Got Milk? You’re Under Arrest
March 18th, 2007Via: Information Liberation:
In many states, you can possess it, but the law prohibits its sale. It is a violation of federal law to transport the substance across state lines with the intent to sell it. In many states, undercover investigators are at work trying to uncover the furtive networks that produce and distribute the stuff. Dealers have been pulled over and spectacular quantities of the contraband substance have been seized by triumphant investigators. Is this a tale from the War on Drugs?
Not exactly. But it is a tale from the war many states are conducting on those who sell raw milk.
That’s right, there is a dangerous underground of dairy devotees who prefer to drink their milk straight from the cow, sans pasteurization and homogenization – and government is increasingly out to stop them. Some states, in fact, equate the sale of raw milk with the sale of drugs. Consider this from Washington Post reporter Thomas Bartlett:
The issue of selling raw milk is, legally speaking, dicey. To determine exactly how dicey, I call Ted Elkin, deputy director of the Office of Food Protection and Consumer Health Services at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Elkin is in charge of making sure the state’s dairy laws are enforced.
“So,” I begin carefully, “Maryland’s position on raw milk is . . .?”
“Raw milk is illegal for sale,” Elkin says. “Period.”
“Huh,” I reply.
To help drive this point home, he compares selling raw milk to selling pot.
“Interesting,” I say. At that moment, I am standing in my kitchen with the fridge door open, staring at my gallon of possible contraband.
This seems positively surreal, like some parody of the war on drugs aired on Saturday Night Live.
Proof that the war on contraband milk is taken all too seriously by some state officials, Bartlett’s conversation with Elkin next turned frighteningly serious. Noting that Maryland lacks the resources to track down all users of raw milk, Elkin suggested that the state might eventually catch them. “Using an analogy, Elkin explains that a small-time heroin dealer in Baltimore might be able to elude the authorities for quite a while,” Bartlett wrote of his interview with Elkin. “So, during our conversation, raw milk was compared to marijuana and heroin. What’s more, Hitler’s secret police were mentioned – in passing, sure, but still.”
Related: Raw Milk and Lifting the Veil that has Been Pulled Over Our Eyes
Related: The Untold Story of Milk
What the …. ? Milk? Why?
“What the …. ? Milk? Why?” — Mark
Not exactly sure, Mark. But I googlesearched Milk + price + supports and found this article (among a host of others):
“Milk Cartel Economics” at http://www.cato.org/dailys/12-01-97.html