California forces thousands of teens convicted of minor marijuana offenses into "drug rehabilitation", but who are the drug counselors?

Sometimes pedophiles and thieves, according to a California State Senate investigation showing a deplorable lack of oversight of the drug rehab industry.

"California does not require a criminal background check for drug and alcohol counselors, nor does it ask applicants to report their criminal histories, according to the report, which found that at least 23 sex offenders have been permitted to work as counselors since 2005," the L.A. Times reports.

The result: "J.M. found his way onto the state’s registry of sex offenders by having sex six times with a twelve-year-old girl, the daughter of his father’s live-in girlfriend. The girl had been the victim of a previous rape. Two years later, in 1999, he was in trouble again, this time for molesting a fifteen-year-old. Shortly after leaving prison, J.M. registered with one of seven California organizations authorized to certify drug and alcohol counselors. The registration allowed him to work in a field in which the number one complaint from clients is sexual misconduct," the report details.
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"Our investigation found 23 sex offenders permitted to work as counselors. The actual number is undoubtedly much higher — we focused only on those whose names were unusual enough that we could confirm that the counselor and sex offender were one in the same. Most are rapists and pedophiles. K.F., for instance, was convicted in Los Angeles of 110 counts of lewd acts upon a child for molesting four children in three separate families. He had been hired to babysit the victims, who ranged in age from a 6-month-old infant to a 9-year-old. Upon release from prison in 2005, he signed up with one of the state’s seven private organizations accredited to certify drug and alcohol counselors. Sex offenses are not the only cause for concern. In one case detailed in our report, a Santa Rosa woman with four theft convictions became a counselor and stole $55,000 from a client."

Anti-marijuana groups like Project SAM want to force all Americans who smoke pot into this shady rehab industry.