An article in The Oregonian newspaper reported that a pair of drivers were caught transporting 51 pounds of marijuana, after being stopped for traveling 84 mph in a 65-mph speed zone on I-84 east of La Grande Saturday morning.
Prohibition causes the value of banned substances to dramatically increase relative to what its cost would be in a licit market, an effect referred to by economists as a "risk premium." Hence, what might be a moderately-priced quantity of most other agricultural products was instead valued by police as being worth $130,000. The seizure was made at 10:26, according to the Oregonian, after a drug prohibition dog alerted on the driver's rented vehicle. The marijuana was found inside large bags in the trunk.
An unknown number of controlled substance shipments made their way up I-84 last week too, but went undetected. Marijuana remains widely available in the United States, despite massive government efforts to restrict its use for more than six decades. The federally funded Monitoring the Future survey, conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, has found between 82 and 90 percent of 12th graders reporting marijuana being "fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain for more than 30 years. Saturday's marijuana bust is not expected to impact marijuana's availability in Oregon, because traffickers make up for drug seizures by supplying a quantity equal to the total of anticipated demand and anticipated seizure amounts.
The driver and passenger were arrested on prohibition law violations, according to The Oregonian. The driver was taken to the Union County jail, and the passenger was cited to appear in Union County Circuit Court.
