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.

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[–] 1 point 7 hours ago

You know, I knew at some point the feds would remind everyone that marijuana is still federally illegal and that state laws don't mean dick other than a refusal to enforce federal law for them but I didn't consider it as an angle for arresting political opponents.

That was silly to overlook, I suppose.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 day ago

    Welcome to the Fourth Reich. Didn't vote? You voted for it, Einsteen. Hope you like enslavement.

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  • [–] 45 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    Someone remind me, how many Americans in the Epstein files have been arrested?

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  • [–] 58 points 2 days ago (13 children)

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

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  • [–] 17 points 2 days ago* (7 children)

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

    Good little Americans.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 day ago (5 children)

    Let's break down what you're saying there.

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

    This part is true and constructive.

    Good little Americans.

    This part is mocking and patronizing. That tone also implies that the first part was actually sarcastic.

    So presumably what you're actually saying, is that you don't think protesting to the extent of one's abilities is enough? What do you propose instead?

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  • [–] 11 points 2 days ago (4 children)

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

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  • [–] 9 points 2 days ago* (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 days ago* (2 children)

    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

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  • [–] 66 points 2 days 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 🤔

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  • [–] 29 points 2 days ago (8 children)

    Its time the Left armed themselves, there's only one way to end fascism. They didn't vote Hitler out.

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  • [–] 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    It's not like the German people or a German resistance stopped him. It took several foreign armies, millions of deaths and a devastated continent. US still can do better.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Yeah, it'll take a few more foreign armies and at least 2-3 times more deaths. /s

    Seriously though, we are protesting; it's just not getting out there. Given we're not France protesting...

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  • [–] 10 points 2 days ago (4 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago*

    Yeah, we're trying to vote blue primarily to stop the red menace, but let's not kid ourselves that the Democrats have also been the party of rampant misinformation and scare-mongering with regards to firearms.

    "Ban awh gunz becaws dey lewk skawwy! :(" this entire time, instead of efforts toward improving responsibility and safety through education and mental health support. That cultural paradigm is biting us hard.

    So now a large number of "good liberals" are hoplophobes who are primarily a danger to themselves. (Plenty might be responsible owners, they're just humble and not loud about it.)

    This needs to change because the right to self defense from violent extremist regimes is not a "partisan issue."

    Funny how even the gross-old-pedos have attacked 2A rights now, but of course both factions will gladly surround themselves with goons wielding short suppressed SMGs with 30+ rd magazines.

    I take no issue with pacifists though. That's a choice and an honorable one. But something profound I've heard before is:

    "If you do no harm because you are incapable of it, you're not a pacifist, you're simply harmless."

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days 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.

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  • [–] 75 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

    Jesus fucking christ why can't we move past this fucking reagon era bullshit... Fuck these fascists

    Edit: I forgor the s

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  • [–] 20 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    Nixon era. Federal enforcement got started with the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which deemed cannabis a Schedule 1 drug. The Nixon admin also buried the Shafer Commission report, which said cannabis was not dangerous. The reason was Nixon wanted to target blacks and the anti-war left.

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  • Thanks for the info! I mentally conflated the marijuana crackdown with the crack stuff that Reagon sponsored later on with the "Anti Drug Abuse Act of 1986". I would correct my comment but someone responded with a funny picture that would be out of context if I swapped in Nixon. ;p

    As a side note: I don't think it's wholly disingenuous to attribute this kind of rediculous chicanery with Reagan, given that Reagan took Nixon's inertia and ran with it, going the extra mile to fuck over poor black people in particular.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago*

    1950s actually, never got past woman should be in kitchens, or barely able to vote, and POc/minorities knowing their "place." today there was an article where trump sent agents to PEOPLEs home asking who they voted, very PUTINY THING to do.

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  • [–] 38 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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

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  • [–] 27 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 27 points 2 days ago (10 children)
  • [–] [S] 23 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 hours ago

    Yes. That's a problem for the DEA when you're talking about a small business in California because of jurisdictional dick waving contests but less of a problem when they walk into DC under the presumption that the Republicans haven't completely lost it.

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  • [–] 27 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

    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...

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  • [–] 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    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?

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  • [–] 7 points 2 days 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.

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  • Trump Jr reading: " ... marijuana! Goodness me!" snort

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago

    The Turd Reich strikes again

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  • [–] 7 points 2 days ago

    It seems the Trump admin is targeting the legislative branch.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 days ago

    Blue wave gonna get arrested.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago (1 child)
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