Virginia Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas, the Democratic leader behind the state’s redistricting effort, was arrested Thursday in connection with an alleged bribery and racketeering scheme.

In a 45-page indictment filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, Lucas and six co-defendants were charged with conspiring to distribute and possess marijuana, conspiring to launder money, laundering money, and committing bribery by distributing large quantities of illegal marijuana under the auspices of her legal medical cannabis business.

Lucas, an 82-year-old great-grandmother, has served in the Virginia Senate since 1992. She faces five of the eight charges included in the indictment. These charges arrive five months after the FBI raided Lucas’s office in Portsmouth, Virginia, and the neighboring cannabis dispensary she co-owns.

More fascist BS.

    • sudoshakes@reddthat.com
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      7 hours ago

      So… yes…

      BUT

      The only people training at USPSA, 3-Gun, NRL, PRS, and ELR matches I go to are conservatives.

      So maybe he left should actually take interest in the skills needed to defend their way of life. Until then, owning the gun is as useful as owning a plant.

      • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        NGL. I’m expecting most conservatives to be dead after a few weeks of us not reminding them not to drink bleach or using ivermectin to cure literally anything except parasitic infections.

      • cloudshouter@lemmy.zip
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        6 hours ago

        Not all of them, but yes, most. However, I know that there are quite a few ELR shooters as well as other enthusiast who don’t participate in matches.

        There used to be a John Brown gun club and there are certainly are people who are capable and willing to teach. If I had the time and resources I would love to start a two gun or rifle match that leans into the anti-fascist theme. Even .22 matches are growing in popularity and can be easier to get into.

  • Smaile@lemmy.ca
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    13 hours ago

    Political opponents are literally being arrested and the people are doing nothing.

    • Stormy@thelemmy.club
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      12 hours ago

      Yeah, well everyone has to work tomorrow so they can’t do anything. Maybe a Saturday protest. Or Friday afterwork.

      Good little Americans.

    • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      I voted for a guy in 2020 who said he was gonna deschedule marijuana but turns out he was a filthy liar so shrugs

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        I voted for a guy in 2020 who said he was gonna deschedule marijuana

        Citation needed.

        He promised to reschedule not deschedule. Source: Federal Marijuana Rescheduling: Process and Impact

        “In October 2022, President Joe Biden asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to review how marijuana is scheduled under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).”

        Biden lowered marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug. Lowering the classification is rescheduling.

        At the same time in Oct 2022 he did a mass federal pardon for past federal cannabis possession convictions.

        • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          So, 2022 is actually after 2020, when

          Nobody should be in jail for smoking marijuana," Biden told voters at a Tuesday house party in Nashua, New Hampshire.

          Asked by CNN if the former vice president supports legalizing marijuana, Andrew Bates, a Biden campaign spokesman, said Biden believes the drug should be decriminalized

          https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/16/politics/joe-biden-marijuana-decriminalization/ (arc)

          Biden lowered marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug.

          Which isn’t what he promised to do while campaigning, and the difference between descheduling and rescheduling enabled this arrest and prosecution, which is exactly how Biden wanted it because he is and always has been racist fucking scum who has fought to preserve law enforcement’s ability to harass black people

          he did a mass federal pardon for past federal

          Uh huh

          As far as bold acts of mass clemency go, it won’t lead to many people getting out of prison. In fact, it will lead to none. According to the White House and a report this week from the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) there is no one currently in federal custody for simple possession of marijuana.

          https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/10/15/don-t-expect-mass-prison-releases-from-biden-s-marijuana-clemency (arc)

          e; Two more stories while I’m thinking about this,

          In March, 2021, the Daily Beast reported that “dozens” of White House staffers had been “suspended, asked to resign or placed in a remote work program” because they had admitted to prior cannabis use. This action affected even those whose use had occurred in legal states.[13] When asked for comment, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged that five staffers had been fired over the issue.[14] In addition, Biden himself, when asked to comment on US track and field athlete Sha’carri Richardson’s 30-day suspension from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to a failed drug test, initially offered, “the rules are the rules.”[15] After it was announced that Richardson would be denied the chance to compete after the 30-day suspension was lifted, Psaki later suggested that the rules surrounding Richardson’s suspension be re-examined.[16]

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_policy_of_the_Biden_administration?wprov=sfla1

          Joe Biden is and always was a fucking asshole

          • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            So, 2022 is actually after 2020, when

            Nobody should be in jail for smoking marijuana," Biden told voters at a Tuesday house party in Nashua, New Hampshire.

            Asked by CNN if the former vice president supports legalizing marijuana, Andrew Bates, a Biden campaign spokesman, said Biden believes the drug should be decriminalized

            https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/16/politics/joe-biden-marijuana-decriminalization/ (arc)>

            I’d encourage you to read more than a soundbite especially if you’re looking for specifics. Here’s an actual interview transcript with Biden from May 2020, interviewed by Charlamagne tha God no less, where he asks the specific question of Biden and receives the specific answer:

            Charlamagne tha God: (15:42) Vice President Biden, I’ve read some of your black agenda and you say that you would decriminalize marijuana. What’s the difference between legalizing it and decriminalizing?

            Joe Biden: (15:51) Because they’re trying to find out whether or not there is any impact on the use of marijuana, not in leading you to other drugs, but what it affects. Does it affect long term development of the brain and we should wait until the studies are done. I think science matters.

            source

            Biden does make the distinction that he’s not going for full legalization, and further, that he’s going to defer to science instead of making the call himself.

            Biden lowered marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug.

            Which isn’t what he promised to do while campaigning, and the difference between descheduling and rescheduling enabled this arrest and prosecution, which is exactly how Biden wanted it because he is and always has been racist fucking scum who has fought to preserve law enforcement’s ability to harass black people

            He didn’t promise it deschedule it.

            he did a mass federal pardon for past federal

            Uh huh

            As far as bold acts of mass clemency go, it won’t lead to many people getting out of prison. In fact, it will lead to none. According to the White House and a report this week from the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) there is no one currently in federal custody for simple possession of marijuana.

            https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/10/15/don-t-expect-mass-prison-releases-from-biden-s-marijuana-clemency (arc)

            Weasel words in your sentence. “In fact, it will lead to none.” A pardon is far more than letting someone out of jail. Its removing the stain of the conviction from a persons record enabling them to seek employment without having to report it, pass background checks for jobs that require it, and makes you eligible for subsidized housing with that conviction removed.

            “In addition to individual pardons, Biden granted clemency to 6,500 individuals convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law, part of his broader initiative to address racial and systemic inequities in drug enforcement”

            source

            6500 people received the benefit of that pardon because the pardon went back all the way to 1992 convictions. Your own linked-through source says the number of pardoned people is 6577 Why didn’t you mention that and instead just quote your “no one” sentence?

            Are you going to counter that 6577 people is almost no one? I don’t necessarily disagree, but that’s because most simple possession charges are state or local offenses where the President of the United States has no pardon power. Again, your own source says this. If that’s your beef, take it up with states and cities.

            Joe Biden is and always was a fucking asshole

            All politicians are assholes, but Biden’s actions helping Americans’ interactions with marijuana in the legal system are more progressive and a larger improvement in our society than any other President in over 60 years. You can complain that he didn’t do enough, but I think its disingenuous for you to portray the positive actions forward and nothing.

  • jpreston1986@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    When asked whether the investigation was political payback, Blanche said: “We don’t do political paybacks,” and claimed the probe had begun years before Trump reentered office. The attorney general couldn’t offer a good explanation, however, for why he and the FBI director had bothered to give an official press conference for charges related to a declassified drug.

    Can’t imagine why they’d made a big spectacle out of laying blame to a black woman democrat right before an election. It’s just such a big fucking mystery 🤔

  • workerONE@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    So she has a legal cannabis business but the federal government classifies all her business activity as illegal?

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      14 hours ago

      Yes. That is the status of legal cannabis in the US. Regardless of what the states put on the law books, weed is still controlled at the fed level. Even after rescheduling from Class 1 to Class III it is still a Controlled Substance.

    • inclementimmigrant@lemmy.worldOP
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      14 hours ago

      My guess, they’re selectively apply the Controlled Substances Act on her. Since it’s still on the books as a schedule III drug, technically anyone running a dispensary is breaking the law and can be prosecuted federally.

    • zoloftt@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      Allegedly, they wire tapped her and caught her stating she did illegal things.

      I’ll standby for the trial though because the entire thing hinges around marijuana anyways.

      Edit: forgot to say, read the article hahaha. It talks about it. It’s surprisingly not “just” a trust-us situation… Allegedly…

      • Guy Dudeman@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        Yeah, from what I know about the rank-and-file in these cases, they’re till pretty legit. They don’t even seek an indictment unless it’s a slam-dunk. But with this administration in charge, you never know.

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
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        15 hours ago

        My apologies. It’s a legal tactic used by defense lawyers. Upon initial questioning, rather than asking to see the evidence, this is their question. I believe asking to see the evidence could be construed as insinuation of guilt, at least in my area, as told to me by a defense attorney for someone else.

        Maybe that’s changed? Maybe a criminal defense attorney could speak to this?

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
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        15 hours ago

        If she’s exonerated, it shouldn’t cause financial/employment ruin, but psychological distress for which she will be well compensated. I suppose that could lead to financial/vocational ruin, in which case she and future generations should be well-compensated (e.g., inheritance).