This scene, which happened in Anchorage, Alaska, happened all across the country in the 1920s and 1930s. Liquor was federally illegal so, when it was found by federal officers, it was destroyed. Prohibition did not stop people from drinking; it just drove the price of booze up and its quality down. The 18th Amendment made liquor illegal and the 21st made it legal – a decade and a half later. Today we are facing a similar problem. Marijuana is a Schedule 1 drug. With the federal government. This ranks it with heroin and LSD, drugs with the greatest potential for abuse. Higher than cocaine and methamphetamines which are Schedule II.
The problem? Marijuana is legal in some states. BUT, it is still illegal federally. What this means is that you cannot buy marijuana in states where marijuana is legal with checks, credit cards or debit cards. It’s cash only. And that cash is federally “drug money” which will be seized if it is put in a bank. Or used to buy a home or car or a stock or a bond. So legitimate businesses selling a legal product – who must pay federal income taxes and state taxes and local taxes – have too much legal cash they cannot spend – a fiscal oddity that could only occur in America.
But we live in America and, over the long run, it is money that counts. It will not be long before state legal/federally illegal money becomes legal from point of sale to purchase of a home or car or stock or bond. The problem is we – like the United States Marshals in this photograph – are spending a lot of money to spin our political wheels. The money that was spent chasing bootleggers selling a product people wanted and the money being spent federally harassing legal, state-licensed marijuana dealers would have a better use in our schools, hospitals and VA services. The problem is our legislators are not reading history. [See my books at https://authormasterminds.com/master-of-the-impossible-crime.]