Trump Cracks Down On Marijuana Users, Campaigners Say

[Ron Strider]

A new Department of Justice report on violent crime and marijuana will pave the way for the Trump administration to crack down on the drug, campaigners and lawmakers say.

The Trump administration's Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety, led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is to release a report next week that critics fear will link marijuana use to violent crime and advocate tougher sentences for those producing, selling and using the drug.

Democrat Senator Brian Schatz, linking to a report on the crackdown, described the plans as "backward and inhumane" in a tweet on Sunday.

"I hope every third-party voting progressive remembers this. There's a real difference between R's and D's."

He said that Sessions would reverse eight years of progress toward "a more humane, less expensive, more just system" by ramping up punishment for marijuana users.

In recent years, a series of U.S. states have loosened laws banning marijuana, with the drug now decriminalized for recreational use in 21 states. Under the Obama administration, the justice department did not interfere with state legislatures that legalized marijuana, and in a December exit interview with Rolling Stone, the former president said the drug ought to be treated as a public health issue like alcohol or tobacco.

The Trump administration has signaled a different approach. Sessions has linked marijuana use with violent crime, and campaigners say the attorney general is pushing for tougher legal sentences.

In a May letter, Sessions asked congressional leaders to scrap an amendment to the DOJ budget that allows states to implement laws authorizing the "use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana" without federal interference or funding programs that seek to prohibit it.

"I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime," read the letter from Sessions.

On Wednesday, Sessions re-established a controversial asset seizure program, which he said would "especially" target drug dealers.

Opposition to the planned crackdown has drawn bipartisan support, with Republican Rand Paul and Democrat Al Franken sponsoring a Senate bill, introduced in June, designed to safeguard state medical marijuana laws from a potential federal crackdown.

"The task force revolves around reducing violent crime, and Sessions and other DOJ officials have been out there over the last month, and explicitly the last couple of weeks, talking about how immigration and marijuana increases violent crime," Inimai Chettiar, director of the Brennan Center's Justice Program, told The Hill.
"We're worried there's going to be something in the recommendations that is either saying that that's true or recommending action be taken based on that being true."

News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Trump Cracks Down on Marijuana Users, Campaigners Say
Author: Tom Porter
Contact: Contact
Photo Credit: prudkov
Website: Newsweek - News, Analysis, Politics, Business, Technology

 

[Sativica]

A new Department of Justice report on violent crime and marijuana will pave the way for the Trump administration to crack down on the drug, campaigners and lawmakers say.

The Trump administration’s Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety, led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is to release a report next week that critics fear will link marijuana use to violent crime and advocate tougher sentences for those producing, selling and using the drug.

Democrat Senator Brian Schatz, linking to a report on the crackdown, described the plans as “backward and inhumane” in a tweet on Sunday.

“I hope every third-party voting progressive remembers this. There's a real difference between R’s and D’s.”

He said that Sessions would reverse eight years of progress toward “a more humane, less expensive, more just system” by ramping up punishment for marijuana users.

In recent years, a series of U.S. states have loosened laws banning marijuana, with the drug now decriminalized for recreational use in 21 states. Under the Obama administration, the justice department did not interfere with state legislatures that legalized marijuana, and in a December exit interview with Rolling Stone, the former president said the drug ought to be treated as a public health issue like alcohol or tobacco.

The Trump administration has signaled a different approach. Sessions has linked marijuana use with violent crime, and campaigners say the attorney general is pushing for tougher legal sentences.

In a May letter, Sessions asked congressional leaders to scrap an amendment to the DOJ budget that allows states to implement laws authorizing the “use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana" without federal interference or funding programs that seek to prohibit it.

“I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime,” read the letter from Sessions.

On Wednesday, Sessions re-established a controversial asset seizure program, which he said would “especially” target drug dealers.

Opposition to the planned crackdown has drawn bipartisan support, with Republican Rand Paul and Democrat Al Franken sponsoring a Senate bill, introduced in June, designed to safeguard state medical marijuana laws from a potential federal crackdown.

“The task force revolves around reducing violent crime, and Sessions and other DOJ officials have been out there over the last month, and explicitly the last couple of weeks, talking about how immigration and marijuana increases violent crime,” Inimai Chettiar, director of the Brennan Center's Justice Program, told The Hill.
“We’re worried there’s going to be something in the recommendations that is either saying that that’s true or recommending action be taken based on that being true.”

News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Trump Cracks Down on Marijuana Users, Campaigners Say
Author: Tom Porter
Contact: Contact
Photo Credit: prudkov
Website: Newsweek - News, Analysis, Politics, Business, Technology

Fortunately, Jeff Sessions is on his way out. Donnie Boy wants him to take actions to protect him from prosecution and believes that Sessions hasn't done enough.

If he does drag out his tired old 50's argument there are more than enough cannabis users that can show their opposition to his worn-out untrue statements. Everyone has to email their U.S. representatives and U.S. senators in Washington and express your outrage at Trump's and Sessions attempts to take our country backwards. We all have to take action to protect the work we've done so far.

The bottom line is almost everyone in the United States knows someone that smokes and they know cannabis does not make the average person violent. These are the same bigoted arguments used by Harry Anslinger when he initially imposed his ignorance on the rest of America. The American public is much smarter than Donald Trump or Jeff Sessions realizes.

Have faith and actively work against this insanity.

 

[wildjim]

Regret your vote yet?

WJ

 

[Sativica]

Regret your vote yet?

WJ

You mean real people voted for Trump??

No one can be that *********!

 

[TorturedSoul]

Everyone has to email their U.S. representatives and U.S. senators in Washington and express

I'd recommend sending an actual, physical, registered letter (return receipt requested) to each of them (the ones who count you as a constituent, I mean) if you can at all afford it. Make someone have to stop, sign for it, and acknowledge your message. AfaIK, they don't have computers that can do that. Email, though...

 

[BrokrnEyes]

Honestly I'm not all that worried about Jeff Sessions these days, considering the adult baby that the electoral college put in office wants to tear down his house of cards in another one of his tantrums and that he's turned his angry face gaze on sessions, I don't expect that sessions will remain the attorney general much longer.

Frankly, the damn Republican Party needs to wake the hell up and start the impeachment procedures not only on Trump but the entire administration. I'm serious, six months in and they haven't been able to do a damn thing but make life worse for not only the American people but the very constituency they claim to represent ( I said claim, because anyone who doesn't lie to themselves knows that the Republicans represent the upper class) because if this goes on for much longer, Otherwise a lot of voters are going to remember which party DIDNT screw then and the country over come midterm election (and that campaign season starts ehat, in a year? Not a lot of time left...).

 

[Nicholas Flamel]

The republican and democrat parties are just different sides of the same coin. Both parties work for the same people, the donor class. They want nothing more then to keep us the people divided. Vote Libertarian next time around and good things will happen that most of us can agree on. Fiscally conservative and socially liberal. Just my opinion. Fk all these POS politicians!

 

[BrokrnEyes]

The republican and democrat parties are just different sides of the same coin. Both parties work for the same people, the donor class. They want nothing more then to keep us the people divided. Vote Libertarian next time around and good things will happen that most of us can agree on. Fiscally conservative and socially liberal. Just my opinion. Fk all these POS politicians!

Gary Johnson didn't exactly inspire much confidence in me, nor did Jill Stein, Hillary Clinton or the adult baby but I still vote for Clinton because I saw her as being the best option against the baby. Unfortunately the winner take all approach of our voting system has pretty much set it up so that only the largest parties can't compete with one another, IE the Republicans and Democrats. For any other political party to you have any decent chance in this country, we would need something called the alternative vote for them to have a fair chance.

 

[Icemud]

Well they renewed the Rohrbacker-Farr amendment yesterday so thats a huge win for us, and a huge FU to AG sessions!

Also the stock market hit a record high again yesterday...

 

[Nicholas Flamel]

I agree, FU jeff sessions. I hope trump gives him the boot soon.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Well they renewed the Rohrbacker-Farr amendment yesterday so thats a huge win for us, and a huge FU to AG sessions!

I was wondering if it'd happen or not. Remember, though, that cannabis in general is still verboten on a federal level. AND, according to cannabis' classification as a Schedule I narcotic (and cannabis IS):

Schedule I substances are described as those that have the following findings:

The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.
The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

It could be argued (not by ME, FFS, lol - I mean by the federales) that any "medicinal standing" that cannabis has among the various states is invalid in the first place.

Which is bullsh!t anyway, because a substance is supposed to have to meet all three of those qualifications (as opposed to... none of them? :icon_roll ) in order to be placed on the CSA as a Schedule I narcotic in the first place. Which the D kind of ignores:

Under the DEA's interpretation of the CSA, a drug does not necessarily have to have the same "high potential for abuse" as heroin, for example, to merit placement in Schedule I:

[W]hen it comes to a drug that is currently listed in schedule I, if it is undisputed that such drug has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and it is further undisputed that the drug has at least some potential for abuse sufficient to warrant control under the CSA, the drug must remain in schedule I. In such circumstances, placement of the drug in schedules II through V would conflict with the CSA since such drug would not meet the criterion of "a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States." 21 USC 812(b). (emphasis added)
– Drug Enforcement Administration, Notice of denial of petition to reschedule marijuana (2001)

There are so many contradictory statutes and regulations that - like so many other things - they can do one thing one day and a completely opposite thing the next day... and whip out a law justifying each days' actions. And when that is the general state of existence, The People... are no longer ruled by law, but are instead ruled by whim.

BtW, I'd still be concerned, even with the Rohrabacher—Farr amendment having been recently renewed:

On May 5, 2017, the Rohrabacher—Blumenauer amendment was renewed until September 30, 2017, as part of a $1 trillion spending bill signed into law by President Trump. In regards to the medical cannabis provision, President Trump added a signing statement that read "Division B, section 537 provides that the Department of Justice may not use any funds to prevent implementation of medical marijuana laws by various States and territories. I will treat this provision consistently with my constitutional responsibility to take care that the laws be faithfully executed." The statement has been interpreted as the Trump administration reserving the right to ignore the amendment and enforce federal law, which could conflict with Trump's earlier pronouncements that he supports medical cannabis "100 percent" and that the issue should be left up to the states. Days before the spending bill was signed into law, Attorney General Jeff Sessions wrote to congressional leaders urging that the Rohrabacher—Blumenauer amendment not be renewed.

On July 27, 2017, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved inclusion of the Rohrabacher—Blumenauer amendment in the CJS appropriations bill for fiscal year 2018, in a voice vote led by sponsor by Sen. Patrick Leahy.

Also the stock market hit a record high again yesterday...

It's still 400% to 600% higher than it should be, IMHO, due to artificial manipulation of stock prices. But if companies' stock sold for what it was actually worth, stockbroker as a profession wouldn''t pay more than... roofer.

BtW, all the above un-attributed quotes are from Wikipedia.

 

[Icemud]

I was wondering if it'd happen or not. Remember, though, that cannabis in general is still verboten on a federal level. AND, according to cannabis' classification as a Schedule I narcotic (and cannabis IS):


It could be argued (not by ME, FFS, lol - I mean by the federales) that any "medicinal standing" that cannabis has among the various states is invalid in the first place.

Which is bullsh!t anyway, because a substance is supposed to have to meet all three of those qualifications (as opposed to... none of them? :icon_roll ) in order to be placed on the CSA as a Schedule I narcotic in the first place. Which the D kind of ignores:


BtW, I'd still be concerned, even with the Rohrabacher—Farr amendment having been recently renewed:

I have a feeling that very soon we will see this all change....

Right now the DEA, Jeff Sessions and a few other government bodies are in a lawsuit saying that the schedule 1 is unconstitutional... and its filed by many people from kids, to famous athletes to regular Americans... so this will be interesting.

Also there are a few key pieces of legislation looking to prohibit any federal enforcement in medical states.

We also have the Cole Memo which still is in effect offering protection to MJ business that follow state regulations.

We also have the Rohrbacker-Farr renewed now for another year which has been pretty much keeping the feds off the back of the "good" canna businesses that pay taxes and obey the laws in their states...

Even just this past few years the DEA was forced to remove all their fake BS and reefer madness lies off their website which hasn't ever happened before which is again another small but powerful victory.

So its so far the best I think this industry has had it yet, and with over half of the states having some type of medical marijuana, full legalization or decriminalization I think we are going to see change very soon. Its all about the tax money and sooner or later the banks I believe will jump in the lobbying effort to push for legal banking, which also could results with a reclassification or removal.

Money talks, and you know greedy Washington will want to get their hands in this business very soon... all the big banks and pharma are already investing now..

Also recently California passed a law that restricts civil asset forfeiture to only with a conviction or a few other very specific instances where there is guilt, where it used to be without any conviction or even reason whatsoever if there was suspicion. So that also cut off a lot of funding for the feds who were pretty much hitting dispensaries like piggy banks...

So things are definitely accelerating fast in our favor, and by the looks of it, and both of my fingers are crossed that Jeff Sessions gets removed... that would definitely lighten the mood in the industry as at least right now the waters are still rather still on the surface, but the current underneath is strong.