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3-quarters of U.S. Border Patrol drug seizures had been solely for cannabis, in accordance to a new report from the Authorities Accountability Office (GAO) printed in early June.
The assessment of Border Patrol info, from 2016 by way of 2020, confirmed that officers pulled in about 35,700 “potentially removable people today in about 17,500 gatherings at checkpoints.”
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“GAO discovered that most drug seizure occasions involved only U.S. citizens (91%), of which 75% concerned the seizure of marijuana and no other medicine,” the report says.
Curiously, 50 percent of all marijuana seizures (8,098 of 16,315) bundled “personal use amount of marijuana and no other drugs.”
In the meantime, the examination also showed inconsistency in the documentation of seizing trace amounts of cannabis, like marijuana residue uncovered on paraphernalia.
The company direction instructed that cannabis really should be set in a diverse class from paraphernalia made up of little bits of cannabis. Even so, the GAO uncovered that “1,973 seized merchandise containing trace amounts of marijuana” had been “incorrectly documented.”
“Border Patrol headquarters officials informed us that they commonly concentrate their oversight of drug seizure data on relatively big seizures, this kind of as marijuana seizures over 100 lbs on the southwest border,” the report carries on. “As a result, officers acknowledged that incorrect documentation of little quantities of cannabis, these kinds of as trace quantities, would most likely be undetected by headquarters.”
Related: Marijuana Seizures At The Michigan-Canada Border Are Booming
On the other hand, the report also showed a significant decrease, 56%, in cannabis seizures at checkpoints above the training course of 4 decades, which Is in line with much more and extra states legalizing the plant.
The U.S. Attorney’s places of work in their sectors are not prosecuting these caught with particular use quantities of cannabis. “In these kinds of cases, men and women from whom cannabis is seized may well be (1) referred to state or local authorities for legal investigation or (2) produced,” Border Patrol GAO claimed.
This post at first appeared on Benzinga and has been reposted with permission.