Top Democratic Leader in Redistricting Fight Arrested
newrepublic.com
Federal agents arrested Virginia state Senator Louise Lucas on drug, money laundering, and bribery charges.

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.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
    158·
    15 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
      136·
      14 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
        46·
        9 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.