Current Events > Jeff Sessions wants to prosecute medical marijuana providers

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/13/jeff-sessions-personally-asked-congress-to-let-him-prosecute-medical-marijuana-providers/?utm_term=.a756cdcd8777

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is asking congressional leaders to undo federal medical marijuana protections that have been in place since 2014, according to a May letter that became public Monday.

The protections, known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, prohibit the Justice Department from using federal funds to prevent certain states "from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana."

In his letter, first obtained by Tom Angell of Massroots.com and verified independently by The Washington Post, Sessions argued that the amendment would "inhibit [the Justice Department's] authority to enforce the Controlled Substances Act." He continues:

I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund particular prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime. The Department must be in a position to use all laws available to combat the transnational drug organizations and dangerous drug traffickers who threaten American lives.

Sessions's citing of a "historic drug epidemic" to justify a crackdown on medical marijuana is at odds with what researchers know about current drug use and abuse in the United States. The epidemic Sessions refers to involves deadly opiate drugs, not marijuana. A growing body of research (acknowledged by the National Institute on Drug Abuse) has shown that opiate deaths and overdoses actually decrease in states with medical marijuana laws on the books.

That research strongly suggests that cracking down on medical marijuana laws, as Sessions requested, could perversely make the opiate epidemic even worse.

In an email, John Hudak of the Brookings Institution characterized the letter's arguments as a "scare tactic" that "could appeal to rank-and-file members or to committee chairs in Congress in ways that could threaten the future of this Amendment."

Under PresidentBarack Obama, the Justice Department also sought to undermine the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment. It circulated misleading talking points among Congress to influence debate over the measure, and it attempted to enforce the amendment in a way that "defies language and logic," "tortures the plain meaning of the statute" and is "at odds with fundamental notions of the rule of law," in the ruling of a federal judge.

The Rohrabacher-Farr amendment has significant bipartisan support in Congress. Medical marijuana is incredibly popular with voters overall. A Quinnipiac poll conducted in April found it was supported by 94 percent of the public. Nearly three-quarters of voters said they disapprove of the government enforcing federal marijuana laws in states that have legalized it either medically or recreationally.
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The letter, along with a signing statement from President Trump indicating some skepticism of medical marijuana protections, "should make everyone openly question whether candidate Trump's rhetoric and the White House's words on his support for medical marijuana was actually a lie to the American public on an issue that garners broad, bipartisan support," said Hudak of the Brookings Institution.

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But Obama's emails
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Sessions is a fucking idiot.
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"We're all for states rights... until you try to slip somebody some pot"
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He must be receiving gifts from the opiate industry.
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States' rights, everybody

_OujiDoza_ posted...

Sessions is a fucking idiot.

When you're in hot water politically, go after drugs. Pure Nixon.

I'm completely in favor of full legalization. However, I'll support this because I know it willl make The Young Turks and other people on the left throw a tantrum.
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DifferentialEquation posted...

I'm completely in favor of full legalization. However, I'll support this because I know it willl make The Young Turks and other people on the left throw a tantrum.

haha, take that libs
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This is perfect, I hope he goes on an all out attack to finally make it a campaign issue.
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DifferentialEquation posted...

I'm completely in favor of full legalization. However, I'll support this because I know it willl make The Young Turks and other people on the left throw a tantrum.

cue that picture of the dog burning in hell while saying "at least we pissed off the liberals".

if you aren't trolling and this is actually what you believe, you really should reevaluate your life priorities, dude.
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Hopefully today's testimony sheds some light on how senile this fuck is

voldothegr8 posted...

This is perfect, I hope he goes on an all out attack to finally make it a campaign issue.

me too, the current administration needs to GTFO
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