Trump's DOJ gears up for crackdown on marijuana
Source: The Hill
The Trump administration is readying for a crackdown on marijuana users under Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
President Trumps Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety, led by Sessions, is expected to release a report next week that criminal justice reform advocates fear will link marijuana to violent crime and recommend tougher sentences for those caught growing, selling and smoking the plant.
Sessions sent a memo in April updating the U.S. Attorneys Offices and Department of Justice Department (DOJ) component heads on the work of the task force, which he said would be accomplished through various subcommittees. In the memo, Sessions said he has asked for initial recommendations no later than July 27.
Task Force subcommittees will also undertake a review of existing policies in the areas of charging, sentencing, and marijuana to ensure consistency with the Department's overall strategy on reducing violent crime and with Administration goals and priorities, he wrote.
Criminal justice reform advocates fear Sessionss memo signals stricter enforcement is ahead.
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, said Inimai Chettiar, director of the Brennan Center's Justice Program.
Read more: http://thehill.com/regulation/administration/343218-trumps-doj-gears-up-for-crackdown-on-marijuana?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=tw
TeamPooka
(24,223 posts)mpcamb
(2,870 posts)LSFL
(1,109 posts)And how stupid. And i do not partake of the hippie lettuce. But I do think it is harmless enough that people can make up their own minds.
no_hypocrisy
(46,088 posts)with "Reefer Madness".
Here's the entire film if the teaser intrigued you:
red dog 1
(27,797 posts)BLOTUS is still angry about Sessions' recusal in the Russia probe
"Citing Recusal, Trump Says He Wouldn't Have Hired Sessions"
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/us/politics/trump-interview-sessions-russia.html
Dustlawyer
(10,495 posts)The evil elf needs to toke a little and calm down!
thecrow
(5,519 posts)Maybe not everyone knows that the classic stoner is laid back and too spaced (or paranoid?) to walk outside.
They are barking up the wrong tree with this attack.
lambchopp59
(2,809 posts)At least in the western states I've lived, absolutely no one under 60 in the 80's was convinced by the dated 1930's "Reefer Madness" BS. All sorts of mayhem caused by alcohol, crystal meth and PCP, but pot? practically unheard of. Buy them a pizza, put on Star Trek reruns and no ambulance runs.
LuckyLib
(6,819 posts)All of the important issues related to crime, justice, the prison-industrial complex, the failure of the drug war, and these nit-wits want to focus on marijuana.
potone
(1,701 posts)This know-nothing administration is going to come up against the many states that have legalized it for medical use, if not for recreational use. They will face a huge backlash if they try to crack down on that. The whole thing enrages me. What they may not know is that the generation that uses it the most is the baby boomers who find it helpful for many medical conditions. What we need is more research on its possible uses, not a return to the failed and cruel policy of prohibition.
Doctors need to be confronting this administration's false belief that cannabis has no health benefits. IT IS NOT TRUE!!! If we want to address the opioid epidemic we should be expanding research in the pain-relieving qualities of cannabis.
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Tourism will bring them billions. I'd move my tiny bit of stock to Canada, Mexico,SA Corps right away. All except the tiny bit of "for profit" USA prison stock--that has tripled in just a couple years from all the State & Federal taxpayer money pouring in to feed that beast!
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)Now that much of white Millennial Middle Class America is waist deep in weed production, marketing and use, this makes them vulnerable to a Fed crackdown. Or it should, technically.
But I doubt that Beauregard is going to go after these guys first. He's going after poor black and brown people right off the bat. But he has a problem, unlike what happened during the Crack Epidemic, with the disparity between crack and powdered cocaine fueling the disproportionate prosecution of minority users, there's no comparably visible disparity with weed.
It's ALL weed.
The only difference is what neighborhood where the weed is used, and until Beaurgard's anti-weed goons start stopping and frisking All-American types in manicured neighborhoods that have lots of disposable income, we should only consider this as nothing more than his plan to destroy the civil rights of black and brown people in this country.
When I said that this is going to be interesting, I meant that it's going to be more tragedies to happen.
welivetotreadonkings
(134 posts)calimary
(81,238 posts)And the Jill Stein (I'M helping Russia, TOO!!! Thanks for all that nice money, Vlad!) crowd.
ananda
(28,858 posts)It's about putting more of the "wrong kind of people"
behind bars ..
.. and making megabucks for the private prison industry.
Smickey
(3,318 posts)TDale313
(7,820 posts)teach1st
(5,935 posts)Politifact, 2/28/17
In a radio interview with WWJ Newsradio 950 in Michigan on March 8, 2016, Trump said "I think it certainly has to be a state I have not smoked it its got to be a state decision I do like it, you know, from a medical standpoint it does do pretty good things. But from the other standpoint, I think that it should be up to the states."
At a campaign rally in Sparks, Nevada on Oct. 29, 2015, Trump said: "The marijuana thing is such a big thing. I think medical should happen right? Dont we agree? I think so. And then I really believe we should leave it up to the states. It should be a state situation ... but I believe that the legalization of marijuana other than for medical because I think medical, you know I know people that are very, very sick and for whatever reason the marijuana really helps them - but in terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state."
Thanks for that link
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)Nathan Adelson Drug rehab center,has spent 200 million bucks on this Mafia Group in D.C.. Now Shelly and his Spouse want their pound of flesh,meaning no Marijuana any where .
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Maybe The Shriveled Man and his Comrades are lying about this, too?
I mean, when can you trust that a republican is telling you the truth? You really can't. Sad.
flibbitygiblets
(7,220 posts)and the world hasn't come to a screeching halt. Grab a hold of message strongly, dems, and win something for once!
roamer65
(36,745 posts)This is going to court.
gldstwmn
(4,575 posts)is well funded, well informred and well represented. The Feds will have quite a fight on their hands.
Miles Archer
(18,837 posts)I'm not even addressing pain relief and medical benefits here.
I'm just countering Beauregard's "violence" claims.
Angel dust or something like it? Yeah...good chance someone is going to get hurt.
Weed?
Keep dreaming, Jeffy.
SamKnause
(13,101 posts)Fuck everyone who wants to keep cannabis illegal.
It is a crime against humanity to outlaw this plant.
The wrong mother-fuckers are in jail.
The liars, frauds, cons, and the law enforcement that sucks at the tit of fraudulent and evil drug policies.
They are EVIL.
They have caused death and destruction for decades around the globe !!!!
Enough with the LIES !!!!
Shove your refer madness up your asses !!!!!!
busterbrown
(8,515 posts)Gotta Love This...Reasons are Obvious... Alienation of millions of good citizebs..
J_William_Ryan
(1,753 posts)"public safety," it's just a failed attempt to deflect from the Russia investigations.
mountain grammy
(26,620 posts)and how we forced them on the world.. Read Chasing the Scream.
OldRedneck
(1,397 posts). . . in spite of the fact that in many Trump-voting counties of SE Kentucky, marijuana is the biggest cash crop and has been for decades.
YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)furious as to the lame brain people that reside not only in this administration, but in this country. We live in a country of STUPIDITY! They want to take us back to the dark ages. RESIST PEOPLE .. REVOLT.
padfun
(1,786 posts)icymist
(15,888 posts)The obvious winners for such a policy is for-profit prisons, drug cartels, and the alt-right. This will not decrease violent crime, but make it worse.
bora13
(860 posts)how many of his t-rumpian voters smoke and sell the shit on the black market.
i guess they won't matter much either.
t-rump was brought on for want of a monarchy.
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)Alice11111
(5,730 posts)Dear AG Sessions, we aren't in Alabama in the 1980s anymore, where all of the kids are given the Nancy Reagan , " Just say No" tshirts on the first day of school and auditoriums are filled with students listening to the horrors of drugs, when no distinction is made between them.
Update to 2017: tour the states and countries where it is legal. It's your job, due diligence, not just an old southetn prejudice out of your butt. You don't just represent Alabama anymore, but the whole USA, including Alaska and Hawaii, one state red, and one blue, but they both love their pot. Yep, even in gun crazy Alaska, they love their guns AND their pot.
Prohibition is almost over. In intelligent areas, it is over.
It is the largest US crop. Billions and billions of dollars are made here. Small businesses depend on it. Medical patients and vets depend on it's medicinal value.
Get to work. Learn the facts and landscape before you jump off this cliff.
pecosbob
(7,538 posts)since the State of Colorado has amassed some 600 million dollars in revenue.
bdtrppr6
(796 posts)please see Oregon and Washington. haven't seen any recent numbers but the tax revenue will be a major issue. and you haven't seen "weed-related violence" like what you will see if they shut it down!
Puzzler
(2,505 posts)... right on cue. Time for a distraction, eh?
OK, let's go for that brilliant idea, and start filling up the already jam-packed jails with (gasp!) pot-smokers.
Well good luck with that. I'm not American, but if I were, I'd hope that a significant percentage of the population take out a joint and smoke it! Good luck jailing tens of millions of those "pot fiends".
And to those states that have legalized cannabis. I hope they openly defy the Trump administration. Including governors such as Jay Inslee of Washington State... who British Columbians (including myself) are PROUD to call our neighbor!
Furthermore, my country Canada, is set to legalize canabbis on July 1st 2018. Thank you Justin Trudeau!
And I hope that Canada, and those states, are a thorn so far up Session's backside, it comes out of his fucking mouth!!!
OK, rant over
-Puzzler
red dog 1
(27,797 posts)How about a crackdown on voter suppression?
How about a crackdown on corporate and billionaire tax cheats? (Like yourself)
How about a crackdown on crack cocaine, Heroin, and Meth labs?
How about a REAL "crackdown" on violent crime? (which has absolutely NOTHING to do with MJ)
Vinca
(50,269 posts)BumRushDaShow
(128,905 posts)(unless it's not the GOP's hypocritical christo-fascist version of the world)
bluecollar2
(3,622 posts)This is designed to do two things...
1) the private prison industry has a guaranteed occupancy rate that needs filling
2) the asset forfeiture/seizure program is gonna fund it...
So if you get busted using or holding or dealing pot you're guaranteed to do time.
Doesn't matter what the quantity is...
EL34x4
(2,003 posts)Took a peek over at that other site and almost every poster is against this.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3571354/posts
Looks like a lot of them have really had it with Jeff Sessions.
lordsummerisle
(4,651 posts)Legislation introduced last month by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Paul introduced known as the The Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States (CARERS) Act would amend federal law to allow states to set their own medical marijuana policies.
Anyone know the status of this bill?
trueblue2007
(17,217 posts)HE LIED AGAIN. His campaign pledges mean NOTHING !!! He only said that stuff so "THOSE GUYS" would vote for him !!!!!!
mahina
(17,649 posts)Who pays?
There is no way this two bit shyster is prioritizing something that doesn't benefit him or his personally.
Fucker.
jmowreader
(50,557 posts)The Justice Department Task Force on Merry Jew Wanna has found, through long and arduous research, that merry jew wanna smoking leads to indifference in school work, hysterical fits of laughing, fast piano playing and shooting your girlfriend. This violent narcotic is a plague on humanity and our task force is taking steps to eradicate it forever.
duhneece
(4,112 posts)Society is helped by marijuana when folks choose marijuana over alcohol, heroin, pharmaceutical pain pills, anti depressants, etc. but it is the veterans in their many organizations that I hope will stand up against this policy.
truthisfreedom
(23,146 posts)sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)Obligatory quote from Nixon white house, every time Sessions implements policies that target minorities:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html
One of Richard Nixon's top advisers and a key figure in the Watergate scandal said the war on drugs was created as a political tool to fight blacks and hippies, according to a 22-year-old interview recently published in Harper's Magazine.
"The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people," former Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman told Harper's writer Dan Baum for the April cover story published Tuesday.
"You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities," Ehrlichman said. "We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
Ehrlichman's comment is the first time the war on drugs has been plainly characterized as a political assault designed to help Nixon win, and keep, the White House.
And when Ehrlichman says "hippies", the modern term is "liberals". I.e., us.
raging moderate
(4,304 posts)I foresee a steep learning curve.