F**K OFF Jeff Sessions
We all knew this was coming, but that doesn't make me less irritated now that it's here. If you haven't heard already Jeff Sessions is untying the bonds that kept prosecutors of his justice department from going after marijuana cultivation, and distribution in states where it is legal. He sent out a trio of memos nixing the hands off policy of the Obama justice department, one in which he said the following
In deciding which marijuana activities to prosecute under these laws with the department's finite resources, prosecutors should follow the well-established principles that govern all federal prosecutions. These principles require federal prosecutors deciding which cases to prosecute to weigh all relevant considerations of the crime, the deterrent effect of criminal prosecution, and the cumulative impact of particular crimes on the community.
Basically he let the dogs off the leash, and we don't know what they're gonna do now. It's completely left up to the discretion of the states prosecutors to throw peaceful, honest businessmen in jail or not. While I don't believe this will lead to massive raids, or the industry affected in to many places, I'm sure we have at least a few more senile, anti-cannabis drug warriors like Sessions populating the justice department that are going to use their authority to ruin a few lives. It will be interesting to see if any state authorities step in to protect their citizens and tax income. Although Obama wasn't exactly pro-cannabis, raids on dispensaries were only stopped because of a memo telling prosecutors to focus their resources elsewhere. A far cry from actually decriminalizing the plant that 68% of the population believe should be legal for recreational use. Now the raids will begin again, delegated through another memo.
Jeff Sessions is a sad out of touch old drug warrior, using his authority to enforce his personal beliefs of morality on the world, and he needs to be put out to pasture. His disdain for cannabis is almost comical. This is the man that said "good people don't use marijuana" and who was ok with the KKK until he found out they smoked pot. He is an artifact of another time, when anti-cannabis propaganda had a firm grip on the mind of Americans, and people thought morality should be enforced with the violence of the state. In a time when prescriptions are one of the biggest killers, and opiate addiction is running rampant, Sessions somehow thinks punishing cannabis possession is fruitful use of resources.
He completely disregards the will of the people who have spoken, and do not want to lock up cannabis users. He is threatening a billion dollar industry that is providing jobs for thousands, and filling the tax coffers of more than half of the states all for what? Because he thinks pot heads are bad people? If the law truly represented the will of the people, cannabis would be legal, their is no way to deny that. But the law has nothing to do with safety, it is there to serve the interests of the pharmaceutical industry, and the private prison system. It's used as an excuse to erode civil liberties, and give police reason to harass anyone.
I don't see massive raids, and arrests in the future, but I do see this as a roadblock on our path to full legalization. The DEA will refuse to de-schedual cannabis and keep this racket going as long as possible. Pharmaceutical companies won't let them. We're gonna have to do this state by state, fighting tooth and nail to bring cannabis to the rest of the country. Luckily the tax potential is getting a lot of the states on our side of the fight. They will only give up prohibition when they feel legalization is more profitable, and we're proving to them that it is everyday. Sessions, and the old senile drug warriors can't win this battle, we're still winning.
Just another one of the ignorant positions coming from Trump and his merry band of racist POS cabinet members - the designation "crime family" will also work just as well...
I really hoped that President Obama would reschedule it on his way out. He’d already admitted to using it(and blow) well into law school, and only stopped when he felt that “it no longer did anything for him.”
That’s a pretty clear statement of no fucks given either way. He gave it up because he met a classy girl and wanted to move on to a successful career, and did, at a time when doing so as a “stoner” would have been impossible.
But he gave it up because it was “no longer beneficial to him. ”
There are many of us with debilitating illnesses who have to choose between a lifetime of opiates or a lifetime of cannabis. Given what we know about opiates and how harmful long term use is, there’s no excuse for treating cannabis like it has the same potential for harm.
In a weird way, I’m glad he didn’t, but ONLY because Trump is hell-bent on undoing anything Obama did.
It would have put him in a position where he would have to justify rescheduling it back as a schedule I wouldn’t it? That seems like it would be difficult with half the states at least recognizing medical...
there is no way he would have been allowed. As long as it's federally illegal insurance companies will never replace patients pharmaceuticals with cannabis. The Pharmaceutical industry has the biggest lobbies next to the military industrial complex. There is crazy amounts of money being made off prohibition. Courts, probation, fines, private prisons, large police budgets, lawyers, pharmaceuticals, the list goes on and on of people profiting off the drug war. It's sickening.
We have a long list of billionaires on our side now. George Soros, as much as everyone seems to hate him, has put minimally millions into getting rec passed in every state they’ve tried to pass it in, and he’s just the most glaring example.
We also now have law enforcement, and to some extent the medical establishment on the same page. There is an opiate crisis, and it’s killing people.
I’m intimately familiar with the relationship between doctors and cannabis. I was born with spina bifida, I’m a cancer survivor, I’ve had over 60 surgeries(half of which were on the same 4 inch by 4 inch area,) and I will be in pain, and on some amount of opiates for the rest of my life.
That being said, I started seeing a pain specialist at the end of my cancer treatment, because my various doctors had me on over 1000mg per day of various opiates. At first he threatened to take my pain meds away if I wouldn’t quit.
Then I cut my prescription in half, and dropped 100 lbs. All because of my medical use of cannabis.
He signs my card now, and says that he’s honored to do so. The tide is changing...
wow thats some rough shit. I'm so happy you are able to take less opiates with cannabis. Similar story with my cousin. He was in an accident a year and a half ago that left him a quadriplegic. He lived in the hospital for the first 6 months, then a nursing home after that because no one in the family had a house that was suitable. Of course in the hospital and nursing home he couldn't vape cannabis, only take thc capsules once in a while when we could sneak them to him. Once his dad bought a house he got out of the nursing home and started vaping, and taking capsules regularly. He was able to cut his opiate dose in half. There was a dramatic difference in his quality of life once he had cannabis. Luckily I'm a grower for a dispensary so I'm able to provide him flower, and make his extracts for a huge discount. Insurance of course doesn't cover it.
I ended up having to do 3 days short of 6 months in a nursing home about 5 years ago. Because a surgeon gave me MRSA that almost killed me and it took a 6 month course of IV antibiotics to kill it. It was fucked up.
The place was filled with people in their 80’s and 90’s. Mostly people with Alzheimer’s waiting to die because their kids don’t care. It was really sad to watch, and the staff were absolutely evil, but most of them were so gone they didn’t know where they were.
I had a valid medical cannabis card, and they tried to tell me that I not only couldn’t keep it there, I couldn’t even use it there. They also tried to limit me to the same 2 cigarette breaks that the old people were limited to, even though I otherwise had a lot of freedoms that they didn’t have. I for example could leave. I just had to be back for my antibiotic treatments.
Luckily, I’m Jewish, and this nursing home happened to be located adjacent to the temple I was attending at the time.
The Rabbi let me park my truck in the corner of the parking lot closest to the nursing home, so I just had to walk up a ramp, and I could keep my herb and my cigs in my truck and go out there and use them in peace.
After a few days, the staff stopped trying to control the frequency. Even if I went out at 2am. I’d just spent a month in a hospital, and if I was capable of walking up a ramp to use my medicine, they had no legit reason to stop me.
But I realize how lucky I got...
And I was just talking with my pain specialist(who signs my card) how backwards it is that they’ll spend $10k+ per MONTH on my opiate prescription. If I had access to even $500/m to spend on cannabis through insurance, I could probably cut that $10k in half, and it’s already been cut in half from where I originally was....
Check out my recent post Rescheduling is with our reach. https://steemit.com/news/@choosefreedom/what-happened-to-the-marijuana-justice-act-of-2017
I think I hate him even more than I hate Trump, which is an extraordinary amount.
Just shows you how outta touch these politicians really are. It’s time we let the block chain run are affairs by letting people vote on issues vs old rich white guys!!!
u best... @dajohns1420
It starts with Anti-Structuring laws and Civil forfeiture. Next thing you know the government is eavesdropping on your private conversations and controlling every aspect of your life.
