The American banking and financial industry is skittish about MaryJane. In truth, the U.S. is being fucking schizophrenic about the matter:
The financial-crimes arm of the Treasury Department is making it easier to deposit the fledgling industry’s growing revenue, at last count nearly $3 billion annually and almost all in cash. The government wants to tax the revenue and keep it away from organized crime. And it figures banks with strong compliance departments can best help it track the money.
At the same time, federal bank regulators have remained silent on the issue, raising the specter that banks could run afoul of federal drug laws if they accept the cash. That’s left the banking industry dazed and confused about what to do even as legal marijuana sellers in 23 states and the District of Columbia are faced with mountains of cash piling up in warehouses and basement vaults.
God damn you to eternal perdition, Nancy Reagan, for your God damned stupid "War on Drugs!
Join me in being further pissed off below:
At the same time that fucking Republicans are going apeshit over drugs and marijuana, our wonderful country wants to welcome Malaysia in a sweeping financial embrace via TPP.
Fucking people trafficking Malaysia where they have mass graves of dead young people as relics of their fucking people trafficking camps:
After one year on the State Department’s list of countries that are failing to combat modern-day slavery, Malaysia has been upgraded to a higher category. That judgment, part of an annual evaluation of how 188 countries deal with human trafficking, strains credulity, given how little Malaysia has done to address the problem.
The decision has raised suspicions that Malaysia’s status was changed to advance the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal, although the Obama administration denied that was the case.
The department’s annual Trafficking in Persons reports play an important role in condemning and reducing modern-day slavery, holding states accountable and pushing for change. Last year, the United States downgraded Malaysia to Tier 3 status, the bottom category reserved for nations that are not making a significant effort to combat human trafficking.
The demotion was more than justified by Malaysia’s dismal record. Its relatively large economy is a magnet for migrants from poorer neighboring countries. Among the estimated two million documented foreign workers and two million or more undocumented foreign workers in Malaysia, the department said, were many victims of human trafficking.
Men, women and children had been routinely conscripted for forced labor and the commercial sex trade. Unscrupulous employers, recruiters and criminal syndicates were judged to be operating with near impunity, though their victims were often treated as criminals. After the deadline for this year’s report, scores of graves were reportedly discovered in people-smuggling camps near Malaysia’s border with Thailand.
Obama apparently loves and is OK with people trafficking. Cannabis trafficking not so much.
Jesus Fucking God Damned Christ.