tool to address shifting cultural demands. This is not about the plant. It is about the maintenance of control. The lineage of this deception is long and well-documented.

    Consider the era of the Gateway Lie. The government needed a way to justify the expansion of its police power, so it framed the plant as the first step on a path to hard drug use. This narrative was never about safety. It was about creating a bridge between a benign cultural habit and the perceived chaos of the heroin epidemic. It gave law enforcement a justification to monitor, harass, and incarcerate individuals who were otherwise peaceful. The Gateway Lie was effective because it operated on fear. It suggested that a single act of consumption was a moral failing that would lead inevitably to destruction.

    Consider the Crime Lie, where the plant was the supposed accelerant for violence. In the 1980s and 1990s, the state pivoted to a narrative of aggression. It claimed that cannabis use caused psychosis and fueled the drug trade. It used this narrative to justify the militarization of police forces, the introduction of civil asset forfeiture, and the explosion of the prison population. The Crime Lie turned the consumer into a danger to the public, a threat that had to be neutralized by the full weight of the judicial system. It was never about the drug. It was about the expansion of the carceral state.

    Consider the Teen Epidemic Lie, where the narrative focused on the alleged destruction of youth, or the Addiction Lie, which served to pathologize a human relationship with a plant. Each of these lies served a purpose. They provided the state with the moral cover required to expand surveillance, increase budgets, and exert control. The Reform Lie is simply the modern evolution of this pattern. The state no longer needs to argue that the plant causes violence, because the public no longer believes it. So, the state shifts the narrative. It pivots to the language of regulation. It claims to be fixing the system. It is a retreat, but it is a managed retreat. The goal remains the same, which is to maintain the state’s position as the final arbiter of what a person can put into their own body.

    The most devastating impact of the Reform Lie is the erasure of the human cost. When the headlines celebrate a minor technical shift, they drown out the voices of those who continue to suffer under the full weight of prohibition. The Reform Lie tells the prisoner that their incarceration is necessary because they did not have the right paperwork. It tells the immigrant that their status remains precarious because the federal law still views the plant as an illicit substance. It tells the veteran that they must choose between their medical treatment and their access to federal services. It tells the small grower that they are a criminal while the corporate entity next door is a taxpayer. By focusing on the tax status of corporations, the conversation ignores the individuals who are still being processed through the system. It creates an environment where progress is measured by market capitalization rather than the restoration of liberty. It turns the struggle for sovereignty into a fight for market share.

    Help Keep Pot Culture Magazine Independent Pot Culture Magazine is independent cannabis journalism. No corporate owners. No investors. Just readers. If you value this work, chip in a few dollars and help keep it going. Support PCM

    If the government acknowledges that cannabis has medical value, the continued maintenance of criminal penalties for everyone else becomes an indefensible moral contradiction. One cannot simultaneously argue that a substance is legitimate medicine and that the possession of that substance warrants the stripping of rights, the loss of employment, or the threat of prison. This contradiction exposes the truth of the state position. The government does not actually care about the safety of the substance. It cares about the control of the substance. If it were about safety, the state would be looking for ways to educate rather than incarcerate. If it were about medicine, the state would be ensuring access rather than creating barriers. The existence of the prohibition machinery alongside the admission of medical utility for the licensed few is proof that the objective has always been to maintain a system of punishment.

    This system relies on the compliance of the public. It relies on the belief that the state is making progress. The Reform Lie is designed to prevent the public from seeing that the state is not moving toward freedom. It is moving toward an integrated model of control. By allowing a portion of the market to become legitimate, the state creates a vested interest in the status quo. The corporate entities that now have a seat at the table are no longer incentivized to fight for total legalization. They are incentivized to maintain the current regulatory structure because it keeps their competitors out. They become partners in the enforcement of the very prohibition they once railed against. This is the ultimate victory for the state. It co-opts the opposition by giving them a slice of the profit.

    We have seen this happen in other sectors of the economy, where regulations are written by the very corporations they are meant to govern. This is not reform. This is the capture of the regulatory apparatus. The Reform Lie ensures that the people who built the culture, who fought for the plant when it was dangerous to do so, are excluded from the new order. They are the ones who bear the cost of the transition. They are the ones who are still in cages, who are still fleeing from the law, who are still fighting for the right to exist in peace.

    This administrative process is now set to continue with new hearings starting June 29, 2026. These proceedings are often portrayed as a necessary step toward further reform, a way to build a bureaucratic consensus for future changes. In practice, they serve as a stalling tactic. They provide a way for the administrative state to maintain the illusion of progress while keeping the ultimate authority firmly in its own hands. These hearings will involve experts, lobbyists, and officials debating the minutiae of regulation, all while the fundamental structure of the Controlled Substances Act remains unassailable. The system is designed to consume time, resources, and energy, ensuring that any real change is mediated through a process that the state can control, slow, or halt entirely. It is a theatre of governance, performed for an audience that is desperate for change, but the script was written in the halls of power, not by the people who have lived the consequences of prohibition.

    MORE FROM CANNABIS LIES

    CANNABIS LIES Vol. 8: The Addiction Lie

    Cannabis is often labeled addictive, but the science tells a more precise story. This piece breaks down cannabis use disorder, how it is defined, and why mild, moderate, and severe cases get flattened into one fear-driven narrative. The result is a distorted public understanding of risk that fuels policy, perception, and misinformation.

    by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 11, 2026April 20, 2026

    CANNABIS LIES Vol. 7: The Mental Health Panic

    Cannabis and mental health risks are often overstated in public debate. Research shows heavy use and high THC exposure can increase psychosis risk in vulnerable individuals, but widespread claims of a mental health crisis lack strong evidence. This piece examines the data, separates correlation from causation, and breaks down what cannabis users need to know.

    by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 4, 2026April 2, 2026

    CANNABIS LIES Vol. 6: The Driving Apocalypse Lie

    Legal cannabis is often blamed for rising traffic deaths, but federal data tells a more complicated story. NHTSA findings, toxicology limitations, and conflicting crash studies reveal that THC presence is not a reliable measure of impairment. This investigation breaks down how flawed testing and policy shortcuts have shaped the narrative around so-called stoned driving.

    by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsMarch 28, 2026March 27, 2026

    The administrative state is also moving to consolidate its control over clinical trials. By creating a registration pathway for state-licensed entities, the government is essentially seizing control of the research process. It is setting itself up as the gatekeeper of scientific knowledge. It will dictate who can research the plant, what they can research, and what the results can be used for. This is not an opening of the doors to scientific discovery. It is the enclosure of the scientific commons. It ensures that the research that reaches the public will be the research that has been filtered through the priorities of the state.

    The Reform Lie is not a strategy. It is an admission of failure. When the government chooses to perform the act of reform without embracing the reality of justice, it proves that it is not interested in the truth. It is interested in the maintenance of power. True reform would not be a shuffling of schedules. It would be the total and unconditional withdrawal of federal interference from the lives of the people. It would be the recognition that the state has no authority to criminalize the relationship between a human being and a plant. It would be the end of the prohibition machine, the release of the prisoners, and the restoration of rights for every person affected by the war on the plant.

    As long as the apparatus continues to frame these technical shifts as moral victories, the public must recognize the deception. This is not progress. This is the state recalibrating its control to ensure that it remains the gatekeeper, the tax collector, and the final judge of who is allowed to exist in the world it seeks to dominate. The plant remains the same. The people remain the same. The only thing that has shifted is the label on the cage. The cage is still there. The bars are still locked. The guards are still watching. The power to punish, to threaten, and to control has not been removed. It has been refined. It has been made more surgical. It has been made more efficient.

    The moral weight of this lie is heavy. It falls on those who have been promised justice and received only a change in terminology. It falls on the families who have been broken by the enforcement of archaic laws. It falls on the communities that have been targeted for generations. The Reform Lie assumes that the public has forgotten the history of the struggle. It assumes that the public is satisfied with the crumbs of corporate legitimacy. It assumes that there is no understanding of the difference between the freedom to live and the permission to serve.

    The narrative of the state must be rejected. The recognition must grow that every small step that leaves the core structure of the prohibition machine in place is a step away from justice. The government must be held accountable for the contradiction of its own law. The reality of the prohibition era must continue to be documented, to expose the lies that are told to justify the control, and to advocate for the total restoration of liberty. The struggle for the plant is not a struggle for a change in status. It is a struggle for the soul of the culture. It is a struggle to define what it means to be a free person in a society that seeks to regulate every choice. As NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano noted regarding the order:

    “Rescheduling fails to fully harmonize federal marijuana policy with the cannabis laws of many states, particularly the 24 states that have legalized its use and sale to adults.”

    This is the core of the deception. The Reform Lie is the latest barrier to that freedom. It is a wall that must be dismantled, not by the government, but by the people who have lived the reality of the struggle.

    The truth is simple, though the state works hard to obscure it. Cannabis is a part of the human experience. It has been used for healing, for creativity, for connection, and for joy for as long as historical records exist. The attempts by the state to control this relationship are an affront to human autonomy. They are based on fear, on ignorance, and on a desire for power. The reclassification to Schedule III is just the latest tactic in a long campaign to prevent people from fully embracing their own sovereignty. While the proponents of this move claim that:

    “Today’s order marks a historical reversal in federal cannabis policy,”

    It is a sign that the state is feeling the pressure, that it knows its position is untenable, but that it is not yet ready to concede.

    A crossroads has been reached. Either the crumbs offered by the state are accepted, turning the public into participants in their own regulation, or the fight for the total and unconditional end of the prohibition machine continues. The Reform Lie can be accepted, or the truth can be demanded. The history of the culture is a history of resistance. It is a history of people who refused to be told what they could do, who they could be, or what they could consume. That history is the source of strength. It is the foundation upon which the future will be built. Permission from the state is not required to exist. Schedules, labels, and tax codes are not needed to define what is right. The truth is known, and it will continue to be shared until the last cage is empty and the prohibition machine is nothing but a memory.

    The Reform Lie will continue to be told. The headlines will continue to scream about progress that does not exist. The state will continue to frame its maintenance of power as a move toward justice. But the deception will not hold. The patterns are visible. The history is known. The stakes are understood. The reality of the prohibition era will be documented, one article, one story, one voice at a time. This is not just a battle for a plant. It is a battle for the truth. And it is a battle that will be won, not because the state gives permission, but because the truth is on the side of the people. The prohibition machine is built on lies, and lies cannot stand forever against the weight of reality. The end of prohibition is coming, not through the actions of the state, but through the resolve of the people who have been fighting for it all along. The Reform Lie is the last gasp of a system that knows its time is over. We will not be fooled. We will not be silenced. We will be here, documenting the reality, telling the truth, and fighting for the culture until the day the plant is free.

    ©2026, Pot Culture Magazine. All rights reserved. This is the property of Pot Culture Magazine and is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or transmission
    of this work, in part or in whole, without the express written permission of Pot Culture Magazine, is strictly
    prohibited.

    F O R T H E C U L T U R E B Y T H E C U L T U R E

    The Digital Cage: Saint Lucia’s Traceability Trap

    Saint Lucia has selected GrowerIQ as its national seed-to-sale traceability backbone, effectively finalizing a digital surveillance grid for its cannabis industry. By mandating enterprise software before establishing licensing frameworks, the government risks automating the exclusion of legacy farmers. This move trades cultural sovereignty for state-managed control, turning the cannabis industry into an extension of the…

    by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 23, 2026April 22, 2026

    Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s Virginia Sabotage

    Virginia legalized possession, but Governor Abigail Spanberger sabotaged the retail market. By delaying sales until 2027 and gutting equity provisions, the Commonwealth institutionalized a half-legal trap. Consumers now navigate a system that treats possession as a right but supply as a crime, fueling an unchecked illicit market while abandoning promised reform. Spanberger’s public safety rhetoric…

    by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 21, 2026April 20, 2026

    4/20 is Dead

    4/20 has been hollowed out by branding, corporate silence, and a culture that forgot its own history. While the industry sells holiday merch, Singapore executed a man for cannabis. The movement that once fought for autonomy now treats the plant like a commodity. This piece examines the cost of that betrayal and the culture left…

    by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 20, 2026April 24, 2026 #280E #AdministrativeLaw #cannabis #CannabisCommunity #CannabisCulture #CannabisCommunity #CarceralState #Culture #DEA #DepartmentOfJustice #DrugWar #FederalGovernment #Industry #Legalization #Marijuana #MarijuanaNews #NORML #Policy #PolicyFiction #PotCultureMagazine #Prohibition #Reform #ScheduleIII #StateSanctioned #Weed
  28. Cannabis Lies Vol. 9: The Reform Lie

    Filed Under: Policy Fiction

    The federal apparatus has spoken. The Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration have announced a shift in the regulatory status of cannabis, moving state-licensed medical products to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act while pointedly leaving adult use, unlicensed, and synthetic THC products in Schedule I. Headlines across the country erupted with the language of victory. Outlets hailed this as a historic acknowledgment of the plant’s medical utility, a shift that supposedly recognizes the plant’s reality after decades of denial. The public was told that the prohibition era was entering its twilight and that the federal government had finally conceded that the plant possesses medicinal value.

    None of this reflects the actual legal impact of the order. This announcement is the latest manifestation of the Reform Lie. It is a calculated piece of bureaucratic maintenance designed to satisfy the demand for progress while ensuring the core structure of prohibition remains entirely untouched. As Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche stated in the order, the new policy mandates that:

    “Marijuana in any form covered by a state medical marijuana license, be placed in Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act.”

    It is a classic maneuver by the state to preserve its authority by offering a small, controlled concession that changes everything on paper but leaves the reality of the drug war exactly where it has always been.

    The Reform Lie is the mechanism by which the state manages the tension between popular opinion and its own mandate. It functions by acknowledging that a substance has medical value without ever addressing the fundamental injustice of its criminalization. When the government moves a substance from one box to another, it claims it is following the science. When that same government keeps the prisons full, keeps the borders militarized against possession, and keeps the threat of federal intervention hanging over every state-sanctioned interaction, it is not following science. It is managing optics. For decades, the apparatus has faced growing pressure to address the disconnect between federal law and the public reality of cannabis use. Instead of dismantling the structure, the government has repeatedly opted for symbolic reform. These gestures generate cycles of positive press. They allow officials to claim they have acted on the issue. They provide a release valve for public anger without ever sacrificing the underlying authority to arrest, prosecute, and punish. This is the central trick. The Reform Lie presents a change in tax status as a change in morality.

    To understand the scope of this deception, one must look closely at what the shift to Schedule III actually achieves. Under the Controlled Substances Act, Schedule III is home to substances such as anabolic steroids and certain prescription painkillers. It is a designation that implies a potential for abuse, though one that the state deems less severe than those in the Schedule I category, which the government defines as having no currently accepted medical use. Moving state-licensed medical products to Schedule III finally acknowledges what has been true for thousands of years. It acknowledges that the plant has medical value.

    However, the change in classification does nothing to address the core conflicts of the prohibition era. The federal criminal penalties for the unauthorized production, distribution, or possession of cannabis remain firmly in place for everything outside that narrow, state-sanctioned medical window. The interstate commerce ban survives completely intact. The government continues to treat the transport of the plant across state lines as a federal crime, regardless of the legality of the substance in the states of origin or destination. Banking remains a fractured landscape of private risk and federal oversight. Employment in the federal sector remains hostile to users, and the firearm restrictions that strip rights from medical patients do not budge.

    Most critically, this move provides no relief for those currently held in the carceral system. This order structurally excludes any mechanism for record relief, sentence modification, or pardon, leaving the carceral status quo entirely intact. It does not vacate criminal records. It does not end the status of cannabis as a tool for immigration enforcement. It does not stop the random, localized harassment of the population by federal agencies that still view the plant as contraband outside of the narrow, state-licensed framework.

    This is a victory for the balance sheet. It is a win for the corporations that have spent millions lobbying for the ability to deduct ordinary business expenses under the tax code. As of April 22, 2026, state-licensed medical cannabis is no longer subject to 280E. It is a stabilization for the industry that the government has deemed acceptable. For the average person, for the patient, and for the citizen who does not operate within the protective bubble of a state-licensed medical program, the reality remains frozen in the past. This bifurcation of the population is intentional. It creates a system where legitimacy is not a right inherent to the citizen. It is a commodity to be licensed. The people who work within the sanctioned industry are protected, taxed, and monitored. The people who exist outside of that bubble, who grow their own, who share, or who live in states without functional medical programs, are left to the mercy of a law that has not changed. The government has not legalized the plant. It has simply professionalized the privilege of interacting with it.

    This strategy is not new. It follows a consistent historical pattern. In every generation, the state has used cannabis policy as a messaging tool to address shifting cultural demands. This is not about the plant. It is about the maintenance of control. The lineage of this deception is long and well-documented.

    Consider the era of the Gateway Lie. The government needed a way to justify the expansion of its police power, so it framed the plant as the first step on a path to hard drug use. This narrative was never about safety. It was about creating a bridge between a benign cultural habit and the perceived chaos of the heroin epidemic. It gave law enforcement a justification to monitor, harass, and incarcerate individuals who were otherwise peaceful. The Gateway Lie was effective because it operated on fear. It suggested that a single act of consumption was a moral failing that would lead inevitably to destruction.

    Consider the Crime Lie, where the plant was the supposed accelerant for violence. In the 1980s and 1990s, the state pivoted to a narrative of aggression. It claimed that cannabis use caused psychosis and fueled the drug trade. It used this narrative to justify the militarization of police forces, the introduction of civil asset forfeiture, and the explosion of the prison population. The Crime Lie turned the consumer into a danger to the public, a threat that had to be neutralized by the full weight of the judicial system. It was never about the drug. It was about the expansion of the carceral state.

    Consider the Teen Epidemic Lie, where the narrative focused on the alleged destruction of youth, or the Addiction Lie, which served to pathologize a human relationship with a plant. Each of these lies served a purpose. They provided the state with the moral cover required to expand surveillance, increase budgets, and exert control. The Reform Lie is simply the modern evolution of this pattern. The state no longer needs to argue that the plant causes violence, because the public no longer believes it. So, the state shifts the narrative. It pivots to the language of regulation. It claims to be fixing the system. It is a retreat, but it is a managed retreat. The goal remains the same, which is to maintain the state’s position as the final arbiter of what a person can put into their own body.

    The most devastating impact of the Reform Lie is the erasure of the human cost. When the headlines celebrate a minor technical shift, they drown out the voices of those who continue to suffer under the full weight of prohibition. The Reform Lie tells the prisoner that their incarceration is necessary because they did not have the right paperwork. It tells the immigrant that their status remains precarious because the federal law still views the plant as an illicit substance. It tells the veteran that they must choose between their medical treatment and their access to federal services. It tells the small grower that they are a criminal while the corporate entity next door is a taxpayer. By focusing on the tax status of corporations, the conversation ignores the individuals who are still being processed through the system. It creates an environment where progress is measured by market capitalization rather than the restoration of liberty. It turns the struggle for sovereignty into a fight for market share.

    Help Keep Pot Culture Magazine Independent Pot Culture Magazine is independent cannabis journalism. No corporate owners. No investors. Just readers. If you value this work, chip in a few dollars and help keep it going. Support PCM

    If the government acknowledges that cannabis has medical value, the continued maintenance of criminal penalties for everyone else becomes an indefensible moral contradiction. One cannot simultaneously argue that a substance is legitimate medicine and that the possession of that substance warrants the stripping of rights, the loss of employment, or the threat of prison. This contradiction exposes the truth of the state position. The government does not actually care about the safety of the substance. It cares about the control of the substance. If it were about safety, the state would be looking for ways to educate rather than incarcerate. If it were about medicine, the state would be ensuring access rather than creating barriers. The existence of the prohibition machinery alongside the admission of medical utility for the licensed few is proof that the objective has always been to maintain a system of punishment.

    This system relies on the compliance of the public. It relies on the belief that the state is making progress. The Reform Lie is designed to prevent the public from seeing that the state is not moving toward freedom. It is moving toward an integrated model of control. By allowing a portion of the market to become legitimate, the state creates a vested interest in the status quo. The corporate entities that now have a seat at the table are no longer incentivized to fight for total legalization. They are incentivized to maintain the current regulatory structure because it keeps their competitors out. They become partners in the enforcement of the very prohibition they once railed against. This is the ultimate victory for the state. It co-opts the opposition by giving them a slice of the profit.

    We have seen this happen in other sectors of the economy, where regulations are written by the very corporations they are meant to govern. This is not reform. This is the capture of the regulatory apparatus. The Reform Lie ensures that the people who built the culture, who fought for the plant when it was dangerous to do so, are excluded from the new order. They are the ones who bear the cost of the transition. They are the ones who are still in cages, who are still fleeing from the law, who are still fighting for the right to exist in peace.

    This administrative process is now set to continue with new hearings starting June 29, 2026. These proceedings are often portrayed as a necessary step toward further reform, a way to build a bureaucratic consensus for future changes. In practice, they serve as a stalling tactic. They provide a way for the administrative state to maintain the illusion of progress while keeping the ultimate authority firmly in its own hands. These hearings will involve experts, lobbyists, and officials debating the minutiae of regulation, all while the fundamental structure of the Controlled Substances Act remains unassailable. The system is designed to consume time, resources, and energy, ensuring that any real change is mediated through a process that the state can control, slow, or halt entirely. It is a theatre of governance, performed for an audience that is desperate for change, but the script was written in the halls of power, not by the people who have lived the consequences of prohibition.

    MORE FROM CANNABIS LIES

    CANNABIS LIES Vol. 8: The Addiction Lie

    Cannabis is often labeled addictive, but the science tells a more precise story. This piece breaks down cannabis use disorder, how it is defined, and why mild, moderate, and severe cases get flattened into one fear-driven narrative. The result is a distorted public understanding of risk that fuels policy, perception, and misinformation.

    by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 11, 2026April 20, 2026

    CANNABIS LIES Vol. 7: The Mental Health Panic

    Cannabis and mental health risks are often overstated in public debate. Research shows heavy use and high THC exposure can increase psychosis risk in vulnerable individuals, but widespread claims of a mental health crisis lack strong evidence. This piece examines the data, separates correlation from causation, and breaks down what cannabis users need to know.

    by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 4, 2026April 2, 2026

    CANNABIS LIES Vol. 6: The Driving Apocalypse Lie

    Legal cannabis is often blamed for rising traffic deaths, but federal data tells a more complicated story. NHTSA findings, toxicology limitations, and conflicting crash studies reveal that THC presence is not a reliable measure of impairment. This investigation breaks down how flawed testing and policy shortcuts have shaped the narrative around so-called stoned driving.

    by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsMarch 28, 2026March 27, 2026

    The administrative state is also moving to consolidate its control over clinical trials. By creating a registration pathway for state-licensed entities, the government is essentially seizing control of the research process. It is setting itself up as the gatekeeper of scientific knowledge. It will dictate who can research the plant, what they can research, and what the results can be used for. This is not an opening of the doors to scientific discovery. It is the enclosure of the scientific commons. It ensures that the research that reaches the public will be the research that has been filtered through the priorities of the state.

    The Reform Lie is not a strategy. It is an admission of failure. When the government chooses to perform the act of reform without embracing the reality of justice, it proves that it is not interested in the truth. It is interested in the maintenance of power. True reform would not be a shuffling of schedules. It would be the total and unconditional withdrawal of federal interference from the lives of the people. It would be the recognition that the state has no authority to criminalize the relationship between a human being and a plant. It would be the end of the prohibition machine, the release of the prisoners, and the restoration of rights for every person affected by the war on the plant.

    As long as the apparatus continues to frame these technical shifts as moral victories, the public must recognize the deception. This is not progress. This is the state recalibrating its control to ensure that it remains the gatekeeper, the tax collector, and the final judge of who is allowed to exist in the world it seeks to dominate. The plant remains the same. The people remain the same. The only thing that has shifted is the label on the cage. The cage is still there. The bars are still locked. The guards are still watching. The power to punish, to threaten, and to control has not been removed. It has been refined. It has been made more surgical. It has been made more efficient.

    The moral weight of this lie is heavy. It falls on those who have been promised justice and received only a change in terminology. It falls on the families who have been broken by the enforcement of archaic laws. It falls on the communities that have been targeted for generations. The Reform Lie assumes that the public has forgotten the history of the struggle. It assumes that the public is satisfied with the crumbs of corporate legitimacy. It assumes that there is no understanding of the difference between the freedom to live and the permission to serve.

    The narrative of the state must be rejected. The recognition must grow that every small step that leaves the core structure of the prohibition machine in place is a step away from justice. The government must be held accountable for the contradiction of its own law. The reality of the prohibition era must continue to be documented, to expose the lies that are told to justify the control, and to advocate for the total restoration of liberty. The struggle for the plant is not a struggle for a change in status. It is a struggle for the soul of the culture. It is a struggle to define what it means to be a free person in a society that seeks to regulate every choice. As NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano noted regarding the order:

    “Rescheduling fails to fully harmonize federal marijuana policy with the cannabis laws of many states, particularly the 24 states that have legalized its use and sale to adults.”

    This is the core of the deception. The Reform Lie is the latest barrier to that freedom. It is a wall that must be dismantled, not by the government, but by the people who have lived the reality of the struggle.

    The truth is simple, though the state works hard to obscure it. Cannabis is a part of the human experience. It has been used for healing, for creativity, for connection, and for joy for as long as historical records exist. The attempts by the state to control this relationship are an affront to human autonomy. They are based on fear, on ignorance, and on a desire for power. The reclassification to Schedule III is just the latest tactic in a long campaign to prevent people from fully embracing their own sovereignty. While the proponents of this move claim that:

    “Today’s order marks a historical reversal in federal cannabis policy,”

    It is a sign that the state is feeling the pressure, that it knows its position is untenable, but that it is not yet ready to concede.

    A crossroads has been reached. Either the crumbs offered by the state are accepted, turning the public into participants in their own regulation, or the fight for the total and unconditional end of the prohibition machine continues. The Reform Lie can be accepted, or the truth can be demanded. The history of the culture is a history of resistance. It is a history of people who refused to be told what they could do, who they could be, or what they could consume. That history is the source of strength. It is the foundation upon which the future will be built. Permission from the state is not required to exist. Schedules, labels, and tax codes are not needed to define what is right. The truth is known, and it will continue to be shared until the last cage is empty and the prohibition machine is nothing but a memory.

    The Reform Lie will continue to be told. The headlines will continue to scream about progress that does not exist. The state will continue to frame its maintenance of power as a move toward justice. But the deception will not hold. The patterns are visible. The history is known. The stakes are understood. The reality of the prohibition era will be documented, one article, one story, one voice at a time. This is not just a battle for a plant. It is a battle for the truth. And it is a battle that will be won, not because the state gives permission, but because the truth is on the side of the people. The prohibition machine is built on lies, and lies cannot stand forever against the weight of reality. The end of prohibition is coming, not through the actions of the state, but through the resolve of the people who have been fighting for it all along. The Reform Lie is the last gasp of a system that knows its time is over. We will not be fooled. We will not be silenced. We will be here, documenting the reality, telling the truth, and fighting for the culture until the day the plant is free.

    ©2026, Pot Culture Magazine. All rights reserved. This is the property of Pot Culture Magazine and is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or transmission
    of this work, in part or in whole, without the express written permission of Pot Culture Magazine, is strictly
    prohibited.

    F O R T H E C U L T U R E B Y T H E C U L T U R E

    The Digital Cage: Saint Lucia’s Traceability Trap

    Saint Lucia has selected GrowerIQ as its national seed-to-sale traceability backbone, effectively finalizing a digital surveillance grid for its cannabis industry. By mandating enterprise software before establishing licensing frameworks, the government risks automating the exclusion of legacy farmers. This move trades cultural sovereignty for state-managed control, turning the cannabis industry into an extension of the…

    by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 23, 2026April 22, 2026

    Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s Virginia Sabotage

    Virginia legalized possession, but Governor Abigail Spanberger sabotaged the retail market. By delaying sales until 2027 and gutting equity provisions, the Commonwealth institutionalized a half-legal trap. Consumers now navigate a system that treats possession as a right but supply as a crime, fueling an unchecked illicit market while abandoning promised reform. Spanberger’s public safety rhetoric…

    by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 21, 2026April 20, 2026

    4/20 is Dead

    4/20 has been hollowed out by branding, corporate silence, and a culture that forgot its own history. While the industry sells holiday merch, Singapore executed a man for cannabis. The movement that once fought for autonomy now treats the plant like a commodity. This piece examines the cost of that betrayal and the culture left…

    by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 20, 2026April 24, 2026 #280E #AdministrativeLaw #cannabis #CannabisCommunity #CannabisCulture #CannabisCommunity #CarceralState #Culture #DEA #DepartmentOfJustice #DrugWar #FederalGovernment #Industry #Legalization #Marijuana #MarijuanaNews #NORML #Policy #PolicyFiction #PotCultureMagazine #Prohibition #Reform #ScheduleIII #StateSanctioned #Weed
  29. The records, from the #US #Justice Department’s management unit, show that the total number of employees at the #FBI has dropped more than 7% since the government’s ‌2024 fiscal year, a loss of about 2,600 people. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s [#DEA] staff has dropped by about 6%, & the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives [#ATF] lost about 14%! of its workers.

    #FactCheck #TrumpLies #law #DOJ #NationalSecurity #Trump #criminal

  30. Research by ChainAlysis shows that On-Chain activities by Darknet Markets increased in 2025 to ~ $2.5B. Listings for illicit drugs are the most active form Crypto Crime. chainalysis.com/blog/crypto-dr