Hey Colorado, Drug Sniffing Dogs Can Find Marijuana in USPS Packages You Know
Colorado resident keep making legal marijuana, illegal, by packaging and mailing it around the country through the United States Postal Services. The USPS has drug sniffing dogs that find the packages, then the USPS reports it to authorities. The authorities then track down the person that sent the package by the sender label on the package. The culprit then gets arrested and sent to federal prison for a year.
In 2014, when recreational marijuana became legal in Colorado, the USPS found 234 packages that contained marijuana. There has been a steady increase each year since then until last year (2017) the USPS found 924 packages containing marijuana. Perhaps authorities are simply being more aggressive about searching for packages with marijuana in them, however the reports of arrests and the year-long sentencing in federal prison do not seem to be deterring people from still trying.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Thursday that Mark Herbert Koenig, 36, of Arvada, was sentenced to one year and a day in federal prison for possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute.
“U.S. Postal Inspectors continue to aggressively target individuals who use the postal service to distribute controlled substances,” Dana Carter, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Denver Division, said in the release. “Our efforts to protect the nation’s mail, and postal customers, from illegal drug shipments are highlighted in cases such as these, where repeat offenders are sent to federal prison.”
A federal judge sentenced Stephen Paul Anderson, 27, of Arvada, to a year in prison last year after postal inspectors and law enforcement officers with the West Metro Drug Task Force caught him mailing 30 packages containing marijuana out of state.
It’s funny to think that some people may believe that legalized marijuana in Colorado means that they can mail it to whoever they want around the country. To be clear, as of now marijuana is still a Schedule 1 substance which makes it as illegal of a drug as there is from the federal government’s perspective. Crossing state lines with marijuana is therefore a federal offense. Using the United States Postal Service to transport marijuana anywhere is a federal offense since the USPS is an establishment of the executive branch of the United States. Is it just that people are daring enough to try mailing marijuana even though they know it is illegal, or do they just not know any better?
read more at thedenverchannel.com
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Colorado recreational marijuanacrossing state linesdrug sniffing dogsfederal offensefederal prisonmailing marijuanaUnited States Postal Service
