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Jeff Sessions
- Thread starter Vicki
- Start date
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- jeff sessions mmj law mmj news
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Vicki
Herbal Alchemist
Dispensaries have long line's?
70/30% 4 da usa?
It’s really a clusterfuck. They have been having problems even getting cards out to people. Plus, lawmakers are trying to limit what we can have and how we can use it. Very restrictive. :(
OldOyler
Well-Known Member
Nevermind that being on a "legal list" can mean your state is allowed to do "compliance checks" at your home.
You know. Like they do with other legal medications...
NOT.
Peace.
Baron23
Well-Known Member
A look at prosecutors who will decide on marijuana crackdown
By Associated Press January 5 at 7:56 PM
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has put the top federal prosecutors in states with recreational marijuana back in charge of deciding whether to press pot cases there. Here’s a look at those U.S. attorneys, how they came to their jobs and their background:
___
ALASKA
Name: Bryan Schroder
Appointment: Nominated by President Donald Trump in July and confirmed by the Senate in November.
Background: Schroder has worked for the U.S. attorney’s office for more than 12 years, prosecuting cases involving violent crime, drugs, tax evasion, environmental crimes and other offenses. He served 24 years in the Coast Guard, retiring with the rank of captain.
It’s unclear how he will handle marijuana in a Republican state with libertarian leanings. Schroder said in a statement that one of his office’s key principals is to follow federal law enforcement priorities.
___
CALIFORNIA, EASTERN DISTRICT BASED IN SACRAMENTO
Name: McGregor “Greg” Scott
Appointment: Nominated by Trump in November and awaiting Senate confirmation.
Background: Scott is a California native from the heart of the state’s marijuana-growing region and grew up to become a career state and federal prosecutor. He previously served as U.S. attorney for the district under President George W. Bush and targeted large-scale illegal marijuana operations.
When he left the office in 2008, Scott told the Sacramento Bee that “there must be a wall between the political operation of the White House and the Justice Department.” His spokeswoman, Lauren Horwood, said Thursday that any violations of federal law on marijuana will be evaluated “in accordance with our district’s federal law enforcement priorities and resources.”
___
CALIFORNIA, CENTRAL DISTRICT BASED IN LOS ANGELES
Name: Nicola Hanna
Appointment: Appointed interim U.S. attorney by Sessions this week.
Background: Like many of the interim U.S. attorneys, the man tapped to head the massive region that includes Los Angeles was named to the post the day before the change in pot policy. Hanna, a criminal defense lawyer at a private firm, worked as a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles and San Diego between 1990 and 1998, when the war on drugs was in full swing.
___
CALIFORNIA, NORTHERN DISTRICT BASED IN SAN FRANCISCO
Name: The position is vacant starting Saturday.
Background: U.S. attorney Brian Stretch’s spokesman announced Thursday that Stretch would be leaving the post, a decision that allows Sessions to appoint an interim U.S. attorney. Stretch said Friday that Sessions’ announcement was not the reason for his decision to step down.
Marijuana advocates have criticized Stretch for continuing prosecutions started by his predecessor against a medical marijuana dispensary. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals eventually ruled that the Department of Justice could not use its money to prevent states that allow medical marijuana from implementing those laws.
___
CALIFORNIA, SOUTHERN DISTRICT BASED IN SAN DIEGO
Name: Adam Braverman
Appointment: Appointed interim U.S. attorney by Sessions in November.
Background: Braverman has been a federal prosecutor since 2008 and focused on large international drug trafficking cartels. One prosecution led to the indictments of more than 125 people linked to the Sinaloa Cartel.
After being sworn in, Braverman said he particularly wanted to pursue “those crimes committed by transnational criminal organizations.” In a statement Thursday, he said his office will evaluate violations of federal drug laws “in accordance with our district’s federal law enforcement priorities.”
___
COLORADO
Name: Bob Troyer
Appointment: Became acting U.S. attorney in 2016, and Sessions appointed him interim U.S. attorney in November.
Background: Troyer spent years in private practice before joining the Colorado U.S. attorney’s criminal division to work on drug and violent crime cases. He left the office to return to private practice but re-joined it under former U.S. Attorney John Walsh, an Obama appointee. Since taking over the top job, Troyer has focused on preventing and prosecuting violent crime, particularly in the state’s poorest communities, and the ongoing opioid crisis.
___
MAINE
Name: Halsey Frank
Appointment: Nominated by Trump in July and confirmed by the Senate in October.
Background: Frank said he is still evaluating how the Justice Department’s move might affect Maine. He said his office is inclined to follow established principles in prosecuting federal crimes, including those that involve drugs.
Frank has spoken out against legalized marijuana in the past. He wrote in The Forecaster newspaper in 2013 that when “there is a conflict between state and federal law, federal law prevails.” He also wrote that “society can only tolerate a certain number of intoxicated people on its streets and highways, at school, at work and at play.”
___
MASSACHUSETTS
Name: Andrew Lelling
Appointment: Nominated by Trump in September to become the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts and confirmed by the Senate in December.
Background: Lelling previously served in the Justice Department’s civil rights division and was a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s offices in Massachusetts and the Eastern District of Virginia. In a statement Thursday, Lelling said his office would pursue serious federal crimes involving marijuana, but his statement did not address the state’s recreational marijuana law or indicate a stance on commercial marijuana businesses.
___
NEVADA
Name: Dayle Elieson
Appointment: Named this week at least temporarily as the top federal prosecutor in Nevada. She was one of 17 interim U.S. attorneys appointed by Sessions in districts from Guam to Manhattan. Each temporary appointee can serve 120 days before Trump must nominate a permanent U.S. attorney and seek Senate confirmation.
Background: Elieson was an assistant U.S. attorney in Texas until her appointment, handling cases on fraud, money laundering and terrorism over 15 years. She previously worked as an assistant district attorney for Dallas and Denton counties in Texas.
___
OREGON
Name: Billy Williams
Appointment: Became the acting U.S. attorney in April 2015 and became the court-appointed U.S. attorney in February 2016. Trump nominated him to continue in the job in November.
Background: Williams worked in the U.S. attorney’s office for about 15 years before taking the top job, including stints as the head of the criminal division and violent crimes unit. He previously worked as a deputy district attorney in Multnomah County, prosecuting violent crimes and narcotics trafficking cases.
In an interview last year, Williams complained that marijuana was being illegally exported to states where it’s not legal. He invited representatives from the state to explain what was being done to curtail marijuana “diversion.” The state officials told him the state’s regulated marijuana market, in which pot is tracked from seed to store, was stamping out smuggling. They also described enhanced enforcement efforts.
In the interview, Williams insisted there was insufficient enforcement to prevent diversion and urged state officials to cooperate with his team of drug prosecutors.
___
WASHINGTON, EASTERN DISTRICT BASED IN SPOKANE
Name: Joseph Harrington
Appointment: Appointed interim U.S. attorney by Sessions on Friday.
Background: Harrington became a federal prosecutor in 1990 and has led the office’s criminal division and also worked on terrorism and health care cases. His prosecutions include a white supremacist who planted a remotely controlled explosive device along the route of a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day march in Spokane.
___
WASHINGTON, WESTERN DISTRICT BASED IN SEATTLE
Name: Annette Hayes
Appointment: Became acting U.S. attorney in October 2014, when the district’s top prosecutor resigned. Hayes remained in the position after President Barack Obama declined to make an appointment.
Background: Hayes said Sessions’ move reiterated that local federal prosecutors are in the best position to address public safety. She said previously that her office had investigated marijuana cases involving organized crime, violent threats and financial crimes. Her office would continue to “focus on those who pose the greatest safety risk to the people and communities we serve.”
___
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Name: Jessie Liu
Appointment: Nominated by Trump in June and confirmed by the Senate in September.
Background: Liu previously served as deputy general counsel for the Treasury Department. She also worked in private practice and was an assistant U.S. attorney from 2002 to 2006 in the office she now leads. She also worked for the Department of Justice, including in divisions focused on national security and civil rights.
Liu spokesman William Miller said the office is “committed to reducing violent crime and dismantling criminal gangs and large-scale drug distribution networks that pose a threat to public safety.”
Washington has a unique system. Recreational marijuana is legal but cannot be bought and sold. Instead, a thriving industry has developed that exploits a “gifting” loophole, letting retailers “gift” marijuana products when customers purchase items like a T-shirt or coffee mug.
Baron23
Well-Known Member
From Politico.
So, again my question is what the fuck have any of these politicians, all who are decrying Sessions actions and swear to oppose them to the bitter end.......what the fuck have these legistlators done to create and pass legislation legalizing MJ or at least removing it from Schedule I. I will tell you....with few exceptions and none of them being real power brokers....with few exceptions they have done fuck all for us, without regard to party affiliation.
The ONLY reason that Sessions could take the action he did the other day is that Congress has sat on its collective ass and done NOTHING to align Federal law with their constituents desires.
ALL of these shithead politicians are in the habit of 'leading from behind'. God forbid they ever get in front of an issue. So, from the POV of their pure self-interest, it made perfect sense to declaim about your support for legal MJ (plays well to the cheap seats) while actually doing nothing to make that happen (plays well to the box seats). But we don't pay them to feather their own bed and look to their own self-interests....they are paid to look after our interests and reflect our desires.
They (politicians of all stripes these days) are all contemptible and at least Sessions has now put their little heinies on the hot seat where they may actually be forced to to commit to their stated positions and actually do something for a change.
"The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians."
Did Jeff Sessions Just Increase the Odds Congress Will Make Marijuana Legal?
The attorney general has created intolerable uncertainty for a growing industry that is now demanding legal protections from Congress. And lawmakers are listening.
By JAMES HIGDON January 06, 2018
When Jeff Sessions announced Thursday morning he had removed the barrier that had held back federal prosecutors from pursuing marijuana cases in states that had made pot legal, he delivered on something he had all but promised when he was nominated as attorney general. Most of the marijuana world saw it coming, but they freaked out anyway.
A fund of marijuana-based stocks dropped more than 9 percent in value and, as a sign of how mainstream marijuana has become, Sessions’ decision to repeal the Cole Memo, an Obama-era protection for states that have legalized marijuana, even affected the stock price of Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, which dropped more than 5 percent. Business leaders in an industry that was worth $7.9 billion in 2017, called Sessions’ action revoking “outrageous” and “economically stupid.”
Capitol Hill screamed just as loudly. And it wasn’t just the Democratic members of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus. It was Republican senators, too. Cory Gardner of Colorado took the Senate floor to issue an ultimatum to Sessions: “I will be putting a hold on every single nomination from the Department of Justice until Attorney General Jeff Sessions lives up to the commitment he made to me in my pre-confirmation meeting with him. The conversation we had that was specifically about this issue of states’ rights in Colorado. Until he lives up to that commitment, I’ll be holding up all nominations of the Department of Justice,” Gardner said. “The people of Colorado deserve answers. The people of Colorado deserve to be respected.” Gardner is no fringe Republican; he’s the chair of the NRSC.
Even members who had been silent on the issue in the past vowed to squeeze the Department of Justice’s budget. Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat from New Hampshire, reminding reporters she’s the lead Democrat on the Department of Justice funding subcommittee, tweeted: “I’ll work to ensure that resources are devoted to opioid response NOT foolish policy of interfering with legal marijuana production.” Most of the Congressional leadership was silent on this issue, but not House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who issued a blistering statement against Sessions, saying that she would push for an amendment in the new spending bill to protect states that had legalized not just medical marijuana but recreational use too, a move that could make ongoing budget negotiations much more tense.
Thursday may well turn out to be a pivotal moment in the marijuana industry’s evolution as a political force. Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe in some form of legalized marijuana, but does the nascent industry have the sway to rewrite nearly 50 years of federal drug policy? Or will it remain a splintered coalition of investors, libertarians, concerned parents of sick kids, cancer sufferers, and traumatized veterans, who have the numbers but not the concentrated lobbying effort necessary to once and for all remove marijuana from the crosshairs of federal drug enforcement?
“There’s a lot of [legislators] trying to have it both ways who are now going to have to make up their mind,” said Tick Segerblom, the Nevada state senator who is considered the father of the state’s legalization movement. “Are they going to go with what the voters of their state support, or are they going to join Sessions and crack down and try to re-instate prohibition?”
Right now, the answer seems to be the former. Sessions’ antipathy for a drug that has lost much of its stigma among a wide cross section of Americans has only galvanized disparate factions in Congress to protect an industry that is expected to generate $2.3 billion in state tax revenue by 2020.
Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont, who just a few weeks ago declined to comment to POLITICO Magazine about whether he would work to maintain protections for medical marijuana in the 2018 omnibus spending package, tweeted on Thursday, “I'm now fighting to include my amdt in the final omnibus Approps bill so we can protect patients and law-abiding businesses.”
Those law-abiding businesses are now fully engaged in this matter, and they aren’t just going to roll over and let Jeff Sessions shut them down.
“I expect any actions he and the Justice Department take against the industry will be met with significant pushback from states that are benefiting greatly from an economic and quality of life standpoint,” said Jeffrey Zucker, president of Green Lion Partners, a Denver firm that promotes marijuana businesses. “The cannabis industry will continue on regardless of this decision, and in the long run this should only be a roadblock.”
Leslie Bocskor, president of Electrum Partners, an asset-backed finance company invested in the marijuana market, expressed his displeasure with a wry dig at Sessions’ motives: “It is almost as if the rally in publicly traded stocks in the legal cannabis sector was too much for the AG to bear.”
***
The Cole Memo was never intended to be a permanent fix to the problem posed by the conflict between states that chose to legalize marijuana and existing federal prohibitions. Written by James M. Cole, an assistant deputy attorney general in 2013, the memo gave the nation’s 93 U.S. Attorneys broad latitude to exercise prosecutorial discretion in states where marijuana had been legalized. (Mr. Cole, now in private practice, declined a request for comment for this story.) His memo was interpreted as a virtual hands-off rule, allowing medical and recreational marijuana programs to spread across the country at an unprecedented rate. Flimsy though it was, the Cole Memo nevertheless provided a measure of security for dispensary owners, growers and consumers and allowed investors to proceed with some confidence that their money was not going to be seized in a DEA sting.
The best protection that Congress had been able to provide was the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which was passed in 2014 attached to an appropriations bill. It barred the DOJ from spending funds to interfere with the implementation of medical marijuana laws. But since then, a total of eight states have now passed full recreational use laws, mostly recently California, whose law took effect January 1. Rohrabacher-Farr (now known as Rohrabacher-Blumenauer, in honor of Democratic Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, who co-sponsored the amendment) expire on January 19 if it is not renewed and does nothing to help recreationally legal states, hence the eagerness of marijuana advocates to shore up the industry’s legal standing with new legislation and Pelosi’s stated desire to bake in those protections in the budget that’s currently being negotiated.
The fact that marijuana has now risen to the height of top-tier budget negotiations is a sign that the pro-marijuana coalition is no longer merely a menagerie of loud-mouth hippies, stoners, and felons, as the pro-pot crowd has been characterized in the past. The community of Americans who now rely on legal medical marijuana, estimated to be 2.6 million people in 2016, includes a variety of mainstream constituency groups like veterans, senior citizens, cancer survivors, and parents of epileptic children. The American Legion, a conservative veterans organization by any measure, has voted twice in favor of resolutions to expand research and safe access for its members.
“The American Legion has been a leading advocate for the removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act to enable greater research into the medical efficacy of the drug to treat ailments that impact veterans such as PTSD and chronic pain,” Joe Plenzler, Director of Media Relations for The American Legion, told POLITICO Magazine — which means Jeff Sessions just crossed the nation’s largest wartime veterans service organization.
By the end of the day on Thursday, in a conference call of five members of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, lawmakers from four of the eight states that have approved recreational marijuana railed about Sessions’ unconstitutional assault on the rights of their states to decide their own affairs. On that call, California Republican Dana Rohrabacher said that the move by Sessions to strike a blow against marijuana has had the inverse effect of raising the attention from what had previously been a states’ issue but has now become a national priority. “It’s a big plus for our efforts that the federal government is now aware that our constituents have been alerted,” Rohrabacher said. "We can be confident we can win this fight, because this is a freedom issue.”
On the same call, California Democrat Barbara Lee made it clear that she and her constituents were not going to accept Sessions’ move without a fight. “As a person of color, let me just say that the War on Drugs has been a failure… We’ve lost families, we’ve lost a generation. So this affects people of color in a big way, so we’re not going to allow them to turn back the clock. In our district, we’re going to fight this every step of the way,” the Congresswoman said.
Even if Leahy protects medical marijuana programs by reauthorizing the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment in the upcoming omnibus spending bill in the conference committee, the Congressional Cannabis Caucus has less than a year to make those protections permanent. The means to do that is H.R. 1227, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act, sponsored by Representative Thomas Garrett, a Republican from Virginia. The bill, now with 15 cosponsors, would remove marijuana from Schedule 1 and eliminate federal penalties for anyone engaged in state-legal marijuana activity. All Congress has to do is pass it.
“We’ve got to act,” Rohrabacher said on the Thursday phone call. “We can’t take it for granted, and now it’s going to be a priority for us to accomplish.”
As of late Friday, POLITICO Magazine could not find a single member of Congress who had issued a statement in support of Sessions’ actions. In the end, this is a self-inflicted pot crisis that could prove to be a critical test of Trump’s ability to maintain his base.
“There’s a lot of old white men who are marijuana users, and the marijuana is keeping them alive,” Segerblom said from his cell phone while driving around Las Vegas. “Trump is going to have fewer to vote for him if he doesn’t keep marijuana legal.”
So, again my question is what the fuck have any of these politicians, all who are decrying Sessions actions and swear to oppose them to the bitter end.......what the fuck have these legistlators done to create and pass legislation legalizing MJ or at least removing it from Schedule I. I will tell you....with few exceptions and none of them being real power brokers....with few exceptions they have done fuck all for us, without regard to party affiliation.
The ONLY reason that Sessions could take the action he did the other day is that Congress has sat on its collective ass and done NOTHING to align Federal law with their constituents desires.
ALL of these shithead politicians are in the habit of 'leading from behind'. God forbid they ever get in front of an issue. So, from the POV of their pure self-interest, it made perfect sense to declaim about your support for legal MJ (plays well to the cheap seats) while actually doing nothing to make that happen (plays well to the box seats). But we don't pay them to feather their own bed and look to their own self-interests....they are paid to look after our interests and reflect our desires.
They (politicians of all stripes these days) are all contemptible and at least Sessions has now put their little heinies on the hot seat where they may actually be forced to to commit to their stated positions and actually do something for a change.
"The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians."
Benjamin Disraeli
Did Jeff Sessions Just Increase the Odds Congress Will Make Marijuana Legal?
The attorney general has created intolerable uncertainty for a growing industry that is now demanding legal protections from Congress. And lawmakers are listening.
By JAMES HIGDON January 06, 2018
When Jeff Sessions announced Thursday morning he had removed the barrier that had held back federal prosecutors from pursuing marijuana cases in states that had made pot legal, he delivered on something he had all but promised when he was nominated as attorney general. Most of the marijuana world saw it coming, but they freaked out anyway.
A fund of marijuana-based stocks dropped more than 9 percent in value and, as a sign of how mainstream marijuana has become, Sessions’ decision to repeal the Cole Memo, an Obama-era protection for states that have legalized marijuana, even affected the stock price of Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, which dropped more than 5 percent. Business leaders in an industry that was worth $7.9 billion in 2017, called Sessions’ action revoking “outrageous” and “economically stupid.”
Capitol Hill screamed just as loudly. And it wasn’t just the Democratic members of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus. It was Republican senators, too. Cory Gardner of Colorado took the Senate floor to issue an ultimatum to Sessions: “I will be putting a hold on every single nomination from the Department of Justice until Attorney General Jeff Sessions lives up to the commitment he made to me in my pre-confirmation meeting with him. The conversation we had that was specifically about this issue of states’ rights in Colorado. Until he lives up to that commitment, I’ll be holding up all nominations of the Department of Justice,” Gardner said. “The people of Colorado deserve answers. The people of Colorado deserve to be respected.” Gardner is no fringe Republican; he’s the chair of the NRSC.
Even members who had been silent on the issue in the past vowed to squeeze the Department of Justice’s budget. Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat from New Hampshire, reminding reporters she’s the lead Democrat on the Department of Justice funding subcommittee, tweeted: “I’ll work to ensure that resources are devoted to opioid response NOT foolish policy of interfering with legal marijuana production.” Most of the Congressional leadership was silent on this issue, but not House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who issued a blistering statement against Sessions, saying that she would push for an amendment in the new spending bill to protect states that had legalized not just medical marijuana but recreational use too, a move that could make ongoing budget negotiations much more tense.
Thursday may well turn out to be a pivotal moment in the marijuana industry’s evolution as a political force. Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe in some form of legalized marijuana, but does the nascent industry have the sway to rewrite nearly 50 years of federal drug policy? Or will it remain a splintered coalition of investors, libertarians, concerned parents of sick kids, cancer sufferers, and traumatized veterans, who have the numbers but not the concentrated lobbying effort necessary to once and for all remove marijuana from the crosshairs of federal drug enforcement?
“There’s a lot of [legislators] trying to have it both ways who are now going to have to make up their mind,” said Tick Segerblom, the Nevada state senator who is considered the father of the state’s legalization movement. “Are they going to go with what the voters of their state support, or are they going to join Sessions and crack down and try to re-instate prohibition?”
Right now, the answer seems to be the former. Sessions’ antipathy for a drug that has lost much of its stigma among a wide cross section of Americans has only galvanized disparate factions in Congress to protect an industry that is expected to generate $2.3 billion in state tax revenue by 2020.
Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont, who just a few weeks ago declined to comment to POLITICO Magazine about whether he would work to maintain protections for medical marijuana in the 2018 omnibus spending package, tweeted on Thursday, “I'm now fighting to include my amdt in the final omnibus Approps bill so we can protect patients and law-abiding businesses.”
Those law-abiding businesses are now fully engaged in this matter, and they aren’t just going to roll over and let Jeff Sessions shut them down.
“I expect any actions he and the Justice Department take against the industry will be met with significant pushback from states that are benefiting greatly from an economic and quality of life standpoint,” said Jeffrey Zucker, president of Green Lion Partners, a Denver firm that promotes marijuana businesses. “The cannabis industry will continue on regardless of this decision, and in the long run this should only be a roadblock.”
Leslie Bocskor, president of Electrum Partners, an asset-backed finance company invested in the marijuana market, expressed his displeasure with a wry dig at Sessions’ motives: “It is almost as if the rally in publicly traded stocks in the legal cannabis sector was too much for the AG to bear.”
***
The Cole Memo was never intended to be a permanent fix to the problem posed by the conflict between states that chose to legalize marijuana and existing federal prohibitions. Written by James M. Cole, an assistant deputy attorney general in 2013, the memo gave the nation’s 93 U.S. Attorneys broad latitude to exercise prosecutorial discretion in states where marijuana had been legalized. (Mr. Cole, now in private practice, declined a request for comment for this story.) His memo was interpreted as a virtual hands-off rule, allowing medical and recreational marijuana programs to spread across the country at an unprecedented rate. Flimsy though it was, the Cole Memo nevertheless provided a measure of security for dispensary owners, growers and consumers and allowed investors to proceed with some confidence that their money was not going to be seized in a DEA sting.
The best protection that Congress had been able to provide was the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which was passed in 2014 attached to an appropriations bill. It barred the DOJ from spending funds to interfere with the implementation of medical marijuana laws. But since then, a total of eight states have now passed full recreational use laws, mostly recently California, whose law took effect January 1. Rohrabacher-Farr (now known as Rohrabacher-Blumenauer, in honor of Democratic Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, who co-sponsored the amendment) expire on January 19 if it is not renewed and does nothing to help recreationally legal states, hence the eagerness of marijuana advocates to shore up the industry’s legal standing with new legislation and Pelosi’s stated desire to bake in those protections in the budget that’s currently being negotiated.
The fact that marijuana has now risen to the height of top-tier budget negotiations is a sign that the pro-marijuana coalition is no longer merely a menagerie of loud-mouth hippies, stoners, and felons, as the pro-pot crowd has been characterized in the past. The community of Americans who now rely on legal medical marijuana, estimated to be 2.6 million people in 2016, includes a variety of mainstream constituency groups like veterans, senior citizens, cancer survivors, and parents of epileptic children. The American Legion, a conservative veterans organization by any measure, has voted twice in favor of resolutions to expand research and safe access for its members.
“The American Legion has been a leading advocate for the removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act to enable greater research into the medical efficacy of the drug to treat ailments that impact veterans such as PTSD and chronic pain,” Joe Plenzler, Director of Media Relations for The American Legion, told POLITICO Magazine — which means Jeff Sessions just crossed the nation’s largest wartime veterans service organization.
By the end of the day on Thursday, in a conference call of five members of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, lawmakers from four of the eight states that have approved recreational marijuana railed about Sessions’ unconstitutional assault on the rights of their states to decide their own affairs. On that call, California Republican Dana Rohrabacher said that the move by Sessions to strike a blow against marijuana has had the inverse effect of raising the attention from what had previously been a states’ issue but has now become a national priority. “It’s a big plus for our efforts that the federal government is now aware that our constituents have been alerted,” Rohrabacher said. "We can be confident we can win this fight, because this is a freedom issue.”
On the same call, California Democrat Barbara Lee made it clear that she and her constituents were not going to accept Sessions’ move without a fight. “As a person of color, let me just say that the War on Drugs has been a failure… We’ve lost families, we’ve lost a generation. So this affects people of color in a big way, so we’re not going to allow them to turn back the clock. In our district, we’re going to fight this every step of the way,” the Congresswoman said.
Even if Leahy protects medical marijuana programs by reauthorizing the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment in the upcoming omnibus spending bill in the conference committee, the Congressional Cannabis Caucus has less than a year to make those protections permanent. The means to do that is H.R. 1227, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act, sponsored by Representative Thomas Garrett, a Republican from Virginia. The bill, now with 15 cosponsors, would remove marijuana from Schedule 1 and eliminate federal penalties for anyone engaged in state-legal marijuana activity. All Congress has to do is pass it.
“We’ve got to act,” Rohrabacher said on the Thursday phone call. “We can’t take it for granted, and now it’s going to be a priority for us to accomplish.”
As of late Friday, POLITICO Magazine could not find a single member of Congress who had issued a statement in support of Sessions’ actions. In the end, this is a self-inflicted pot crisis that could prove to be a critical test of Trump’s ability to maintain his base.
“There’s a lot of old white men who are marijuana users, and the marijuana is keeping them alive,” Segerblom said from his cell phone while driving around Las Vegas. “Trump is going to have fewer to vote for him if he doesn’t keep marijuana legal.”
Baron23
Well-Known Member
They are still taking about 'protection' and riders to appropriation bills....I don't see any of them talking about repealing Federal prohibition....period. And that will not, IMO, fly as a rider to a funding bill but will require its own debate and vote...or at least I think so (and I am occasionally wrong! haha)
Colorado congressional members developing plan for federal marijuana protections
Rep. Ed Perlmutter in an interview with The Cannabist confirmed he participated in the call and said, “there’s now urgency to start moving” on the slew of marijuana-centric bills.
Members of Colorado’s congressional delegation on Friday began to hatch a plan to counter Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ move to eliminate Obama-era guidance on marijuana enforcement.
Legislative sources confirmed to The Cannabist that Colorado lawmakers, including Representatives Ed Perlmutter, Diana DeGette and Jared Polis, and Sen. Cory Gardner, held a call Friday afternoon to strategize on a push on marijuana-related measures — specifically crafting a spending bill provision to restrict the Justice Department from interfering with laws in Colorado and the 45 other states that have legalized cannabis in some form.
Perlmutter in an interview with The Cannabist confirmed he participated in the call and said, “there’s now urgency to start moving” on the slew of marijuana-centric bills that have been introduced in Congress but have thus far languished in committee.
“I think the Sessions memo yesterday lit a fire under a lot of people about these bills,” he said.
The clock is ticking on an immediate fix: hitching marijuana protection measures onto upcoming spending legislation being hashed out to avoid a government shutdown on Jan. 19.
“(Delegation members are trying) to work together to come up with something that can be heard promptly and try to reverse what Sessions did yesterday,” Perlmutter said.
The language of such a measure has yet to be developed — the Colorado lawmakers plan to reconvene on the issue next week, Perlmutter said.
Related stories
That provision included in omnibus legislation since 2014 prohibits Justice Department spending to interfere with state laws authorizing medical marijuana use, distribution, possession and cultivation. This new provision, however, likely would extend to state laws authorizing recreational and medical use, sources told The Cannabist.
Polis previously proposed an amendment that would provide similar protections for state-legal recreational marijuana.
When reached late Friday, he said he’d been in contact with other members of the Colorado delegation, Republican and Democrat, who he said were “alarmed” by Sessions’ decision.
“For the past three years, I have tried to move forward an amendment to make sure that the Department of Justice cannot use resources to crack down on legalized recreational and medical marijuana,” Polis said in an emailed statement. “I am pleased that the idea behind my amendment is finally gaining bipartisan traction. I welcome it, and am hopeful that we can attach language to the government funding bill to protect legalized recreational and medical marijuana.”
The Colorado delegates also discussed a fuller-fledged strategy of drumming up support for existing cannabis-related legislation, Perlmutter said. That could include cobbling together bills into a stand-alone package.
“I think any one of the bills … if they were passed on their own, would certainly help the situation,” Perlmutter said. “Maybe we put them all together, attach them to a funding bill. We’ve got a funding bill very quickly … we’ll see if that’s a possibility.”
At the very least, Perlmutter said that members of Congress supportive of marijuana measures should “make so much noise and be so persistent that we start getting some doors open that have been closed until now.”
Related: Politicians react to news that A.G. Sessions is rescinding the Cole Memo
Perlmutter expressed optimism that his Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act, which would allow banks to serve state-legal marijuana-related businesses without fear of penalties from the federal government, could pass if it were to reach a full House of Representatives vote.
Related stories
Co-Sponsor Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, told The Cannabist that support has been building for not only maintaining his namesake amendment, but also for extending protections beyond medical marijuana to include recreational marijuana.
“What’s happened now is it takes on new urgency and more people are engaged,” he said.
Whether Sessions’ actions Thursday spur legislative movement in Congress for cannabis issues remains to be seen, said Mark Kleiman, a professor of public policy at the New York University Marron Institute of Urban Management.
“I’m still waiting for the emergence of a moderate group,” Kleiman said Friday. “Will this smoke the moderates out? Maybe. It seems unlikely.”
If anything, he noted, Sessions’ move could bolster the Millennial vote in upcoming elections, potentially creating a situation where some form of federal marijuana legalization could emerge as early as 2019.
Colorado congressional members developing plan for federal marijuana protections
Rep. Ed Perlmutter in an interview with The Cannabist confirmed he participated in the call and said, “there’s now urgency to start moving” on the slew of marijuana-centric bills.
Members of Colorado’s congressional delegation on Friday began to hatch a plan to counter Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ move to eliminate Obama-era guidance on marijuana enforcement.
Legislative sources confirmed to The Cannabist that Colorado lawmakers, including Representatives Ed Perlmutter, Diana DeGette and Jared Polis, and Sen. Cory Gardner, held a call Friday afternoon to strategize on a push on marijuana-related measures — specifically crafting a spending bill provision to restrict the Justice Department from interfering with laws in Colorado and the 45 other states that have legalized cannabis in some form.
Perlmutter in an interview with The Cannabist confirmed he participated in the call and said, “there’s now urgency to start moving” on the slew of marijuana-centric bills that have been introduced in Congress but have thus far languished in committee.
“I think the Sessions memo yesterday lit a fire under a lot of people about these bills,” he said.
The clock is ticking on an immediate fix: hitching marijuana protection measures onto upcoming spending legislation being hashed out to avoid a government shutdown on Jan. 19.
“(Delegation members are trying) to work together to come up with something that can be heard promptly and try to reverse what Sessions did yesterday,” Perlmutter said.
The language of such a measure has yet to be developed — the Colorado lawmakers plan to reconvene on the issue next week, Perlmutter said.
Related stories
- Sans Cole Memo, U.S. attorneys empowered to enforce — or ignore — federal marijuana laws
- In wake of marijuana policy shift, Sessions to appoint interim U.S. Attorney for NorCal
- Oregon leaders vow to fight Sessions’ marijuana policy rollback
- Editorial: “Shame on Sessions for trying to destroy what Colorado has built”
- Sessions’ marijuana moves slammed by Washington State leaders
That provision included in omnibus legislation since 2014 prohibits Justice Department spending to interfere with state laws authorizing medical marijuana use, distribution, possession and cultivation. This new provision, however, likely would extend to state laws authorizing recreational and medical use, sources told The Cannabist.
Polis previously proposed an amendment that would provide similar protections for state-legal recreational marijuana.
When reached late Friday, he said he’d been in contact with other members of the Colorado delegation, Republican and Democrat, who he said were “alarmed” by Sessions’ decision.
“For the past three years, I have tried to move forward an amendment to make sure that the Department of Justice cannot use resources to crack down on legalized recreational and medical marijuana,” Polis said in an emailed statement. “I am pleased that the idea behind my amendment is finally gaining bipartisan traction. I welcome it, and am hopeful that we can attach language to the government funding bill to protect legalized recreational and medical marijuana.”
The Colorado delegates also discussed a fuller-fledged strategy of drumming up support for existing cannabis-related legislation, Perlmutter said. That could include cobbling together bills into a stand-alone package.
“I think any one of the bills … if they were passed on their own, would certainly help the situation,” Perlmutter said. “Maybe we put them all together, attach them to a funding bill. We’ve got a funding bill very quickly … we’ll see if that’s a possibility.”
At the very least, Perlmutter said that members of Congress supportive of marijuana measures should “make so much noise and be so persistent that we start getting some doors open that have been closed until now.”
Related: Politicians react to news that A.G. Sessions is rescinding the Cole Memo
Perlmutter expressed optimism that his Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act, which would allow banks to serve state-legal marijuana-related businesses without fear of penalties from the federal government, could pass if it were to reach a full House of Representatives vote.
Related stories
- What now? Experts and politicians weigh in on potential impact of Sessions’ rollback of marijuana policy
- Trump signs stopgap spending bill extending federal medical marijuana protections a few more weeks
- Federal marijuana protections safe for now with stopgap spending bill
- 66 Congress members make plea to extend protection for medical marijuana states
- Sessions says DOJ just talked “at some length” about marijuana enforcement
Co-Sponsor Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, told The Cannabist that support has been building for not only maintaining his namesake amendment, but also for extending protections beyond medical marijuana to include recreational marijuana.
“What’s happened now is it takes on new urgency and more people are engaged,” he said.
Whether Sessions’ actions Thursday spur legislative movement in Congress for cannabis issues remains to be seen, said Mark Kleiman, a professor of public policy at the New York University Marron Institute of Urban Management.
“I’m still waiting for the emergence of a moderate group,” Kleiman said Friday. “Will this smoke the moderates out? Maybe. It seems unlikely.”
If anything, he noted, Sessions’ move could bolster the Millennial vote in upcoming elections, potentially creating a situation where some form of federal marijuana legalization could emerge as early as 2019.
Baron23
Well-Known Member
“The United States is a collection of . . . well, of states; it is not a giant centralized democracy with fifty regional departments. Congress should make it a priority to get the federal government out of this area, and to let the states, not the attorney general’s fealty, determine which rules are best for their citizenries. And conservatives, of all people, should celebrate that. The Founders did not write the Constitution to impose uniformity on hemp. Rarely will we get a better teaching moment than this one.”
THIS ^^. The movement to homogonize our vast and varied country and fairly well eliminate states rights via extraordinary distortion and extension of the Commerce Clause, has gone on too long. MJ is a issue on which I feel that I am activated and so is states rights and the restoration of Federalism.
Trump administration angers vulnerable Republicans with marijuana crackdown
By James Hohmann, The Washington Post
With the proposed crackdown on marijuana, the Trump administration created huge political headaches Thursday for scores of Republicans who were already facing a tough environment in 2018.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions revoked Obama-era guidance to make it easier for federal prosecutors to enforce existing marijuana laws in the eight states that have legalized the substance.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, meanwhile, unveiled a proposal to permit drilling in most continental-shelf waters, including protected areas of the Arctic and the Atlantic, in a boon for oil companies.
Both moves are unpopular with voters, especially key people in places that are likely to determine whether the GOP holds the House. In practice, these two stories probably pose bigger challenges for the president’s party in the midterms than any book about White House dysfunction. A Gallup poll in October found that 64 percent of Americans want to legalize marijuana, including a 51 percent majority of Republicans. Support is also particularly strong among millennial voters who Democrats are trying to galvanize for the midterms.
This explains why most elected Republicans in places that are directly impacted moved swiftly to distance themselves. For example, Trump lost by nine points in the suburban Denver district represented by Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., making him one of the most endangered House Republicans on the ballot this November. “Attorney General Sessions needs to read the Commerce Clause found in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution that limits the power of the federal government to regulate interstate and not intrastate commerce,” Coffman said in a statement. “The decision that was made to legalize marijuana in Colorado was made by the voters of Colorado and only applies within the boundaries of our state. Colorado had every right to legalize marijuana and I will do everything I can to protect that right against the power of an overreaching federal government.”
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., in an Orange Country district that Hillary Clinton carried, went even further: “The attorney general of the United States has just delivered an extravagant holiday gift to the drug cartels,” he said in a statement. “By attacking the will of the American people, who overwhelmingly favor marijuana legalization, Jeff Sessions has shown a preference for allowing all commerce in marijuana to take place in the black market, which will inevitably bring the spike in violence he mistakenly attributes to marijuana itself. He is doing the bidding of an out-of-date law enforcement establishment that wants to wage a perpetual weed war and seize private citizens’ property in order to finance its backward ambitions.”
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, R, up for reelection this fall in a state Trump lost by 27 points, said he “fully supports the will of the voters” vis-à-vis marijuana. “The administration believes this is the wrong decision and will review any potential impacts from any policy changes by the local U.S. Attorney’s Office,” a spokesperson said.
— The move by Sessions could have far-reaching political consequences in Colorado, a purple state Trump lost in 2016. The legal marijuana industry generates billions in revenue for the state and is responsible for many jobs.
Related stories
- Sans Cole Memo, U.S. attorneys empowered to enforce — or ignore — federal marijuana laws
- Opinion: Jeff Sessions’ marijuana crackdown makes national legalization more likely
- Oregon leaders vow to fight Sessions’ marijuana policy rollback
- Editorial: “Shame on Sessions for trying to destroy what Colorado has built”
- Sessions’ marijuana moves slammed by Washington State leaders
The senator’s threat is meaningful, and he has lots of leverage, because there are still no confirmed assistant attorneys general for the national security, criminal and civil rights divisions. Of the 93 U.S. attorney slots nationwide, Trump has nominated 58 and only 46 have been confirmed by the Senate.
Gardner spoke by phone Thursday with Sessions. “Let’s just say, there was no reconciliation of differences,” he told The Washington Post. The two will meet next week.
As a candidate, competing in Colorado, Trump promised he would not use federal authority to shut down sales of recreational marijuana. He told a local TV station that he believes the matter should be left “up to the states.”
— Nevada’s Dean Heller, the most vulnerable Republican senator up for reelection in 2018, put out a more nuanced statement: “Knowing Attorney General Sessions’ deference to states’ rights, I strongly encourage the DOJ to meet with Governor [Brian] Sandoval and Attorney General [Adam] Laxalt to discuss the implications of changes to federal marijuana enforcement policy. I also urge the DOJ to work with the congressional delegations from states like Nevada that have legalized marijuana as they review and navigate the new policy.”
Laxalt, the Nevada attorney general and a Republican candidate for governor, noted that while he opposed the ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana, “I also pledged to defend the measure were it approved by the voters.” He highlighted his defense of legal pot in two lawsuits. “My office has expeditiously facilitated the implementation of the law in the face of considerable uncertainty about the status of federal enforcement activity,” he said.
The elected GOP attorney general of Colorado, Cynthia Coffman, also said the federal government should “not target marijuana businesses who abide by our state’s laws.” “As attorney general it is my responsibility to defend our state laws – and I will continue to do so,” she said.
— To be sure, it’s not just vulnerable GOP incumbents speaking out and these objections aren’t just politically motivated. All three Republicans in the Alaska congressional delegation spoke out against the marijuana change, for instance:
Rep. Don Young, the dean of the House, called it an “unacceptable . . . direct violation of states’ rights.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she has “repeatedly discouraged” Sessions from taking this action over the past year, and that she asked him to work with the states in a cooperative way if he felt changes are necessary. “[The] announcement is disruptive to state regulatory regimes and regrettable,” she wrote on Facebook.
Sen. Dan Sullivan said it “adds new confusion and uncertainty for numerous states and communities.”He believes that it could be “the impetus necessary for Congress to find a permanent legislative solution for states that have chosen to regulate the production, sale and use of marijuana.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., safely reelected, also chastised Sessions’s announcement: “I continue to believe that this is a states’ rights issue, and the federal government has better things to focus on.”
Related: “This is outrageous”: Politicians react to news that A.G. Sessions is rescinding the Cole Memo
Uncertainty and reassurance
— Reacting to the intra-party blowback, the Trump administration sought to downplay the significance of both announcements. “Nothing is final,” Zinke told reporters. “This is a draft program. The states, local communities and congressional delegations will all have a say” before the proposal becomes final.
“Our goal certainly isn’t to cross Governor Scott,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at her afternoon briefing. “Just because we may differ on issues from time to time doesn’t mean that we can’t still have an incredibly strong and good relationship.”
— “Whether Sessions’s Justice Department actually busts dispensaries or others involved in state-approved pot production remains to be seen,” The Post’s Matt Zapotosky, Sari Horwitz and Joel Achenbach report. “Sessions announced his decision in a memo sent to U.S. attorneys. He said prosecutors should disregard the old guidance and instead use their discretion – taking into consideration the department’s limited resources, the seriousness of the crime and the deterrent effect that they could impose – in weighing whether charges were appropriate. In a briefing with reporters, a senior Justice Department official said it was unclear whether the new directive would lead to more prosecutions, because that will be up to individual U.S. attorneys across the country. But the official said that previous guidance ‘created a safe harbor for the marijuana industry to operate in these states’ and that that was inconsistent with federal law.”
— But there is already significant fallout. For instance, the chairman of Alaska’s Marijuana Control Board resigned after the news broke. Peter Mlynarik noted that the state’s rules were designed with the previous DOJ guidance in mind. “When you remove the Cole memorandum . . . there’s no reason why they’re not going to prosecute marijuana,” he told the Anchorage Daily News. “Commercial marijuana, I think, is really in jeopardy.” Mlynarik is Soldotna’s police chief. “If they are taking a different stance on it, I don’t want to be involved in something they are going to come down on,” he explained.
— Because this involves marijuana, there were lots of jokes on social media about the new directive. The Colorado state Senate’s Democratic Caucus tweeted this “We’ll give Jeff Sessions our legal pot when he pries it from our warm, extremely interesting to look at hands.”
— But this is no laughing matter. Consider this story:
“Being Black in Trump Country: Dozens of People Arrested for Less Than an Ounce of Weed,” by The Intercept’s Shaun King: “After claiming to find less than an ounce of weed in total – which has a street value of around $150 to $200 and would mean only a ticket in the nearby city of Atlanta – police in Cartersville charged all 70 people gathered for a birthday party – including men, women, boys, and girls, ranging from the ages of 15 to 31 – with drug possession and hauled them off to Bartow County Jail. . . . Many of these people’s lives will be ruined because of that small amount of marijuana. Scores of lawyers have been hired; nearly $100,000 in bail money was paid[.] . . . Their mugshots were publicly released. Unable to afford bail, many of the men and women who were arrested were then fired from their jobs after they were left in jail for days on end.”
— Paste Magazine notes the degree to which local decriminalization efforts succeeded across red and blue states in 2016: “Maine legalized marijuana with 46,175 more votes than Trump received. California legalized marijuana with 3,495,231 more votes than Trump received. Massachusetts legalized marijuana with 678,435 more votes than Trump received. Nevada legalized marijuana with 90,405 more votes than Trump received. Florida – a state Trump won – legalized medical marijuana with 1,901,033 more votes than Trump received. North Dakota – a state where Trump more than doubled Hillary Clinton’s vote total – legalized medical marijuana with 752 less votes than Trump received. Arkansas legalized medical marijuana with 99,842 less votes than Trump received. Montana – who has voted Democrat in one presidential election since 1968 – legalized medical marijuana with 12,094 more votes than Trump received. The only state where marijuana was on the 2016 ballot and lost was Arizona.”
— National Review calls marijuana “a gateway drug to federalism”: “If Colorado or Oregon want to legalize weed while Mississippi and Utah ban it, that’s fine. In fact, that is how the country is supposed to work,” writes Charles C.W. Cooke. “The United States is a collection of . . . well, of states; it is not a giant centralized democracy with fifty regional departments. Congress should make it a priority to get the federal government out of this area, and to let the states, not the attorney general’s fealty, determine which rules are best for their citizenries. And conservatives, of all people, should celebrate that. The Founders did not write the Constitution to impose uniformity on hemp. Rarely will we get a better teaching moment than this one.”
Baron23
Well-Known Member
hehehehe...oops....LOL, I caught it with another article but didn't see that I already posted this one. But the real treat is my comments in yellow....brilliant, aren't I? I'm a stable genius just like...oh, never mind! haha@Baron23 you're getting so worked up you posted the same article twice ^^^^. You posted this one yesterday.
However I agree with your sentiments.
Baron23
Well-Known Member
Yeah, ole' Jeffey's getting shit from everybody....even Ron Paul!! haha
Go, libertarians everywhere!
Ron Paul: Jeff Sessions should be fired over marijuana decision
By Alexandra King, CNN
Updated 4:41 PM ET, Sat January 6, 2018
Ron Paul, the former GOP congressman and onetime presidential candidate, called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to step down Saturday after he moved this week to rescind the Obama-era policy of restricting federal enforcement of marijuana laws in states where the drug is legal.
Sessions' action essentially shifts federal policy from the hands-off approach adopted under the Obama administration to unleashing federal prosecutors to decide individually how to prioritize resources to crack down on pot possession, distribution and cultivation of the drug in those states.
Currently, recreational marijuana is legal in eight states and the District of Columbia. Twenty-two states also allow some form of medical marijuana, and 15 allow a lesser medical marijuana extract.
Paul told CNN's Michael Smerconish that Americans should have a choice on marijuana use, and he called Sessions' actions "unconstitutional."
"He represents something that is so un-American, as far as I'm concerned," the Texas libertarian said.
"The war on drugs, to me, is a war on liberty. I think that we overly concentrate on the issue of the drug itself, and I concentrate on the issue of freedom of choice, on doing things that are of high risk," he said. "And we permit high risk all the time. ... Generally, we allow people to eat what they want, and that is very risky. But we do overly concentrate on what people put into their bodies."
Paul called the war on drugs a "totally illegal system."
"Just because you legalize something doesn't mean everyone's going to do it, and then if you look at the consequences, of the war? Why don't the people just look and read and study Prohibition? ... (a) total failure. And the war on drugs is every bit as bad and worse," he said.
"People should have the right or responsibility of dealing with what is dangerous," Paul insisted. "Once you get into this thing about government is going to protect us against ourselves, there's no protection of liberty."
However, he said, he didn't expect Sessions to be successful.
"I predict that Sessions is not going to be victorious on this," Paul told Smerconish.
"And unfortunately, it's for reasons that I don't get excited about. It's because the states want to collect all of those taxes (on marijuana), so it becomes this tax issue," he said.
Go, libertarians everywhere!
Ron Paul: Jeff Sessions should be fired over marijuana decision
By Alexandra King, CNN
Updated 4:41 PM ET, Sat January 6, 2018
Ron Paul, the former GOP congressman and onetime presidential candidate, called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to step down Saturday after he moved this week to rescind the Obama-era policy of restricting federal enforcement of marijuana laws in states where the drug is legal.
Sessions' action essentially shifts federal policy from the hands-off approach adopted under the Obama administration to unleashing federal prosecutors to decide individually how to prioritize resources to crack down on pot possession, distribution and cultivation of the drug in those states.
Currently, recreational marijuana is legal in eight states and the District of Columbia. Twenty-two states also allow some form of medical marijuana, and 15 allow a lesser medical marijuana extract.
Paul told CNN's Michael Smerconish that Americans should have a choice on marijuana use, and he called Sessions' actions "unconstitutional."
"He represents something that is so un-American, as far as I'm concerned," the Texas libertarian said.
"The war on drugs, to me, is a war on liberty. I think that we overly concentrate on the issue of the drug itself, and I concentrate on the issue of freedom of choice, on doing things that are of high risk," he said. "And we permit high risk all the time. ... Generally, we allow people to eat what they want, and that is very risky. But we do overly concentrate on what people put into their bodies."
Paul called the war on drugs a "totally illegal system."
"Just because you legalize something doesn't mean everyone's going to do it, and then if you look at the consequences, of the war? Why don't the people just look and read and study Prohibition? ... (a) total failure. And the war on drugs is every bit as bad and worse," he said.
"People should have the right or responsibility of dealing with what is dangerous," Paul insisted. "Once you get into this thing about government is going to protect us against ourselves, there's no protection of liberty."
However, he said, he didn't expect Sessions to be successful.
"I predict that Sessions is not going to be victorious on this," Paul told Smerconish.
"And unfortunately, it's for reasons that I don't get excited about. It's because the states want to collect all of those taxes (on marijuana), so it becomes this tax issue," he said.
Vicki
Herbal Alchemist
Nevermind that being on a "legal list" can mean your state is allowed to do "compliance checks" at your home.
You know. Like they do with other legal medications...
NOT.
Peace.
Compliance check consisting of what exactly?
OldOyler
Well-Known Member
You'll want to Google this for various state laws Vicki, I just brought it up because it made the news several times.
It's about compliance with possession limits, types (flower v concentrates), etc. Compliance with the laws pertaining to being a registered medical cannabis patient. Some states it would mean nothing, like California now I would imagine.
But I'm not a lawyer. I just bring it up for thought. Hopefully someone with actual knowledge on the topic will chime in.
@Baron23 usually knows something in this area.
Peace!
Baron23
Well-Known Member
I don't know of any state law that requires you to waive your constitutional rights against search and seizure without a warrant in order to get an MMJ card.
ataxian
In a BLACK HOLE!
Yeah, ole' Jeffey's getting shit from everybody....even Ron Paul!! haha
Go, libertarians everywhere!
Ron Paul: Jeff Sessions should be fired over marijuana decision
By Alexandra King, CNN
Updated 4:41 PM ET, Sat January 6, 2018
Ron Paul, the former GOP congressman and onetime presidential candidate, called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to step down Saturday after he moved this week to rescind the Obama-era policy of restricting federal enforcement of marijuana laws in states where the drug is legal.
Sessions' action essentially shifts federal policy from the hands-off approach adopted under the Obama administration to unleashing federal prosecutors to decide individually how to prioritize resources to crack down on pot possession, distribution and cultivation of the drug in those states.
Currently, recreational marijuana is legal in eight states and the District of Columbia. Twenty-two states also allow some form of medical marijuana, and 15 allow a lesser medical marijuana extract.
Paul told CNN's Michael Smerconish that Americans should have a choice on marijuana use, and he called Sessions' actions "unconstitutional."
"He represents something that is so un-American, as far as I'm concerned," the Texas libertarian said.
"The war on drugs, to me, is a war on liberty. I think that we overly concentrate on the issue of the drug itself, and I concentrate on the issue of freedom of choice, on doing things that are of high risk," he said. "And we permit high risk all the time. ... Generally, we allow people to eat what they want, and that is very risky. But we do overly concentrate on what people put into their bodies."
Paul called the war on drugs a "totally illegal system."
"Just because you legalize something doesn't mean everyone's going to do it, and then if you look at the consequences, of the war? Why don't the people just look and read and study Prohibition? ... (a) total failure. And the war on drugs is every bit as bad and worse," he said.
"People should have the right or responsibility of dealing with what is dangerous," Paul insisted. "Once you get into this thing about government is going to protect us against ourselves, there's no protection of liberty."
However, he said, he didn't expect Sessions to be successful.
"I predict that Sessions is not going to be victorious on this," Paul told Smerconish.
"And unfortunately, it's for reasons that I don't get excited about. It's because the states want to collect all of those taxes (on marijuana), so it becomes this tax issue," he said.
OldOyler
Well-Known Member
Well like here's one article.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/asanews4087
The summary / highlights:
Medical marijuana 'compliance checks' anger citizens
March 13, 2012
Paul Boerger, Mt. Shasta News
Siskiyou County Sheriff Jon Lopey said he plans to meet with detectives who conducted recent medical marijuana “compliance checks” in Dunsmuir to ensure they’re relaying correct information to the public.
He said the Sheriff’s Office will abide by doctor recommendations for marijuana amounts and that any misinformation put out by deputies and detectives will be corrected. Lopey stated in an interview earlier this week that cooperating with deputies doing compliance checks is completely voluntary."
Many state areas, like in Michigan I noticed, simply state that they WON'T be doing door to door compliance checks.
That doesn't mean they *can't*. Especially if they receive a tip.
Because tips are always accurate of course...
And in that case I mentioned, it's older, but what do you think happens if you refuse one of these "voluntary" checks at your home? I'm sure Johnny Law monitoring of every move is now considered justified...
Peace!
Baron23
Well-Known Member
I think this is the significant phase here....so, it would appear that there is no legislative requirement for these checks in CA (which is where this article is addressed).
Am I misunderstanding this?
OldOyler
Well-Known Member
I wish I knew, bud.
I need to do some reading over the next week or so on this kind of stuff.
I mean, that innocent guy just got shot by law enforcement over a bogus call to them. And remember that cop got off claiming the smell of cannabis near a child made him convinced he could start discharging his weapon into the man's chest?
And a jury later agreed?
I'm not trying to fear monger. I just want to know what's what. Freedom of the mind even of there's danger and all that.
Peace!
ataxian
In a BLACK HOLE!
Baron23
Well-Known Member
From the Washington Post Editorial section:
Sessions’s unwise move on marijuana may backfire
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is pushing the federal government back into marijuana enforcement. This is an unwise and unnecessary move that may divert resources from more serious problems — and end up backfiring on those who want to restrain pot use.
Mr. Sessions rescinded Thursday a policy that kept the federal government largely out of the way of states that have legalized marijuana. A majority of states have now legalized it in some form. Maryland just began permitting medical marijuana. California just legalized recreational marijuana, and Vermont is near to doing so.
Mr. Sessions’s move upended a tenuous deal the Obama administration made with legalization states: keep pot out of minors’ hands and help combat trafficking, and federal authorities will focus on bigger priorities. This policy allowed a handful of states room to experiment with unencumbered legalization, which would have made the consequences clearer to others.
Read These Comments
The best conversations on The Washington Post
Mr. Sessions’s decision is unlikely to result in arrests of small-time marijuana users. But it will chill the growth of the aboveboard weed economy by deterring banks and other institutions from participating. From there, U.S. attorneys across the country will decide whether to crack down, and on whom — a few big distributors, perhaps, or a few local grow shops, too. In states with complex regulations on marijuana growing, testing and selling, some operations may move back underground rather than provide documentation to state authorities that federal prosecutors might later use against them.
Mr. Sessions’s move is counterproductive even for skeptics of legalization, whose only defense against a growing tide of public opinion would be evidence that full legalization has significant negative consequences. Mr. Sessions’s move diminishes the possibility of drawing lessons — including cautionary ones — from the examples of legalization states. Similarly, Mr. Sessions has made it harder to learn how to regulate the legitimate weed economy, if that is the path the country chooses.
Jars of medical marijuana are on display on the counter of Western Caregivers Medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles. (Richard Vogel/Associated Press)
More concerning is the prospect that U.S. attorneys will begin diverting limited federal resources into anti-pot campaigns from far more pressing matters. As Mr. Sessions himself said this past November, the nation is experiencing “the deadliest drug crisis in American history.” That would be the opioid epidemic, which, Mr. Sessions noted, claimed some 64,000 lives in 2016. Marijuana simply does not pose the same threat, and the attorney general should have avoided any suggestion that it requires more attention right now.
Mr. Sessions’s decision will spur calls for Congress to finally change federal law. That is warranted, but lawmakers should be wary of swinging too far in the opposite direction. As a recent National Academies of Science review found, experts still know relatively little about marijuana’s health effects. It makes no sense to lock up small-time marijuana users, but it may not make sense to move quickly to national legalization. Rather, Congress should decriminalize marijuana use, then await more information.
Sessions’s unwise move on marijuana may backfire
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is pushing the federal government back into marijuana enforcement. This is an unwise and unnecessary move that may divert resources from more serious problems — and end up backfiring on those who want to restrain pot use.
Mr. Sessions rescinded Thursday a policy that kept the federal government largely out of the way of states that have legalized marijuana. A majority of states have now legalized it in some form. Maryland just began permitting medical marijuana. California just legalized recreational marijuana, and Vermont is near to doing so.
Mr. Sessions’s move upended a tenuous deal the Obama administration made with legalization states: keep pot out of minors’ hands and help combat trafficking, and federal authorities will focus on bigger priorities. This policy allowed a handful of states room to experiment with unencumbered legalization, which would have made the consequences clearer to others.
Read These Comments
The best conversations on The Washington Post
Mr. Sessions’s decision is unlikely to result in arrests of small-time marijuana users. But it will chill the growth of the aboveboard weed economy by deterring banks and other institutions from participating. From there, U.S. attorneys across the country will decide whether to crack down, and on whom — a few big distributors, perhaps, or a few local grow shops, too. In states with complex regulations on marijuana growing, testing and selling, some operations may move back underground rather than provide documentation to state authorities that federal prosecutors might later use against them.
Mr. Sessions’s move is counterproductive even for skeptics of legalization, whose only defense against a growing tide of public opinion would be evidence that full legalization has significant negative consequences. Mr. Sessions’s move diminishes the possibility of drawing lessons — including cautionary ones — from the examples of legalization states. Similarly, Mr. Sessions has made it harder to learn how to regulate the legitimate weed economy, if that is the path the country chooses.
More concerning is the prospect that U.S. attorneys will begin diverting limited federal resources into anti-pot campaigns from far more pressing matters. As Mr. Sessions himself said this past November, the nation is experiencing “the deadliest drug crisis in American history.” That would be the opioid epidemic, which, Mr. Sessions noted, claimed some 64,000 lives in 2016. Marijuana simply does not pose the same threat, and the attorney general should have avoided any suggestion that it requires more attention right now.
Mr. Sessions’s decision will spur calls for Congress to finally change federal law. That is warranted, but lawmakers should be wary of swinging too far in the opposite direction. As a recent National Academies of Science review found, experts still know relatively little about marijuana’s health effects. It makes no sense to lock up small-time marijuana users, but it may not make sense to move quickly to national legalization. Rather, Congress should decriminalize marijuana use, then await more information.
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