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tdubz



Registered: 02/26/12
Posts: 5,586
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Trump's Pick for Attorney General Will Likely Crack Down on Cannabis
#23919384 - 12/12/16 12:07 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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https://motherboard.vice.com/read/trumps-pick-for-attorney-general-will-likely-wage-war-on-weed
The election was a massive win for weed, with eight states voted to legalize adult use or medical marijuana, which upped the total number of green states to 29. However, with the election of Donald Trump, and more so his incoming administration, state marijuana programs are under threat.
"By and large, from a drug policy reform perspective, Trump's appointees so far are a nightmare," Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy organization, told Motherboard.
Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions has had a historically hostile attitude toward marijuana law reform. As a U.S. Attorney in the 1980s, the now-senator from Alabama had gone on record saying he thought the Ku Klux Klan were okay until he found out they smoked pot. He's called marijuana law reform a "tragic mistake" and said that "good people don't smoke marijuana." Sessions has also criticized the Obama administration for not rigorously enforcing federal marijuana prohibition in states with adult use or medical marijuana policies.
In essence, we're dealing with a prohibitionist who would do Nixon and Reagan era drug warriors proud. One who disagrees with 60 percent of the American people who think marijuana should be legal.
He's called marijuana law reform a "tragic mistake" and said that "good people don't smoke marijuana." Growers, dispensary owners, product manufacturers, and marijuana users—all criminal under federal law—could easily risk arrest if Sessions so chooses to spend taxpayers' money on targeting the $6.7 billion legally compliant cannabis industry.
In regard to drug policy reform, Sessions opposes sentencing reform, which would have helped avoid the expensive and controversial practice of putting people in jail for decades for carrying a few ounces of weed. He’s also against consent decrees, which address civil rights issues like police brutality and racial profiling, and granting those who have been incarcerated voting rights— like 30 percent of black men in the Deep South.
Sessions also supports civil asset forfeiture, which allows cops to keep convicts' money and property for themselves, wrote Bill Piper, senior director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. With Sessions as attorney general, the Drug War could be used to spy on, investigate, incarcerate, and deport immigrants, Muslims, and other groups that Trump has repeatedly targeted on the campaign trail, according to Piper.
"I still think the marijuana industry in states like Colorado, Washington, and Oregon, where the framework has been set in a complete and well regulated way, will be allowed to do business and more and more states are falling in right behind," said Anthony Franciosi, founder of Honest Marijuana, an organic marijuana company in Colorado.
But he also thinks that the new administration could use their power to stop marijuana cultivation or sales, and the burden would fall on home growers and medical programs. The best way for cannabis industry folk to protect themselves, Franciosi recommends, is to follow state law as meticulously as possible.
At the federal level, a few measures may help state marijuana, but whether they'll be enough is up for debate. The Cole Memorandum, issued in 2013, is a guidance memo for the justice department not to challenge the state-compliant marijuana industry. "It does not codify any change in federal policy and it can readily be ignored or rebuked by the new administration," said Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
The best way for cannabis industry folk to protect themselves is to follow state law as meticulously as possible. There's also the Rohrabacher-Farr budget amendment, which prohibits the justice department from using federal money to prosecute those who comply with their state marijuana laws. However, that amendment needs to be renewed annually. "It is possible that Congress will not do so in 2017 because new House rules forbid the House of Representatives from considering the issue," said Armentano. Neither, the Cole Memo nor the Rohrabacher amendment are ingrained as permanent policy.
Another option could be for states to pass legislation saying that they won't cooperative with federal agents who try to interfere with state marijuana programs, says Amanda Reiman, marijuana law and policy manager for the Drug Policy Alliance. "I think at the end of the day, the more robust a state regulatory system is, the better off they're going to be."
Todd Mitchem, a Colorado-based entrepreneur who works with lawmakers to ensure high standards for operating in the cannabis industry, recommends that the cannabis community look at how what a reversal of marijuana laws would do to states' rights in general.
"If worse came to worse and a universal federal reversal was executed, it would not only be a very time consuming process to redefine marijuana legalization across the nation, but it could also start a state by state nationwide federal lawsuit surge arguing that the federal government is sending mixed messages," he said.
Moreover, Mitchem added, if the new attorney general wants to increase the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spending budget to go after the cannabis industry, he would need to submit the new plan and hope Congress approves the massive expenditure to go after state-compliant marijuana businesses. Which could take years.
Mitchem pointed out that to actually reverse marijuana legalization policies would be a huge financial and burden and time drain for the incoming administration to fight drug policy reform advocates, cannabis industry folk, and individual state legislatures.
Moreover, doing so would detract DEA time and resources from fighting more serious drugs like meth and heroin, which is now a bigger threat to our lives than guns.
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musiclover420
psychonaut



Registered: 11/06/12
Posts: 19,563
Loc: PNW
Last seen: 2 years, 5 months
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Re: Trump's Pick for Attorney General Will Likely Crack Down on Cannabis [Re: tdubz] 2
#23920479 - 12/12/16 06:00 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Lets impeach this fool, and see how he likes civil assets forfeiture and police brutality...
-------------------- Don't worry about me, I've got all that I need. And I'm singing my song to the sky You know how it feels, With the breeze of the sun in your eyes. Not minding that time's passing by I've got all and more, My smile, just as before. Is all that I carry with me I talk to myself, I need nobody else. I'm lost and I'm mine, yes I'm free
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tdubz



Registered: 02/26/12
Posts: 5,586
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Re: Trump's Pick for Attorney General Will Likely Crack Down on Cannabis [Re: musiclover420]
#23920614 - 12/12/16 06:33 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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As a businessman I don't see why Trump would not want the marijuana business to flourish, but his cabinet selection so far seems otherwise. It all depends on what his opinion of state rights really are. Not what he said during the campaign.
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musiclover420
psychonaut



Registered: 11/06/12
Posts: 19,563
Loc: PNW
Last seen: 2 years, 5 months
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Re: Trump's Pick for Attorney General Will Likely Crack Down on Cannabis [Re: tdubz] 1
#23920623 - 12/12/16 06:35 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
tdubz said: As a businessman I don't see why Trump would not want the marijuana business to flourish, but his cabinet selection so far seems otherwise. It all depends on what his opinion of state rights really are. Not what he said during the campaign.
Because most of them probably are heavily invested in industries cannabis is competing with.
Namely alcohol/ tobacco/ pharmaceuticals as well as lumber/ paper and many other random huge industries.
-------------------- Don't worry about me, I've got all that I need. And I'm singing my song to the sky You know how it feels, With the breeze of the sun in your eyes. Not minding that time's passing by I've got all and more, My smile, just as before. Is all that I carry with me I talk to myself, I need nobody else. I'm lost and I'm mine, yes I'm free
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phishphan2088
Gentile Larry David



Registered: 07/30/15
Posts: 352
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Re: Trump's Pick for Attorney General Will Likely Crack Down on Cannabis [Re: musiclover420]
#23922871 - 12/13/16 02:31 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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I can't recall P.E. Trump "saying" anything about anything in this election. I heard rhetoric designed to elicit emotional responses in a subject that demands logical analysis. Yeah, he's a businessman and he is a populist. However, It seems like he's pulled back on so many key parts of his campaign and begun his fleecing of America. He doesn't have a vested interest in cannabis, probably the opposite (interest in keeping it illegal). There are huge industries that pay the bills because MJ is illegal. To me he seems like the type that wants private prisons, private schools, private everything. I like to make a buck too, but I think for profit corporations (the kind with boards and publicly traded shares) are the root of most of the problems in our country. Plenty of businesses are not "for profit businesses" and still provide jobs, pay taxes, and contribute to their community. Capitalism inherently means that everybody isn't equal. Communism implies that everybody is. I want everyone to read this to ask themselves what the answer is. We have a freedom problem in this country disguised as cannabis prohibition. We elected him. The best thing to do is suffer the consequences and learn from it.
-------------------- sucking at something is the first step in being kinda good at something

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tdubz



Registered: 02/26/12
Posts: 5,586
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Re: Trump's Pick for Attorney General Will Likely Crack Down on Cannabis [Re: phishphan2088]
#23922950 - 12/13/16 02:48 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Well put. I still think however he would want to try an grow any industry especially one with so much monetary potential not that it wouldn't affect other industries. I mean common now do you really think people are going to stop buying beer and taking meds because cannabis is legal?
Cannabis is not the be all end all cure that would wipe out the pharmaceutical market, would it put a dent in their sales? Maybe.
Unfortunately these are the lobbyist in power.
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