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Jeff Sessions

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Colo. Sen. Gardner provides additional details on marijuana policy meeting with Jeff Sessions


By Mark Matthews, The Denver Post

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner on Thursday provided additional details on his meeting Wednesday with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in which they discussed their disagreement over marijuana policy.

“I don’t think there was anything new in the discussion yesterday about (Sessions’) position, other than he doesn’t think that he’s changed anything,” Gardner said. “But clearly what he did (last week) was, I don’t think, the same commitment that he gave us prior to (his) confirmation.”

The Colorado Republican senator said prior to his confirmation as attorney general, Sessions told him there would be no change in policy.

“(Sessions said) that they didn’t have the bandwidth to do that, that he didn’t see it on the president’s agenda,” Gardner said. “But I think it’s important to recognize, I still think the Department of Justice and the White House are on different pages.”

Prior to the Wednesday meeting, Gardner said in an interview that he planned to press the Republican attorney general on his decision to rescind an Obama-era policy that left alone states such as Colorado that legalized marijuana. Gardner had previously threatened to block all nominees related to the Department of Justice, including U.S. marshals and U.S. attorneys from other states, if he didn’t get his way.

Related stories
Gardner’s comments to The Denver Post Thursday mirror those he made late Wednesday on MSNBC’s Meet the Press Daily.

“The meeting went as I expected it,” Gardner told host Chuck Todd. “He’s going to hold his position for now, I’m going to hold my position. My position of course is that — I believed prior to his confirmation he made a commitment that we wouldn’t see the kind of significant shift in policy that we are now seeing the administration pursue. But I actually think that it’s not necessarily the administration, it’s the attorney general who I actually believe has a difference of opinion on this than the White House does right now.”

The senator in the televised interview framed his opposition to the attorney general’s marijuana policy shift as a states’ rights issue.

“I’m somebody that didn’t support the legalization of marijuana in Colorado,” he said, “but I also think it’s necessary to protect that state decision. If Colorado had to vote again today I think it’d probably pass with an even higher margin now than it did several years back. This is about states’ rights, this is about a federalist approach to government, and I hope that’s something that we can find a solution on.”

this guy is not civilized!
Bernie is da man of da hour with all the power.
SESSIONS is a JOKE full of YOLK of rotten egg's!
 
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A friend of mine sent this to me this morning.... Now this friend is probably the 'straightest' person I know. It has taken me fifteen years to get her to accept medical marijuana as a viable option. And she sends me this today..... I feel like this is a success story. :biggrin:

Not the cartoon.... her acceptance. :thumbsup:

thumbnail.png
 
Bernie is da man of da hour with all the power.
SESSIONS is a JOKE full of YOLK of rotten egg's!
Well, we can agree on Sessions but should probably leave it at that, my good friend :thumbsup:
 
Attorney General Jeff Sessions: Dazed & Confused about American Marijuana Law
It’s time to clear up the confusion.

n a move that will surprise few people, conservative Attorney General Jeff Sessions—who has previously touted “state’s rights” as being of critical importance in the past—appears to be attempting to override state’s rights when it comes to legalized medical and recreational marijuana use. More than half the country—twenty-ninee states—have adopted medical marijuana laws which legalize at least some cannabis use for medical purposes. Eight states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use.
attorney-general-jeff-sessions-dazed-confused-about-american-marijuana-law-1.jpg


Wikipedia

Earlier today, the Attorney General issued a confusing press release and DOJ memo regarding Federal marijuana enforcement which drew quick reaction by governors in states where marijuana use in now legal. In the memo (full text here), Sessions appeared to attempt to reverse former President Obama’s hands-off approach to Federal marijuana enforcement.

In 2013, under then-President Obama, then-Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole issued a memo later referred to as the “Cole Memo” which outlined the administration’s relaxed position on Federal marijuana enforcement. Today’s action by Sessions explicitly rescinded that memo. So what is now in its place? A mess of confusion about whether the Federal government will once again involve itself again in the prohibition of marijuana production, distribution, and consumption.


What Does This Mean for Medical Marijuana Use?
Probably not much. In May of 2017, Attorney General Sessions In May, Sessions asked Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress to allow him to prosecute medical marijuana, but his pleas appeared to fall on mostly deaf ears. It was probably more of a stunt for right-wing law-and-order Trump supporters. Politically, it would be foolish suicide for Sessions to target– for example– people suffering from chronic pain who rely upon marijuana to go about their daily lives. Even the most ardent anti-drug conservatives tend to feel that medical marijuana should be legal. It’s estimated that 94% of Americans support medical marijuana legalization. It is therefore highly unlikely that you’ll see FBI agents busting down downs of the homes of chemotherapy patients or the terminally ill in order to confiscate their pills or edibles.

What Does This Mean for Recreational Marijuana Use?
Much like medical marijuana, recreational use in legal states will probably remain legal. Why? Lack of manpower and political will. First of all, there aren’t enough Federal agents in the entire country to stop recreational use in Humboldt County California, let alone the million-plus communities of Portland Oregon, Seattle Washington, Denver Colorado, San Francisco or Los Angeles California. Second, the governors of these states are very politically-aware of the finances that recreational use bring to their states. Governor Jay Inslee of Washington State has already voiced concern over the Sessions memo, as have Oregon Governor Kate Brown, and Colorado Senator Cory Gardner. Sessions won’t risk alienating himself and creating enemies with seven governors over personal cannabis use. California—with its economy being the sixth largest economy in the world—just started marijuana sales days ago. The state is a political and economic force to be reckoned with, and it’s unlikely Federal law enforcement would have the political or practical capability to involve themselves with all state-legal marijuana sales.

What Does This Mean for Cannabusiness?
This remains to be seen… and is the most concerning. What’s most remarkable about Sessions’ memo is how vague and confusing it is. It does not say what exactly will be done in the states that have legalized recreational marijuana use. Will Federal SWAT teams be seizing and burning commercial crops? Raiding large dispensaries? Attempting civil forfeiture of funds from successful marijuana businesses?

Thankfully, even though the memo doesn’t set forth new details on enforcement, it appears to indicate a reversion to previous enforcement efforts. This means we can look for guidance as to historical enforcement efforts at the Federal level.

Based on marijuana enforcement prior to state legalization and the Cole Memo, we can probably expect more Federal enforcement of marijuana trafficking from outside the country (i.e. Mexico and China would be likely targets for the Trump administration), commercial black market marijuana trafficking, use of firearms in combination with marijuana trafficking, and illegal commercial marijuana trafficking that stems from legal marijuana trafficking (e.g. growers selling marijuana outside of otherwise state-legal restrictions). I would also expect banks to be even more concerned about having ties with state-legal marijuana businesses, although most cannabusinesses already rely upon cash for their transactions because banks won’t let or entangle themselves with activities that possibility violate Federal law.

Marijuana legalization advocates and enthusiasts can likely take some comfort in the fact that there is now a critical mass of legal marijuana use throughout the country, and it would be next to impossible to reverse that social and political development. Gallup has found in their polls that 64% of Americans now feel that marijuana should be legalized. That’s right: More Americans agree that medical marijuana should be legal than those who agree that Donald Trump should even be president.

Sessions is most likely pandering to ultra-conservatives as simply an extension of the Trump administration, and has no plan or little ability to begin a new drug war. Nevertheless, medical and recreational users of marijuana– as well as cannabis businesses– should likely tread lightly and avoid entanglements which violate other Federal laws or their local state laws. It very well could be the case that Federal law enforcement will be looking for low-hanging fruit to go after—to use as examples—in support of even more enforcement powers.
 
Giving ole' Jefferson a load of shit has become a favorite past time in DC....couldn't happen to a nicer fascist.


Democrats call for hearing on Jeff Sessions’ anti-marijuana policy

By Keegan Hamilton Feb 5, 2018
Eleven members of the House Judiciary Committee are demanding a hearing into the decision by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to roll back an Obama-era policy on marijuana enforcement, according to a letter obtained Monday by VICE News.

The letter, signed by 11 Democrats, calls for Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia, to hold a hearing of the full House Judiciary Committee to discuss the recent move by Sessions, which gives federal prosecutors more leeway to launch marijuana cases in states that have legalized the drug for medical and recreational use.

The Democrats said they fear the new Justice Department policy “will promote an inefficient use of limited taxpayer resources and subvert the will of voters who have clearly indicated a preference for legalized marijuana in their states.”

“The costs of pursuing this misguided policy both in terms of prosecution and in lives blighted by unnecessary criminal convictions are staggering, cruel and unwarranted,” said Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee who signed the letter. He added, “As I told Jeff Sessions when he appeared before the Judiciary Committee, prosecution of marijuana has an opportunity cost, namely that resources wasted on marijuana cases aren’t being used to prosecute opioid sellers, and crack, meth and heroin dealers.”

A spokesperson for Goodlatte did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Goodlatte is a conservative who has opposed marijuana legalization in the past.

Sessions announced the marijuana policy change on Jan. 4 with a memo to U.S. Attorneys across the country that said “marijuana is a dangerous drug” and “marijuana activity is a serious crime.” The memo specifically mentioned the possibility of marijuana-related prosecutions for money laundering and illegal banking.

Previously, under guidance known as the Cole Memo, federal prosecutors were instructed to file marijuana charges only in cases where the defendants had violated state and federal law, usually by shipping weed across state lines. Session essentially told his U.S. Attorneys that they are now free to go after state-legal weed whenever they see fit, and several prosecutors have already signaled an intent to crack down.

The House Judiciary Committee oversees issues related to the federal justice system, including federal law enforcement entities, and could pressure Sessions to reverse or amend his decision. In their letter to Goodlatte, the Democrats said Sessions had failed “to provide any evidence that prosecuting marijuana in states where it has been legalized will make Americans safer. They also called for the Justice Department to “instead pursue enforcement strategies that are sensible, effective, and enhance public safety.”

Several Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee either come from states with legal marijuana or have expressed support for legalization. Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California who signed the letter, cited bipartisan support as a reason for holding a hearing. He said the Democrats reached out across the aisle when drafting the letter, but Republicans chose instead to send their own letter expressing their concerns directly to President Trump, who promised on the campaign trail to respect state decisions on marijuana.

“It’s important for the American people to understand why Attorney General Sessions reversed this very simple policy of letting states go ahead and honor the wishes of their residents in terms of legalizing marijuana and to understand the rationale for doing this,” Lieu said. “I’d like to get on the record why Attorney General Sessions believes what he believes.”

Even if Goodlatte ignores the letter and refuses to hold a hearing, there are other efforts underway to push back against the move by Sessions, including a bill that would block federal law enforcement from targeting state-legal marijuana businesses and a potential lawsuit from Washington state’s attorney general.

Here’s the full text of the letter:

Dear Chairman Goodlatte:

We are deeply concerned by the recent action by Attorney General Sessions rescinding Department of Justice (DOJ) marijuana enforcement guidance issued during the Obama Administration. We write to request a hearing of the full Judiciary Committee regarding this decision.

On January 4, 2018, Attorney General Sessions issued a memorandum to U.S. Attorneys eliminating marijuana enforcement priorities set forth under President Obama. Previous memoranda issued during the Obama Administration, such as the memorandum issued in 2013 by then Deputy Attorney General James Cole (Cole Memo), made clear the considerations the federal government should use when deciding to prosecute violations of the Controlled Substances Act related to marijuana. Rather than targeting individuals in states that had legalized marijuana and consequently set up complex regulatory systems, the government focused on priorities that were significant to the federal government. These included preventing gangs and cartels from profiting from marijuana sales and ensuring that state-authorized marijuana was not used to hide other illegal activities.

We fear that the elimination of the Obama Administration’s marijuana enforcement guidance will promote an inefficient use of limited taxpayer resources and subvert the will of voters who have clearly indicated a preference for legalized marijuana in their states. Further, the January 4 memorandum by Attorney General Sessions fails to provide any evidence that prosecuting marijuana in states where it has been legalized will make Americans safer. DOJ should instead pursue enforcement strategies that are sensible, effective, and enhance public safety, and the Judiciary Committee should be included in these discussions.

The Judiciary Committee has a fundamental duty to conduct oversight on the Department of Justice. It is critical that the members of our committee have an opportunity to ask questions about this recent rescission in a formal setting and evaluate potential legislation related to marijuana. Therefore, we respectfully request a hearing by the full Committee on these issues.

Sincerely,

Rep. Jerrold Nadler

Rep. Ted Lieu

Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee

Rep. Pramila Jayapal

Rep. Steve Cohen

Rep. David Cicilline

Rep. Zoe Lofgren

Rep. Jamie Raskin

Rep. Eric Swalwell

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries

Rep. Hank Johnson
 
Giving ole' Jefferson a load of shit has become a favorite past time in DC....couldn't happen to a nicer fascist.


Democrats call for hearing on Jeff Sessions’ anti-marijuana policy

By Keegan Hamilton Feb 5, 2018
Eleven members of the House Judiciary Committee are demanding a hearing into the decision by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to roll back an Obama-era policy on marijuana enforcement, according to a letter obtained Monday by VICE News.

The letter, signed by 11 Democrats, calls for Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia, to hold a hearing of the full House Judiciary Committee to discuss the recent move by Sessions, which gives federal prosecutors more leeway to launch marijuana cases in states that have legalized the drug for medical and recreational use.

The Democrats said they fear the new Justice Department policy “will promote an inefficient use of limited taxpayer resources and subvert the will of voters who have clearly indicated a preference for legalized marijuana in their states.”

“The costs of pursuing this misguided policy both in terms of prosecution and in lives blighted by unnecessary criminal convictions are staggering, cruel and unwarranted,” said Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee who signed the letter. He added, “As I told Jeff Sessions when he appeared before the Judiciary Committee, prosecution of marijuana has an opportunity cost, namely that resources wasted on marijuana cases aren’t being used to prosecute opioid sellers, and crack, meth and heroin dealers.”

A spokesperson for Goodlatte did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Goodlatte is a conservative who has opposed marijuana legalization in the past.

Sessions announced the marijuana policy change on Jan. 4 with a memo to U.S. Attorneys across the country that said “marijuana is a dangerous drug” and “marijuana activity is a serious crime.” The memo specifically mentioned the possibility of marijuana-related prosecutions for money laundering and illegal banking.

Previously, under guidance known as the Cole Memo, federal prosecutors were instructed to file marijuana charges only in cases where the defendants had violated state and federal law, usually by shipping weed across state lines. Session essentially told his U.S. Attorneys that they are now free to go after state-legal weed whenever they see fit, and several prosecutors have already signaled an intent to crack down.

The House Judiciary Committee oversees issues related to the federal justice system, including federal law enforcement entities, and could pressure Sessions to reverse or amend his decision. In their letter to Goodlatte, the Democrats said Sessions had failed “to provide any evidence that prosecuting marijuana in states where it has been legalized will make Americans safer. They also called for the Justice Department to “instead pursue enforcement strategies that are sensible, effective, and enhance public safety.”

Several Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee either come from states with legal marijuana or have expressed support for legalization. Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California who signed the letter, cited bipartisan support as a reason for holding a hearing. He said the Democrats reached out across the aisle when drafting the letter, but Republicans chose instead to send their own letter expressing their concerns directly to President Trump, who promised on the campaign trail to respect state decisions on marijuana.

“It’s important for the American people to understand why Attorney General Sessions reversed this very simple policy of letting states go ahead and honor the wishes of their residents in terms of legalizing marijuana and to understand the rationale for doing this,” Lieu said. “I’d like to get on the record why Attorney General Sessions believes what he believes.”

Even if Goodlatte ignores the letter and refuses to hold a hearing, there are other efforts underway to push back against the move by Sessions, including a bill that would block federal law enforcement from targeting state-legal marijuana businesses and a potential lawsuit from Washington state’s attorney general.

Here’s the full text of the letter:

Dear Chairman Goodlatte:

We are deeply concerned by the recent action by Attorney General Sessions rescinding Department of Justice (DOJ) marijuana enforcement guidance issued during the Obama Administration. We write to request a hearing of the full Judiciary Committee regarding this decision.

On January 4, 2018, Attorney General Sessions issued a memorandum to U.S. Attorneys eliminating marijuana enforcement priorities set forth under President Obama. Previous memoranda issued during the Obama Administration, such as the memorandum issued in 2013 by then Deputy Attorney General James Cole (Cole Memo), made clear the considerations the federal government should use when deciding to prosecute violations of the Controlled Substances Act related to marijuana. Rather than targeting individuals in states that had legalized marijuana and consequently set up complex regulatory systems, the government focused on priorities that were significant to the federal government. These included preventing gangs and cartels from profiting from marijuana sales and ensuring that state-authorized marijuana was not used to hide other illegal activities.

We fear that the elimination of the Obama Administration’s marijuana enforcement guidance will promote an inefficient use of limited taxpayer resources and subvert the will of voters who have clearly indicated a preference for legalized marijuana in their states. Further, the January 4 memorandum by Attorney General Sessions fails to provide any evidence that prosecuting marijuana in states where it has been legalized will make Americans safer. DOJ should instead pursue enforcement strategies that are sensible, effective, and enhance public safety, and the Judiciary Committee should be included in these discussions.

The Judiciary Committee has a fundamental duty to conduct oversight on the Department of Justice. It is critical that the members of our committee have an opportunity to ask questions about this recent rescission in a formal setting and evaluate potential legislation related to marijuana. Therefore, we respectfully request a hearing by the full Committee on these issues.

Sincerely,

Rep. Jerrold Nadler

Rep. Ted Lieu

Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee

Rep. Pramila Jayapal

Rep. Steve Cohen

Rep. David Cicilline

Rep. Zoe Lofgren

Rep. Jamie Raskin

Rep. Eric Swalwell

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries

Rep. Hank Johnson
What sickness does he have?
Why give TAX BREAKS to FICTIONAL GROUP'S?
CIVILIZATION when will we be?
 

Sen. Cory Gardner’s siege of Justice Department over marijuana enters second month



By Mark Matthews

WASHINGTON — It’s been a month since the pot blockade began, and U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner is standing firm in his vow to jam all appointments to the Department of Justice until Attorney General Jeff Sessions softens his stance on marijuana.

So far, his siege to protect both Colorado’s cannabis industry and the state’s sovereignty has prevented as many as 11 nominees from getting a Senate floor vote — the last major step before they can start work — and there is little indication that Gardner, R-Colo., and Sessions are any closer to finding common ground.

“It may never resolve itself,” said U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who chairs the committee in charge of getting these nominees to the floor.

If that happens, the consequences would extend far beyond the 11 nominees that Gardner has put on ice.

Related stories
More than 20 other candidates are in the congressional pipeline for Justice-related jobs, including U.S. marshals and U.S. attorneys assigned to states across the country. One even hails from Colorado: David Weaver, a former Douglas County sheriff in line to become the state’s next U.S. marshal.

Read the rest of this story on DenverPost.com (or tell them to take their pay wall and go fuck themselves LOL)
 
I would love to show Sessions exactly where to stuff his Bufferin.


Jeff Sessions has a suggestion to tame the opioid crisis: Bufferin and less marijuana

Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke Tuesday evening at a Heritage Foundation event to celebrate former President Ronald Reagan's birthday, and he was eager to tie President Trump to Reagan. One of the ways the Trump administration is echoing Reagan's legacy, he said, is by cracking down on drug use, blaming "lax enforcement, permissive rhetoric, and the media" for undermining Nancy Reagan's "just say no" message, especially with marijuana.

During a question-and-answer period, Sessions addressed the opioid epidemic, which is killing an estimated 175 Americans a day. Under President Trump, Kellyanne Conway and other political appointees are in charge of handling the opioid crisis, but Sessions touted an encouraging 7 percent drop last year in prescriptions of opioids, saying he wants to see that trend continue in 2018. "Sometimes you just need to take two Bufferin or something and go to bed," he said. (Bufferin is an old-timey aspirin brand now owned by India's Dr. Reddy's.)

Opioid pills "become so addictive," Sessions said. "The DEA said that a huge percentage of the heroin addictions starts with prescriptions. That may be an exaggerated number — they had it as high as 80 percent — we think a lot of this is starting with marijuana and other drugs."

Studies suggest medical marijuana actually reduces opioid abuse and deaths, but the attorney general's promised crackdown on marijuana, even where states legalized it, has advocates concerned. "Based on my research and what I've learned while teaching the first U.S. college course on the marijuana business at the University of Denver, I see no reason for supporters of legalization to panic," writes Paul Seaborn at The Conversation. "In fact, I believe that Sessions may have actually accelerated the process toward federal marijuana legalization."
 
I am starting to believe that this man has some sort of cognitive disability or other mental illness that prevents him from absorbing and accepting facts and leaves him with nothing but his personal prejudices. Do you think mental incompetence would be grounds for his removal from office (from my lips to god's ear, please LOL)


Jeff Sessions Blames Marijuana For Opioid Crisis

Despite the mounting evidence to the contrary, Jeff Sessions blames marijuana for opioid crisis.

Jeff Sessions is at it again. The Attorney General has never been shy about his stark opposition to anything having to do with cannabis. He regularly spews all sorts of anti-weed vitriol—even when it flies in the face of scientific evidence. This time, when Jeff Sessions blames marijuana for opioid crisis, he has to contradict even the DEA.

Jeff Sessions’ Lastest Anti-Weed Rant
Sessions’ latest anti-cannabis rant came while speaking at a Heritage Foundation event on Tuesday night. At some point during the event, somebody asked him about the country’s ongoing opioid crisis.

Not surprisingly, Sessions’ response was anything but clear. In fact, his answer was basically a muddled attempt to refute evidence from the DEA in order to double down on the imaginary link between prescription drug abuse and cannabis. Essentially, Jeff Sessions blames marijuana for opioid crisis.

“Sometimes, you just need to take two Bufferins or something and go to bed. These pills become so addictive,” he said. “The DEA said a huge percentage of the heroin addictions start with prescriptions. That may be an exaggerated number—they had it as high as 80 percent—we think a lot of this is starting with marijuana or other drugs, too.”

For starters, it’s strange to see Sessions blatantly refuting the official position of the DEA, the agency devoted to carrying out the War on Drugs so beloved by Sessions.


But once again, Sessions has made clear that he is committed above all to fueling a racist and classist War on Drugs. In so doing, he regularly ignores all sorts of evidence coming from scientists, health professionals and now, even law enforcement.

What Research Says About Cannabis and Opioids
As far as researchers can tell, there may indeed be some interesting links between cannabis and opioids. But unfortunately for Sessions, those connections are the exact opposite of the ones he tries to draw.

In fact, multiple studies have found that cannabis can actually help decrease opioid abuse and addiction. Last September, researchers at the University of New Mexico examined 125 chronic pain patients over the course of five years. Out of those patients, 83 chose to use medical marijuana. The remaining 42 did not consume cannabis.

At the end of the study period, 34 percent of those who used medical marijuana were able to stop taking pain medication altogether. On the other hand, only two percent of those who did not use medical marijuana were able to get off pain medication.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia found similar results in a 2016 study. This research found that cannabis actually helps people break addictions to opioids.


“Research suggests that people may be using cannabis as an exit drug to reduce use of substances that are potentially more harmful, such as opioid pain medication,” said lead research Zach Walsh.

Final Hit: Jeff Sessions Blames Marijuana For Opioid Crisis
At this point, it seems clear that Sessions will continue pressing his anti-weed, pro-War on Drugs rhetoric no matter how many experts he has to ignore.

But for anyone interested in actually solving the opioid crisis, the evidence seems clear: cannabis is not the culprit. In fact, it just may be the solution. Despite the fact that Jeff Sessions blames marijuana for opioid crisis.

In the first place, if cannabis were legal, patients dealing with severe pain would have safer, less addictive options for treating their pain. That could significantly reduce the likelihood that a patient would ever develop an addiction to opioids.

Beyond that, cannabis has shown promise at helping those already struggling with opioid addiction. In fact, experts are increasingly calling weed an “exit drug,” rather than a gateway drug.
 
From NY Times...yet another voice saying that ole' Jefferson is full of shit (or as I alluded to above, mentally ill)


Marijuana Can Save Lives

his week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions paused a discussion of the opioid epidemic to, once again, go after marijuana. He suggested that addictive pain medication wasn’t the only problem and that many heroin addicts start out “with marijuana and other drugs.”

There is a relationship between cannabis and opioids, but Mr. Sessions has it backward. Marijuana isn’t a gateway drug to opioid addiction; it’s a safer alternative to pain medicines. Mr. Sessions’s vow to crack down on marijuana will only make the opioid epidemic worse.

We know that 40 percent of opioid overdose deaths involve a prescription opioid. So having legal access to cannabis as another option for pain relief may actually reduce consumption of opiates.

I know it sounds counterintuitive, but consider the evidence. To start, a large study assessed the effect of medical-marijuana laws on opiate-related deaths between 1999 and 2010 in all 50 states and reported a 25 percent decrease in opiate overdose mortality in states where medical marijuana was legal, compared with those where it wasn’t. The study found that in 2010, medical-marijuana laws resulted in an estimated 1,729 fewer deaths than expected.

Other epidemiologic studies found similar results. A study published last year examined opiate-related deaths in Colorado between 2000 and 2015. Researchers compared mortality rates before and after the state legalized recreational cannabis in 2014. For controls, they chose two nearby states: Nevada, which legalized only medical cannabis, and Utah, where all cannabis use is illegal. The study found a 6.5 percent drop in opiate-related deaths after recreational cannabis became legal in Colorado.


Likewise, other researchers examined the link between medical cannabis and opiate use in a group of patients with chronic pain in New Mexico, one of the states hardest hit by the opioid crisis. They reported that subjects who had access to medical cannabis were 17 times more likely to stop using opiates for pain compared with those not using cannabis.

Because these are all observational studies, they cannot prove a causal link between cannabis use and lower opiate-related mortality. Still, the consistent epidemiologic evidence is hard to ignore.

Why might cannabis work so well as an alternative to opioids? It does offer some mild pain relief. But more significant, both opiates and cannabis — like all recreational drugs — cause the release of dopamine in the brain’s reward pathway. That signal conveys a powerful sense of pleasure. Thus, cannabis might pre-empt some of the rewarding effects of opiates, decreasing the general desire to use them.

There is also intriguing preliminary evidence that cannabidiol, a major psychoactive component of marijuana, can blunt craving in individuals with opioid dependence following a period of abstinence.

If cannabis were actually a dangerous gateway drug, as the attorney general suggested, it would be very easy to see in the data. We would find that medical-marijuana laws increased opiate drug use and overdose deaths, when in fact just the opposite has happened.

We would also expect to see a consistent sequence of drug abuse from cannabis to, say, opiates or cocaine, across different cultures. But this is not the case at all.

For example, in Japan, where marijuana use is relatively rare, 83 percent of people who used recreational drugs did not begin with cannabis. This was true as well for 60 percent of South Africans.

A more plausible explanation for the common finding that people use a series of recreational drugs is a general propensity for risk-taking behavior, of which drug use is just one manifestation.

None of this is to say that marijuana is without risks. It certainly isn’t. Cannabis can impair cognition, attention and intellectual performance, though the effects are reversible. And in some individuals who are genetically at risk, it can unleash psychotic states. But there is little evidence that marijuana use increases mortality.

In contrast, opiate overdose is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, killing about 91 Americans every day. President Trump has rightly called the opioid crisis a “public-health emergency” but has yet to articulate a real policy or allocate the necessary resources to deal with it.

At the very least, let’s not spend precious resources on a senseless cannabis crackdown — especially when the evidence suggests that it would only worsen the opioid scourge and cost more American lives.


Richard A. Friedman is a professor of clinical psychiatry and the director of the psychopharmacology clinic at the Weill Cornell Medical College, and a contributing opinion writer.
 
From NY Times...yet another voice saying that ole' Jefferson is full of shit (or as I alluded to above, mentally ill)


Marijuana Can Save Lives

his week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions paused a discussion of the opioid epidemic to, once again, go after marijuana. He suggested that addictive pain medication wasn’t the only problem and that many heroin addicts start out “with marijuana and other drugs.”

There is a relationship between cannabis and opioids, but Mr. Sessions has it backward. Marijuana isn’t a gateway drug to opioid addiction; it’s a safer alternative to pain medicines. Mr. Sessions’s vow to crack down on marijuana will only make the opioid epidemic worse.

We know that 40 percent of opioid overdose deaths involve a prescription opioid. So having legal access to cannabis as another option for pain relief may actually reduce consumption of opiates.

I know it sounds counterintuitive, but consider the evidence. To start, a large study assessed the effect of medical-marijuana laws on opiate-related deaths between 1999 and 2010 in all 50 states and reported a 25 percent decrease in opiate overdose mortality in states where medical marijuana was legal, compared with those where it wasn’t. The study found that in 2010, medical-marijuana laws resulted in an estimated 1,729 fewer deaths than expected.

Other epidemiologic studies found similar results. A study published last year examined opiate-related deaths in Colorado between 2000 and 2015. Researchers compared mortality rates before and after the state legalized recreational cannabis in 2014. For controls, they chose two nearby states: Nevada, which legalized only medical cannabis, and Utah, where all cannabis use is illegal. The study found a 6.5 percent drop in opiate-related deaths after recreational cannabis became legal in Colorado.


Likewise, other researchers examined the link between medical cannabis and opiate use in a group of patients with chronic pain in New Mexico, one of the states hardest hit by the opioid crisis. They reported that subjects who had access to medical cannabis were 17 times more likely to stop using opiates for pain compared with those not using cannabis.

Because these are all observational studies, they cannot prove a causal link between cannabis use and lower opiate-related mortality. Still, the consistent epidemiologic evidence is hard to ignore.

Why might cannabis work so well as an alternative to opioids? It does offer some mild pain relief. But more significant, both opiates and cannabis — like all recreational drugs — cause the release of dopamine in the brain’s reward pathway. That signal conveys a powerful sense of pleasure. Thus, cannabis might pre-empt some of the rewarding effects of opiates, decreasing the general desire to use them.

There is also intriguing preliminary evidence that cannabidiol, a major psychoactive component of marijuana, can blunt craving in individuals with opioid dependence following a period of abstinence.

If cannabis were actually a dangerous gateway drug, as the attorney general suggested, it would be very easy to see in the data. We would find that medical-marijuana laws increased opiate drug use and overdose deaths, when in fact just the opposite has happened.

We would also expect to see a consistent sequence of drug abuse from cannabis to, say, opiates or cocaine, across different cultures. But this is not the case at all.

For example, in Japan, where marijuana use is relatively rare, 83 percent of people who used recreational drugs did not begin with cannabis. This was true as well for 60 percent of South Africans.

A more plausible explanation for the common finding that people use a series of recreational drugs is a general propensity for risk-taking behavior, of which drug use is just one manifestation.

None of this is to say that marijuana is without risks. It certainly isn’t. Cannabis can impair cognition, attention and intellectual performance, though the effects are reversible. And in some individuals who are genetically at risk, it can unleash psychotic states. But there is little evidence that marijuana use increases mortality.

In contrast, opiate overdose is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, killing about 91 Americans every day. President Trump has rightly called the opioid crisis a “public-health emergency” but has yet to articulate a real policy or allocate the necessary resources to deal with it.

At the very least, let’s not spend precious resources on a senseless cannabis crackdown — especially when the evidence suggests that it would only worsen the opioid scourge and cost more American lives.


Richard A. Friedman is a professor of clinical psychiatry and the director of the psychopharmacology clinic at the Weill Cornell Medical College, and a contributing opinion writer.
I have to respond!
I read faster with CANNABIS?
Some RED NECK read's ONE FICTIONAL BOOK all his life?
 
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Alright, @momofthegoons ...yes, I've been sick all week with bad respiratory crud and have been on Prednisone for 5 days and am now in roid rage and certifiably insane as I type this.....but I don't care....this guy is the epitome of a shit head and I'm calling him on it.... I just don't see how more venal our DoJ can get with Sessions in there.


old-drug-warriot-dupont-1280x800.jpg

Dr. Robert DuPont, seen here testifying before Congress in 1975, was President Richard Nixon's drug advisor. Now he's talking directly to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. (Henry Griffin/AP)

Sessions Advisor Ramping up Drug War, Profiting From Drug Tests

The phrase “Green Rush” is often used to describe the flood of fortune seekers pouring into the cannabis industry, a reference to the gold rushes of the 1800s. But you may not be aware of another gold rush happening right now, right under our noses.

Drug testing is a $3 billion industry. With some facilities charging as much as $2,000 per specimin, they call it 'liquid gold.'
I’m talking about “liquid gold”—as it’s known to those in the $3 billion per year drug testing industry, where despite a growing number of states legalizing cannabis, business is currently booming. In fact, for those well positioned to capture that revenue stream, their cups of liquid gold runneth over.

Don’t believe me?

You must not have read a recent New York Times exposé, which revealed just how lucrative urine can be these days. The article profiled one young man—now dead from an overdose—who racked up a $260,000 urinalysis bill in just a few months while rehabbing at an outpatient facility that routinely charged $2,000 or more per specimen for drug tests, with patients often submitting to three or more tests per week.


DuPont, now 81: Testing pioneer, profiteer
According to the Times, industry insiders privately refer to rehab patients who produce that many highly profitable urine specimens as “thoroughbreds.” They’re the lifeblood of a money hustle that began 50 years ago, one that was started almost singlehandedly by Dr. Robert DuPont, former US Drug Czar under Presidents Nixon and Ford, the first-ever Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and a pioneering liquid gold rusher.

DuPont (no relation to the family that founded the chemical company) began his lifelong obsession with human waste in 1969, when the Harvard-trained psychiatrist moved from the National Institutes of Health to the D.C. Department of Corrections. During his time at Corrections, DuPont noticed that many of the inmates placed under his care struggled with heroin addiction. To gauge the scope of the issue, he undertook a study that changed forever how he thought about “the crime problem.”

“I got together a group of unemployed college students,” DuPont explained to Frontline several decades later. “We went down to the D.C. jail with our urine cups, and collected urine from everybody who came into the jail… What we were able to show is that the crime epidemic was directly tied to the rise in heroin addictions in the city. That link was very important to everything that happened afterwards.”

What happened afterwards: The US launched the modern war on drugs, one of the greatest public policy disasters in modern American history. That policy ruined millions of lives, and enriched a handful of entrepreneurs like DuPont.

DuPont: Present at the DEA’s Creation
Perhaps more than anyone alive, Robert DuPont embodies every false promise and failure of America’s oppressive approach to drug policy. He headed an agency (NIDA) that relentlessly cooked the books on medical cannabis research for five decades. He served as Richard Nixon’s drug policy advisor during the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), a rogue federal agency that has put generations of otherwise law-abiding cannabis consumers in prison. And he almost singlehandedly popularized the “gateway drug” theory of cannabis, which has since been thoroughly debunked.

At age 81, Robert DuPont is still cashing in on the spoils of the drug war.
DuPont even found a few ways to cash in directly on the spoils of the drug war.

In 1982, he and former DEA Administrator Peter Bensinger founded Bensinger, DuPont & Associates, a firm that provided drug testing services to the growing number of corporations that felt entitled to scrutinize their employees’ urine during the “Just Say No” era. He also served as a paid consultant to Straight Incorporated, a notorious chain of drug treatment centers that targeted predominantly teenage patients for torture-like “therapy.”

The severity and scope of Straight’s malfeasance is staggering. In the late 1980s, California state investigators received complaints about the company systematically subjecting patients, including many minors, to “unusual punishment, infliction of pain, humiliation, intimidation, ridiule, coercion, threats, mental abuse…and interference with daily living functions such as eating, sleeping and toileting.” Eventually a string of government investigations and civil lawsuits alleging widespread physical, psychological and sexual abuse would lead to Straight Incorporated’s downfall, but DuPont never publicly withdrew his support.

And he’s still in the game. At 81, he serves as scientific advisor for CAM International Ventures, a global company started up in 2013 by several big names from the liquid gold racket. Bensinger, DuPont & Associates lives on as BDA/Morneau Shepell, a consulting firm that offers corporate HR departments a “comprehensive portfolio of solutions” that include drug testing management, and helpline services for employees who are suffering from gambling problems, drug addiction, or other behavioral health issues.


Nice Synergy
Naturally, DuPont denies that his financially rewarding drug testing business in any way informs his belief that what the world needs now is more drug testing.

“I find it bizarre [that people] think my interests after all these years were financial,” he told The Daily Beast. “There is a financial incentive in drug testing, but the reason I’m interested in drug testing is that there is an interest from the disease standpoint.”

Many studies have found drug testing in the workplace, for welfare recipients, and for students to be an expensive and invasive waste of resources. But why should that deter the guy selling the tests? And really, given all the threats facing the cannabis industry these days, who cares if some relic from the Nixon braintrust is riding out his golden years making bank off liquid gold and spouting tired old nonsense? It’s not like he’s helping set national cannabis policy.

Or rather…hold on.

Look closely at this photograph:

Photo courtesy of Marijuana Moment
That’s US Attorney General Jeff Sessions walking out of a closed door policy session, late last year, with a group of longtime cannabis legalization opponents. The agenda of the Dec. 2017 meeting was meant to be secret, but Marijuana Majority’s Tom Angell saw this photo online. Angell enhanced it and caught the US Attorney General inadvertently leaking the details of his own strategy sesh. Third on the agenda: Bob DuPont.

In addition to DuPont, the agenda listed a murderers row of ancient drug war hawks who haven’t updated their views on cannabis since 1973:

  • Dr. Bertha Madras, a longtime opponent of medical cannabis in any form.
  • Dr. Hoover Adger, who likes to say “medical marijuana is an oxymoron.”
  • David Evans, executive director of the Drug Free Schools Coalition. Evans has long argued that regulated legalization “will mean millions more damaged young people,” despite data that clearly shows cannabis use among minors unchanged or decreasing in states that legalize and regulate.
But even awash in that sea of has-beens and know-nothings, DuPont’s name stood out as particularly ominous.

Because what if the post-legalization future of cannabis isn’t a law enforcement crackdown? What if you’re free to smoke all the heavily-taxed legal cannabis you want, so long as you never drive a car, attend school, raise a child, hold a job, access medical care, or require government assistance of any kind?


Drug Test is a ‘Loyalty Oath’
As a co-founder and charismatic leader of the Yippies, Abbie Hoffman spent the late 1960s and early 1970s trying to foment social and political upheaval. Like many of his cohorts, he saw cannabis liberation as a central goal of the revolution.

By the 1980s, that moment may have passed, but Hoffman remained a radical at heart, and he’d identified a new fascistic threat to liberty and justice. So he wrote Steal This Urine Test: Fighting Drug Hysteria in America, as a follow up to his underground classic Steal This Book.

Asked by the New York Times in 1987 to explain his motivations for focusing on the issue, Hoffman likened being forced to take a drug test to the “loyalty oaths” in communist Russia. He saw it as a raw expression of authoritarian power over individual freedom, rather than some rationed approach to dealing with addiction.

“There is a drug problem in America,” Hoffman explained, “and it is, how does one educate one’s children about the drug problem.”

It all sounds so simple when you strip away the lies and propaganda and just examine the actual problem on its own terms.

As a society, we want to minimize the damage caused by drug abuse, especially the harm to children. Pretty simple. So how, exactly, do we get from there to no-knock police raids and pee tests for $2,000 a pop?

The answer, perversely, is that SWAT teams, mass incarceration and near-constant urinalysis all cost way, way more money than educating our children about drugs in an honest and meaningful way. And because those things cost a lot of money, there’s a tidy profit to be made off them, whether they’re effective approaches or not.

Which brings us back to Robert Dupont.

DuPont’s New Proposal: Test Everyone
At the December meeting with Jeff Sessions, DuPont was slated to speak on the dangers of drugged driving. That’s troubling because in 2010 he helped write a model bill that instructed law enforcement to drug test anyone suspected of drugged driving on the spot, for all illicit drugs, and arrest them immediately if even a trace amount shows up.

If DuPont had his way, you wouldn’t even have to be driving to face arrest for a failed drug test.
DuPont’s policy would result in the roadside arrest of legal cannabis consumers in the eight legal states, even unimpaired drivers, because roadside tests typically turn up inactive traces of THC from days or weeks earlier. In fact, if DuPont had his way, you wouldn’t even have to be driving to face arrest for a failed drug test.

“Any person who provides a bodily fluid sample containing any amount of a chemical or controlled substance… commits an offense punishable in the same manner as if the person otherwise possessed that substance,” stated the proposed bill. “This provision is not a DUI specific law. Rather, it applies to any person who tests positive for chemical or controlled substances.”

Early last year, the Daily Beast interviewed DuPont as he talked up his most recent proposal, a “New Paradigm for Long-Term Recovery.” DuPont described it as “the opposite of harm reduction.” That plan calls for drug tests to be a mandatory, routine part of every medical practice and procedure—and many other aspects of daily life.

If a drug test shows you’re an “addict” (the verdict even if you have only trace amounts of state-legal cannabis in your urine), you’ll be arrested, and “the leverage of the criminal justice system” will be used to force you into rehab. There, you’ll be drug tested for another five years (ca-ching!).

In effect, DuPont’s proposal would do for rehab centers what mandatory-minimum sentences did for prisons—exponentially expand their populations and turn them into corporate profit machines. He wants to put a multimillion-dollar bounty on the head of every cannabis consumer in America. And he’s got the ear of the same U.S. Attorney General who recently revived federal for-profit prisons and rescinded the Cole Memo.
 
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Drug testing is a $3 billion industry. With some facilities charging as much as $2,000 per specimin, they call it 'liquid gold.'
Follow the money. :nod: Well hello, we meet again Dupont. :loco:

The general topic of drug tests, drug test types and accuracy plus the possibilities of tampering weigh in as well with me as I read this piece. I remember the drug test industry and their impact on things when it became a practice with companies. Some companies can't hire specialized people due to their random drug screenings. Who wants to work where there is an AX hanging overhead upon hiring?

Driving while impaired. There is a genuine concern for law enforcement. And these test don't offer the same results or constancy like the straight path that checking for alcohol can provide. There is the co-ordination tests and it's not a new problem.

But we can't let that be Session's problem to solve. That is state and local level problem and a solution for any perceived influx of drugged drivers will be long anticipated by law enforcement. No overreach by Sessions and his cronies are needed. Thanks but no thanks. :twocents:
 
Alright, @momofthegoons ...yes, I've been sick all week with bad respiratory crud and have been on Prednisone for 5 days and am now in roid rage and certifiably insane as I type this.....but I don't care....this guy is the epitome of a shit head and I'm calling him on it.... I just don't see how more venal our DoJ can get with Sessions in there.


old-drug-warriot-dupont-1280x800.jpg

Dr. Robert DuPont, seen here testifying before Congress in 1975, was President Richard Nixon's drug advisor. Now he's talking directly to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. (Henry Griffin/AP)

Sessions Advisor Ramping up Drug War, Profiting From Drug Tests

The phrase “Green Rush” is often used to describe the flood of fortune seekers pouring into the cannabis industry, a reference to the gold rushes of the 1800s. But you may not be aware of another gold rush happening right now, right under our noses.

Drug testing is a $3 billion industry. With some facilities charging as much as $2,000 per specimin, they call it 'liquid gold.'
I’m talking about “liquid gold”—as it’s known to those in the $3 billion per year drug testing industry, where despite a growing number of states legalizing cannabis, business is currently booming. In fact, for those well positioned to capture that revenue stream, their cups of liquid gold runneth over.

Don’t believe me?

You must not have read a recent New York Times exposé, which revealed just how lucrative urine can be these days. The article profiled one young man—now dead from an overdose—who racked up a $260,000 urinalysis bill in just a few months while rehabbing at an outpatient facility that routinely charged $2,000 or more per specimen for drug tests, with patients often submitting to three or more tests per week.


DuPont, now 81: Testing pioneer, profiteer
According to the Times, industry insiders privately refer to rehab patients who produce that many highly profitable urine specimens as “thoroughbreds.” They’re the lifeblood of a money hustle that began 50 years ago, one that was started almost singlehandedly by Dr. Robert DuPont, former US Drug Czar under Presidents Nixon and Ford, the first-ever Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and a pioneering liquid gold rusher.

DuPont (no relation to the family that founded the chemical company) began his lifelong obsession with human waste in 1969, when the Harvard-trained psychiatrist moved from the National Institutes of Health to the D.C. Department of Corrections. During his time at Corrections, DuPont noticed that many of the inmates placed under his care struggled with heroin addiction. To gauge the scope of the issue, he undertook a study that changed forever how he thought about “the crime problem.”

“I got together a group of unemployed college students,” DuPont explained to Frontline several decades later. “We went down to the D.C. jail with our urine cups, and collected urine from everybody who came into the jail… What we were able to show is that the crime epidemic was directly tied to the rise in heroin addictions in the city. That link was very important to everything that happened afterwards.”

What happened afterwards: The US launched the modern war on drugs, one of the greatest public policy disasters in modern American history. That policy ruined millions of lives, and enriched a handful of entrepreneurs like DuPont.

DuPont: Present at the DEA’s Creation
Perhaps more than anyone alive, Robert DuPont embodies every false promise and failure of America’s oppressive approach to drug policy. He headed an agency (NIDA) that relentlessly cooked the books on medical cannabis research for five decades. He served as Richard Nixon’s drug policy advisor during the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), a rogue federal agency that has put generations of otherwise law-abiding cannabis consumers in prison. And he almost singlehandedly popularized the “gateway drug” theory of cannabis, which has since been thoroughly debunked.

At age 81, Robert DuPont is still cashing in on the spoils of the drug war.
DuPont even found a few ways to cash in directly on the spoils of the drug war.

In 1982, he and former DEA Administrator Peter Bensinger founded Bensinger, DuPont & Associates, a firm that provided drug testing services to the growing number of corporations that felt entitled to scrutinize their employees’ urine during the “Just Say No” era. He also served as a paid consultant to Straight Incorporated, a notorious chain of drug treatment centers that targeted predominantly teenage patients for torture-like “therapy.”

The severity and scope of Straight’s malfeasance is staggering. In the late 1980s, California state investigators received complaints about the company systematically subjecting patients, including many minors, to “unusual punishment, infliction of pain, humiliation, intimidation, ridiule, coercion, threats, mental abuse…and interference with daily living functions such as eating, sleeping and toileting.” Eventually a string of government investigations and civil lawsuits alleging widespread physical, psychological and sexual abuse would lead to Straight Incorporated’s downfall, but DuPont never publicly withdrew his support.

And he’s still in the game. At 81, he serves as scientific advisor for CAM International Ventures, a global company started up in 2013 by several big names from the liquid gold racket. Bensinger, DuPont & Associates lives on as BDA/Morneau Shepell, a consulting firm that offers corporate HR departments a “comprehensive portfolio of solutions” that include drug testing management, and helpline services for employees who are suffering from gambling problems, drug addiction, or other behavioral health issues.


Nice Synergy
Naturally, DuPont denies that his financially rewarding drug testing business in any way informs his belief that what the world needs now is more drug testing.

“I find it bizarre [that people] think my interests after all these years were financial,” he told The Daily Beast. “There is a financial incentive in drug testing, but the reason I’m interested in drug testing is that there is an interest from the disease standpoint.”

Many studies have found drug testing in the workplace, for welfare recipients, and for students to be an expensive and invasive waste of resources. But why should that deter the guy selling the tests? And really, given all the threats facing the cannabis industry these days, who cares if some relic from the Nixon braintrust is riding out his golden years making bank off liquid gold and spouting tired old nonsense? It’s not like he’s helping set national cannabis policy.

Or rather…hold on.

Look closely at this photograph:

Photo courtesy of Marijuana Moment
That’s US Attorney General Jeff Sessions walking out of a closed door policy session, late last year, with a group of longtime cannabis legalization opponents. The agenda of the Dec. 2017 meeting was meant to be secret, but Marijuana Majority’s Tom Angell saw this photo online. Angell enhanced it and caught the US Attorney General inadvertently leaking the details of his own strategy sesh. Third on the agenda: Bob DuPont.

In addition to DuPont, the agenda listed a murderers row of ancient drug war hawks who haven’t updated their views on cannabis since 1973:

  • Dr. Bertha Madras, a longtime opponent of medical cannabis in any form.
  • Dr. Hoover Adger, who likes to say “medical marijuana is an oxymoron.”
  • David Evans, executive director of the Drug Free Schools Coalition. Evans has long argued that regulated legalization “will mean millions more damaged young people,” despite data that clearly shows cannabis use among minors unchanged or decreasing in states that legalize and regulate.
But even awash in that sea of has-beens and know-nothings, DuPont’s name stood out as particularly ominous.

Because what if the post-legalization future of cannabis isn’t a law enforcement crackdown? What if you’re free to smoke all the heavily-taxed legal cannabis you want, so long as you never drive a car, attend school, raise a child, hold a job, access medical care, or require government assistance of any kind?


Drug Test is a ‘Loyalty Oath’
As a co-founder and charismatic leader of the Yippies, Abbie Hoffman spent the late 1960s and early 1970s trying to foment social and political upheaval. Like many of his cohorts, he saw cannabis liberation as a central goal of the revolution.

By the 1980s, that moment may have passed, but Hoffman remained a radical at heart, and he’d identified a new fascistic threat to liberty and justice. So he wrote Steal This Urine Test: Fighting Drug Hysteria in America, as a follow up to his underground classic Steal This Book.

Asked by the New York Times in 1987 to explain his motivations for focusing on the issue, Hoffman likened being forced to take a drug test to the “loyalty oaths” in communist Russia. He saw it as a raw expression of authoritarian power over individual freedom, rather than some rationed approach to dealing with addiction.

“There is a drug problem in America,” Hoffman explained, “and it is, how does one educate one’s children about the drug problem.”

It all sounds so simple when you strip away the lies and propaganda and just examine the actual problem on its own terms.

As a society, we want to minimize the damage caused by drug abuse, especially the harm to children. Pretty simple. So how, exactly, do we get from there to no-knock police raids and pee tests for $2,000 a pop?

The answer, perversely, is that SWAT teams, mass incarceration and near-constant urinalysis all cost way, way more money than educating our children about drugs in an honest and meaningful way. And because those things cost a lot of money, there’s a tidy profit to be made off them, whether they’re effective approaches or not.

Which brings us back to Robert Dupont.

DuPont’s New Proposal: Test Everyone
At the December meeting with Jeff Sessions, DuPont was slated to speak on the dangers of drugged driving. That’s troubling because in 2010 he helped write a model bill that instructed law enforcement to drug test anyone suspected of drugged driving on the spot, for all illicit drugs, and arrest them immediately if even a trace amount shows up.

If DuPont had his way, you wouldn’t even have to be driving to face arrest for a failed drug test.
DuPont’s policy would result in the roadside arrest of legal cannabis consumers in the eight legal states, even unimpaired drivers, because roadside tests typically turn up inactive traces of THC from days or weeks earlier. In fact, if DuPont had his way, you wouldn’t even have to be driving to face arrest for a failed drug test.

“Any person who provides a bodily fluid sample containing any amount of a chemical or controlled substance… commits an offense punishable in the same manner as if the person otherwise possessed that substance,” stated the proposed bill. “This provision is not a DUI specific law. Rather, it applies to any person who tests positive for chemical or controlled substances.”

Early last year, the Daily Beast interviewed DuPont as he talked up his most recent proposal, a “New Paradigm for Long-Term Recovery.” DuPont described it as “the opposite of harm reduction.” That plan calls for drug tests to be a mandatory, routine part of every medical practice and procedure—and many other aspects of daily life.

If a drug test shows you’re an “addict” (the verdict even if you have only trace amounts of state-legal cannabis in your urine), you’ll be arrested, and “the leverage of the criminal justice system” will be used to force you into rehab. There, you’ll be drug tested for another five years (ca-ching!).

In effect, DuPont’s proposal would do for rehab centers what mandatory-minimum sentences did for prisons—exponentially expand their populations and turn them into corporate profit machines. He wants to put a multimillion-dollar bounty on the head of every cannabis consumer in America. And he’s got the ear of the same U.S. Attorney General who recently revived federal for-profit prisons and rescinded the Cole Memo.

I’m legal in my state. He can go fuck himself.
 
I live in DC and can assure all Americans that neither our national security nor our government in general is in any danger whatsoever due to a lack of bureaucrats...political appointees or otherwise.....so save your smoke and mirrors, Sessions, for fools who will believe it.

I don't care that Corey Gardner is not a supporter of MMJ. He is a supporter of democracy and understands that the PEOPLE of his SOVEREIGN state voted and they expect the result of their vote to be in effect no matter what some geriatric from AL personally thinks.

Sen Gardner.....as far as I'm concerned you can keep doing this until Sessions is out of the DoJ.
:thumbsup::clap::smoke:



This Senator Is Blocking DOJ Nominees Until Jeff Sessions Backs Off


Although several sources claim Cory Gardner to be a threat to National Security in face of the ongoing turmoil between he and Attorney Jeff Sessions with relation to the now rescinded Cole Memo, these claims fall short in acknowleding Gardner's real motive to protect state regulation.

After a fruitless meeting on cannabis policy with US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a Republican senator from Colorado is sticking to his aggressive checks-and-balances approach to stopping Sessions’ attack on state-legal cannabis.

US Sen. Cory Gardner has so far successfully blocked as many as 11 Trump administration appointees to the Justice Department by preventing them from making it to a Senate floor vote. His actions make good on a pledge he made a month ago to obstruct DOJ nominees until Sessions softens his stance on state cannabis laws.

Gardner’s threat came in response to Sessions’ Jan. 4 decision to rescind the Cole memo, an Obama-era DOJ policy that insulated legal-cannabis states from federal interference. Gardner has maintained that Sessions promised him that he would leave the guideline intact.

Screen%20Shot%202018-02-12%20at%201.19.27%20PM.png


“What Jeff Sessions said is he didn’t think it was on Trump’s agenda to do this, he didn’t think President Trump had the bandwidth to do this, and he had no plans to repeal the Cole memorandum,” Gardner told the Associated Press last month.

Gardner and Sessions met last month to discuss their differences on cannabis, but reportedly neither side gave ground. “I think the meeting kind of went as I expected to,” Gardner told Denver7. “I shared my states’ rights position with Attorney General Sessions, and he shared his concern about the Cole memorandum and why he rescinded it.”

While meetings continue between staff members for Gardner and the DOJ, so too does the senator’s blockade. If it continues, more than 20 other nominees for Justice Department-related jobs could get caught in the jam, the Denver Post reports.

US Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the committee responsible for pushing the nominations through, told the Post there’s little indication that the freeze will thaw anytime soon. “It may never resolve itself,” Grassley said.

By some measures, Gardner is an unlikely champion of state cannabis laws in the face of the Trump administration’s threats. He opposed Colorado’s own legalization measure in 2012 and has voted in line with President Trump’s position nearly 95% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight. His decision to freeze Justice Department nominations will undoubtedly impact other Trump administration priorities. But so far, he’s standing firm.

“As you know, I opposed the legalization,” he told the Denver Post after his meeting with Sessions fell flat, “but the fact is, this is a states’ rights decision, and that’s the message I delivered very clearly to today to the attorney general.”

Gardner has also come out in support of various measures in Congress that would protect state-legal cannabis from federal meddling. It’s unknown whether the success of any of those measures would be enough for Gardner to remove his block on Justice Department nominees.

Grassley told the Denver Post he disagreed with Gardner’s decision, but “I can understand why he did it.”
 
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A friend of mine sent this to me this morning.... Now this friend is probably the 'straightest' person I know. It has taken me fifteen years to get her to accept medical marijuana as a viable option. And she sends me this today..... I feel like this is a success story. :biggrin:

Not the cartoon.... her acceptance. :thumbsup:

View attachment 2301
Ben Garrison is so great. Absolutely love this cartoon. Unlike most of the people here I actually liked Sessions before he became Attorney General. I knew he was an idiot when it came to cannabis but I didn't believe with all of the important issues going he would be STUPID enough to even think about going after it. Also unlike most of you here I voted for and support our president, but not replacing Sessions (while getting rid of other actually good people he appointed) is a really bad move. People on the left (and right to a lesser extent) hate him because he's going after pot, and people on the right hate him because he's NOT going after Hillary lol.
 
Ben Garrison is so great. Absolutely love this cartoon. Unlike most of the people here I actually liked Sessions before he became Attorney General. I knew he was an idiot when it came to cannabis but I didn't believe with all of the important issues going he would be STUPID enough to even think about going after it. Also unlike most of you here I voted for and support our president, but not replacing Sessions (while getting rid of other actually good people he appointed) is a really bad move. People on the left (and right to a lesser extent) hate him because he's going after pot, and people on the right hate him because he's NOT going after Hillary lol.
I got another one for you.....civil asset forfeiture.
 
Give him hell, Gardner...just keep giving him hell.

Sen. Cory Gardner stands ground on marijuana against Jeff Sessions' taunts

Blame Cory Gardner. Democrats have been doing that for a while, but now U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is down on the Colorado senator, claiming his fellow Republican is using pot to trip up the Justice Department. But Tuesday, Gardner wasn't backing down.

He's blocking Trump nominees over Sessions' decision in January to rescind marijuana industry protections in states that have legalized and regulated pot.

"Sen. Gardner's holds on Justice nominees remain in place as he and our staff continue to talk with the Department of Justice and discuss a path forward which recognizes Colorado's state's rights and ensures law enforcement has the authority and tools needed to protect our communities," said Gardner press secretary Casey Contres.

Related:
Police union attacks Colorado's Gardner on pot stance
"These discussions continue to be necessary, and we appreciate their willingness to have them. Sen. Gardner is also working with a bipartisan group of senators from across the political spectrum, and they continue to look at ways Congress can take action to preserve states' rights."

Gardner is the reason the administration hasn't filled key jobs, including justice officials in charge of national security and the criminal and civil rights divisions, Sessions told the National Sheriffs' Association at a Monday conference in Washington.

"These are critically important components," the AG said. " ... but because right now one senator's concerns over unrelated issues - like reversing federal law against marijuana - we can't even get a vote."I'm attorney general of the United States. I don't have the authority to say that something is legal when it is illegal, even if I wanted to. I cannot and will not pretend that a duly enacted law of this country - like the federal ban on marijuana - does not exist. Marijuana is illegal in the United States - even in Colorado, California and everywhere else in America."

Trump's inability to fill vacancies and confirm nominees has been unusual, given the GOP control of the executive and legislative branches.

But many of the Justice Department slots were open for months before Gardner's standoff began in January, the Associated Press noted Monday. Gardner has worked alongside fellow U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Denver, to defend the marijuana industry and legalize banking support.

Gardner is chief among Colorado leaders who have called foul and suggested Sessions is bluffing, including Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper and Republican Attorney General Cynthia Coffman.

Hickenlooper said shutting down the Colorado industry is unrealistic. Justice doesn't have the staff or budget to raid otherwise-legal businesses, then take on the massively expensive litigation against a thriving industry with an army of employees, he said.

The question is likely to come down to whether Colorado regulates marijuana tightly enough to satisfy Sessions, who has a long history of opposing marijuana.

The National Fraternal Order of Police, however, sides with Sessions.

"Sen. Gardner has come out swinging to defend the pot industry in his state," said FOP President Chuck Canterbury two weeks ago. "However, the fact that he believes Colorado can profit from the sale of this illegal drug does not give him the right to hold up or delay the appointment of critical personnel at the Justice Department."

Sales of recreational and medical marijuana topped $1.5 billion in Colorado last year, up from $1.3 billion in 2016 and $996 million in 2015, the state Department of Revenue reported this month.

Colorado voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2012.

In October 2016, the pro-industry Marijuana Policy Group released a report that said marijuana has eclipsed oil and gas as the state's chief industry, estimating pot's economic impact on the state at nearly $2.4 billion in 2015.
 
A lawsuit against Sessions could be the one to legalize Marijuana

On Wednesday, advocates and professionals in the cannabis industry descended on a federal court in New York to watch Justice Department lawyers try to dismiss a case against Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The suit involves a motley crew of plaintiffs: Alexis Bortell and Jager Cotte, both pediatric medical marijuana patients, Jose Belen, an Army combat veteran who uses cannabis to treat his PTSD, Marvin Washington, a former New York Jet-turned cannabis entrepreneur, and the Cannabis Cultural Association, a non-profit dedicated to ending the war on drugs and promoting people of color in the cannabis industry.

Over the years, many have attempted to challenge the federal government’s classification of marijuana as a Schedule I substance. Wednesday’s hearing was both an example of how far the country has come on the issue and how far there still is to go. During the hearing, Judge Alvin Hellerstein considered the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the suit.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Dolinger argued that the case should be dismissed because “courts around the country have considered similar or identical claims and have rejected them.” Dolinger and Hellerstein spent a good deal of time discussing the case of U.S. v. Kiffer, which affirmed the drug’s Schedule I status.

“When they talk about Kiffer, a 1973 case… you really don't know the rest of the history,” Michael Hiller, lead counsel for plaintiffs in the case, told reporters after the hearing. He cited numerous developments since 1973, including the government’s Investigational New Drug program, Nixon’s Schafer Commission, the federal government’s very own cannabis patent, and the emergence of state-level marijuana programs.

“There is a well-established body of case law that when the facts change, the courts have to change too,” said Hiller. “If you only decided case law based upon what people thought years before, we would never have Brown vs Board of Education… We would never have Windsor. We wouldn't have marriage equality.”

Indeed, while other attempts to challenge marijuana’s Schedule I status have failed, the atmosphere in the court reflected the times. Supporters of cannabis reform showed up in droves, quickly filling the court and spilling into an overflow room.

They laughed and cheered when the judge grilled Dolinger, who seemingly struggledto answer some of his questions. They scoffed when Dolinger cited Kiffer, suggesting that marijuana’s Schedule I status "was constitutionally rational."

But perhaps most indicative of our changing times was that “the judge made absolutely clear that cannabis does not meet one of the three requirements,” for Schedule I status, said Hiller. “As far as I'm aware, very few judges have commented openly on [that].”

“Your clients are living proof of the medical applications of marijuana,” Hellerstein told Hiller during the hearing. “I have to take the plausible allegations in your complaint as true. How could anyone say that your clients’ lives have not been saved by marijuana? How can anyone say that your clients’ pain and suffering has not been alleviated by marijuana? You can’t, right?”

“I could not agree with you more, your Honor,” responded Hiller.

While the judge’s views did reflect the changing times – a majority of Americans now support some sort of cannabis reform – he questioned whether it made sense to challenge the matter in a district court.

“There are lots of things district judges have to do,” said Hellerstein. “When agencies are set up to do the very kind of thing that you want me to do, I think the right thing is to defer to the agency.”

The lawyers for the plaintiffs recognized this.

“We can't carry the day necessarily with a judge that feels constrained by what the law may keep him from doing, which is declaring this unconstitutional,” said co-counsel David Holland. “He knows it is, but he may not be able to do it. We need you all to keep the fight alive.”

Still, the pro-cannabis camp was heartened by the judge’s statements.

“Our judge gets it,” said Lauren Rudick, counsel for the plaintiffs. “And that was really important today.”

For the time being, the judge delayed making a decision on the government’s motion to dismiss the case. “He's going to consider the issues over the next several days or weeks until he comes to a conclusion,” said Hiller.

But the plaintiffs came away from the hearing feeling optimistic.

“I think the judge made it very clear that he agrees and understands that cannabis is helping Alexis and Jagger and so many other people,” said Jagger’s father Sebastien Cotte. “We're going to keep fighting because we have to make this happen for everybody.... we're in it for the long run.”

Dean Bortell, Alexis’ father, agreed.

“Kids are growing up seeing this hypocrisy... if we don't get it done. But we're going to get it done.”
 
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