Drug Imports Dropping Rapidly – Taxpayers Want a Refund

Illegal Cannabis Imports Dropping Rapidly

If Hawaii voters had access to information about increases or decreases in drug trafficking surely we would not allow their taxes to be increased for a drug war with less financial needs.

While legal states are seeing less opioid deaths and less black market activity, Hawaii’s governor, Lt. Gov, law enforcement and prosecutors seem fixated on making failed policies work. It’s time to get medicine out of the war on drug and give some money back to tax payers. An apology would nice.

• Reported interceptions of illicit cannabis by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection nationwide have fallen from 2.53 million pounds in 2011, to 861,231 pounds in 2017: a 66% decrease.
• The consistent declines inversely reflect increases in domestic cannabis production as more U.S. states legalize cannabis whether for medical programs, adult-use markets, or both.
• Year-over-year patterns have persisted since 2011, with one exception which then introduced double-digit decreases (20.9% in 2014, 20.0% in 2015, 15.9% in 2016, and 33.5% in 2017).
• The Southwest Border sectors (along Mexico) yield exponentially more of the interceptions (99.61%) than the Coastal Borders sector (specifically Miami, New Orleans, and Ramey, Puerto Rico, with 0.26%), or the Northern Borders sector (along Canada, with 0.12%).
• Legally produced cannabis is characterized by higher quality, information about strains and testing results, and mandated quality standards which can each erode demand for illicit cannabis.
• Hawaii has no information available to the public.

Small family farms continue to provide medicine to those in need without added expense or danger to the public. We see prices fluctuate wildly under government regulations. The home market in Hawaii promises to help keep prices normalized IF law enforcement will stop increasing budgets for the war on drugs in Hawaii.