Bizarre, Congress, Criminal law, Media, Politics

Eight-Six Percent Of Voters Favor Some Form of Legalization of Marijuana . . . But Sessions Is Reportedly About To Announce A Crackdown

jeff_sessions_official_portraitOne would think that with President Donald Trump at record low polling in the 30s  (and  Congress with even lower polling around 10 percent favorability), the Administration would not be struggling to find a cause further irritate the American public.  However, Attorney General Jeff Sessions appears on the brink of doing just that.  Despite many states either legalizing or moving to legalize marijuana, Sessions is expected to announce a new crackdown on the multi-billion industry.  Not only will the crackdown threaten billions in taxes now collected by these states, but it will contravene the wishes of roughly half of the population. Indeed, according to the  latest Harvard-Harris survey 86 percent of Americans now support either legalizing pot for either recreational or medicinal use or both.  Indeed, 49 percent want pot legalized outright for recreational use.  The Administration however is about to go on a direct collision course with many states — including red states — that has legalized marijuana.

 

What is particularly odd is that the Administration has found itself unable to move massive legislative agendas from immigration to health care.  However, it is about to add another major issue and take the side opposed by 86 percent of voters. It will also undermine swing states like Colorado that Trump will desperately need in the coming years.

Only 14 percent of the public believe that pot should be entirely illegal.  However, Sessions has always had a certain fixation on marijuana.  The question is why the Administration would want to alienate these states and these voters at this time.

What do you think?

97 thoughts on “Eight-Six Percent Of Voters Favor Some Form of Legalization of Marijuana . . . But Sessions Is Reportedly About To Announce A Crackdown”

  1. My Libertarian instincts are to let people do what they want to do to the extent it doesn’t hurt others.My common sense tells me that if we have a Justice Department that decides which laws it thinks should be enforced, we are on the road to chaos.
    Then there’s the small matter of violence and other illegal activity associated with its use and trafficking.

    This is not as simple as many try to make it out to be.

    1. Yes it is. Congress may only regulate interstate commerce. What goes on inside the state is the state’s business; feds stay out of it.

  2. I think it has to do with how strongly held those views are. Personally, I am for medical marijuana, but not recreational marijuana. Many illegal aliens from the South are also smuggling drugs (mostly marijuana) across the border. Some are part of extended cartels, some are just paying off their coyote.

    1. But others want to recreate that way. Who are you to forbid them?

      1. David Benson – how can you not know who I am? I am the Son of God!!!!

    1. What’s wrong with this picture?

      The mayor of Wealthy, Upscale Suburb, Laguna Woods, Orange County, California,

      takes a tour of

      Foreign Country, Ghetto / Barrio, Tijuana / Santa Ana, “Sanctuary City,” Orange County California

      to “score some weed” or conduct a taxpayer funded, “fact-fining” junket?

    1. The Local and National Media are Zionist Liars

      According to U.S. and International Law all the U.S. / Israeli invasions are Wars of Aggression, War Crimes.
      These are the same crimes the Nazis committed
      Millions of men, women and children have been murdered / maimed due to these invasions.
      Washington, DC = Nazi Berlin

      Anyone who supports the Republicans, Democrats, Israel & the Mainstream Media are accomplices to murder. They have blood on their hands. They are Zionist Nazi Terrorists.
      Congress, Justice Department, FBI & Court System are corrupt cowards else they would have indicted the Bush / Obama administrations & Israel for 9/11 and War Crimes years ago.

      The International Criminal Court & U.S. Courts are a joke. The U.S. and Israel are guilty of massive War Crimes for years. The ‘War on Terror’ is an Israeli / U.S. Fraud.

      ZIONIST NAZI CRIMINALS

      http://buenavistamall.com/bushobamatrump2.jpg

  6. Woah hoo round em up jeff and start in dc….where it just became legal….I suspect if “staffers” and the like start getting busted then congress will decide on something….

  7. Well, I guess this shows 86% of Americans are dope fiends. Because a country where everybody is stoned is almost as wonderful as a country where everybody is drunk.

    I can not help but muse how long it will be between the legalization of pot is followed by the legalization of heroin, cocaine, meth, etc. Because the underlying libertarian argument is the same. That ought to be a hoot, when libertarians have to put up with heroin addict neighbors, and meth boys everywhere. And I am sooo sure that nobody will have to pay out any tax dollars to subsidize the crap.

    What a sad day for America.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

    2. The difference in my opinion squeeky is that which is habit forming and that which is addictive. Not sure if we’ll ever crack that nut. But you are correct having drug addicted neighbors is no picnic….but even today you can nark on them and Le does nothing! And even when they finally after neighboorhood-family pressure go to rehab theirpsyches are destroyed by THAT money mill praying on their addiction.

      1. People say that pot is not addictive, but for some reason, some people have to smoke it daily or they start getting weirder. Some of these stoners won’t pay their electric bill, but they will pay their pot dealer. What I tell people who tell me that in person is, “Then great! If pot isn’t addictive than prove it to me and lay off it for two years!” They usually get a look of sheer panic in their eyes.

        They’re about as bad as the Xanax freaks, who walk around with a goofy look in their eyes. But they have to have it for their “anxiety” disorder.

        Squeeky Fromm
        Girl Reporter

        1. That’s a rub then…since so many ppl are on zanax…you suppose pot ppl are self med? God forbid if every pot user was on zanax instead we’d have like 75 percent of the pop on brain pills. That has to speak to an underlying cause….of it all. A congressman the otherday summed it up the diagnosis is “dispair”…why ppl feel like that needs figured out. And fixed. I know why I “dispair” because the only time I don’t is when I am in control. For example my husband needed a five dollar ride from the airport…im normally a tight wadd but I was happy to pay a cab fifty bucks for his ride….then I didn’t have to drive 20 miles at 80 mph while ppl text at el. Nor did I have to cross the run you off the bridge bridge.

        2. What I mean to say is I don’t blame ppl for using zanax or pot…..but something has got under americans skin in the last couple decades…I beleive it is fear…
          in whatever form. And ppl don’t just conquer their fear. It rules us all. We are stuck in neutral between fight or flight.

    3. SFGR, I suggest you look at what has happened to Portugal since decriminalizing drugs.I look at daily Mary-jane usage as self medicating. The anecdotal examples of the financial slackers and general everyday scofflaws you mention are going to behave irresponsibly anyway pot might just enhance their apathy towards becoming any more responsible.
      BTW, no one ever beat their wife while they were high on pot.

    4. “Well, I guess this shows 86% of Americans are dope fiends.” — That’s as ridiculous a conclusion as it is stupid.

      What “Americans” (people from the US) increasingly don’t want is for people to go to jail for use of cannabis. That’s a refreshing change, because it shows that people from the US are becoming more informed about cannabis, and thus more tolerant of it.

      The use of cannabis ( and alcohol, zanax, heroin, meth, etc etc,) might be a social problem, or even a health problem, but it certainly shouldn’t be a criminal offense, especially when a disproportionate number of people in jail for cannabis (specifically) are non-white (despite the fact that whites and non-whites use at the same rates). — Sessions, racist little $hit that he is, knows this, which explains his position quite well.

      Your time spent “musing” might be better spent on doing some research and being more informed.

      1. What you said is what is called “an opinion.” You are entitled to it. I have a different opinion, even going as far as to believe that Saudi Arabia is right to behead drug dealers, that Singapore is smart to execute drug dealers, and even that Duterte is right to gun the dealers down in the street sans trials.

        Because people on drugs tend to lose the ability to support themselves, and everybody who works has to pick up the slack and pay for them, and their children and all their problems. Frankly, the “right” of some dope fiend to get an artificial high is not worth that price. IMHO.

        Although, when there are enough dope fiends in a country, they will vote themselves that right.

        Squeeky Fromm
        Girl Reporter

        1. You don’t appear to understand the difference between facts and opinions. — Here is a fact (repeated from above): ” a disproportionate number of people in jail for cannabis (specifically) are non-white (despite the fact that whites and non-whites use at the same rates).”

          But enough! If you are going to defend SA and Duterte and dismiss the need for trials, I consider you and your opinions a waste of time.

          Your sweeping use of ill-defined terms like “dope fiend” and your sweeping generalizations (e.g., “people on drugs tend to lose the ability to support themselves, and everybody who works has to pick up the slack and pay for them, and their children and all their problems)” shows that if you do have a brain, you don’t use it except minimally to reinforce your biases. —

          Your words convey the notion that you don’t let the facts get in the way of your ignorance and biases.

          Why Turley (let alone the other commenters) puts up with your ill-informed and ill-formed nonsense on this site is curious.

          1. And you do not seem to understand the difference between relevant facts and random partisan ideology facts. Who cares what color the drug dealer is??? How is that relevant to anything. My guess is that if bagel and lox were shown to cause cancer, it would not matter if they are predominantly or disproportionately sold by Jews. Would anybody care???

            As far as my contention that druggies cost us all big bucks, you might want to review this little blurb. They say about $740 Billion per year. Like all studies I take it with a grain of salt, but my GUESS is, that the amount is far higher than that.

            https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics

            But, by all means return to your half smoked doobie, and enter that fantasy land where being a dope fiend is not really a bad thing, OK?

            Squeeky Fromm
            Girl Reporter

            1. Wow, you really are an idiot! — I’ll take heart in the observation that most of your fellow commenters apparently ignore you (which I clearly should have), and the rest patronize you.

  8. Americans have the freedom of thought, speech, religion, assembly, press and every other conceivable natural or god-given freedom per the 9th amendment. Prohibition of marijuana is just as preposterous and unconstitutional as Prohibition of alcohol was, and that was swiftly reversed.

    Behavior, such as DUI, that constitutes a potential danger to other people is illegal.

    Let freedom ring!

    1. It wasn’t so ‘swiftly’ reversed. In its wake it left a well established criminal structure in almost every large city. One has only to wonder that if drugs, in this country, were treated as a medical issue and those ‘nailed’ for possession were ‘treated’ and/or educated, would the cartels and gangs be as powerful as they are today, in every American city. The facts of the matter are that if the criminal aspect is taken out of the equation, the abuse goes down and if education is science based and not authority based, more people listen. Personally I know many more individuals that steer clear of drugs because of what they have studied about them than those who are fearful of getting caught. The fear of getting caught makes the user more careful, not more informed. When authority is wrong, has been wrong for so long, and done so much damage to virtually innocent and potentially productive people, it’s next to impossible for authority to admit it. Add a level of ignorance with a smattering of ideological pomposity and you have the Sessions and others that, like Inhofe in his idiocy, keep this country third world in some facets. Sometimes it’s embarrassing to be an American. That’s were being Canadian as well helps.

      1. I just got back from Canada and you, Rain Man, are a mutant. Hosers are good, humble, down to earth people. There is one big exception. Canadians and Americans HATE Quebecers. Despicable people.

        I did learn poutine can be used as a verb. A menu in PEI said “you can get your fries poutined.”

    2. George has an excellent point–you know, the freedom thing, with Trump and The Freedoms. But I’m still terrified of the White-Slavery scene in Reefer Madness, anyway. Was that an appropriate use of State propaganda? Suppose that tweeting were addictive. Would the FBI hire a Hollywood motion-picture studio to produce a public-information film entitled Twitter Madness? Who would play The Sultan of Silicon Valley?

      1. Seriously, Diane? The “freedom thing” without interference by government was provided to Americans by the Founders not me. Did the lazy, greedy, striking teachers union thugs not teach you anything about the Preamble, Constitution and Bill of Rights, 1789, in public school? If you liked that “freedom thing,” I’ve got more where that came from, like taxation is severely limited by Article 1, Section 8, to General Welfare making Individual Welfare unconstitutional and the right to private property absolutely precludes any and all forms of redistribution of wealth, including “Affirmative Action Privilege.” Diane, we need to talk. The entire welfare state, from cash payments, affirmative action and social services to unfair “Fair Housing” law, discriminatory “Non-Discrimination” law, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare is antithetical, illegal and unconstitutional. Redistribution of wealth, social engineering and central planning are all anti-constitutional and unconstitutional principles of Karl Marx published in his Communist Manifesto – just to catch you up a little.

        1. George, perhaps the teachers unions didn’t teach The Supreme Court any of your curricula either.

        2. George, on the odd chance that the difference between general versus individual welfare bears any resemblance to the difference between public versus private goods, then I’d really rather not hear about it all over again. BTW, George, a capitation is a head tax, a.k.a. a poll tax in England. It’s a tax on persons for existing. The only way to avoid such a tax is to die. Meanwhile, private property can be confiscated by due process of law with just compensation. I think you’re reading too much into the text.

          P.S. Did Marx ever say “No representation without taxation?”

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