One 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?
Didn’t over 50% of the population not want Obamacare and they forced it on us anyway?
The problem with Obamacare was not that people did not ‘want’ it. What people favor in health care finance is a jumble of features which work for them and which they fancy might be right or fair. The features do not necessarily fit together in a coherent whole. The problem with Obamacare was that it did not address the salient pathologies in the finance of medical care and it added some new ones.
“What people favor in health care finance…”
Do you know where you live? Have you ever read the Constitution?
That you desire something or covet what others have has NO bearing on constitutional legislation.
What holds dominion is the Constitution. Obamacare is unconstitutional. It violates the “commerce clause.” Government has no authority to compel the purchase of product. The right to private property precludes redistribution or taking private property from one man to give private property to another. Government only has the authority to tax for General Welfare not Individual Welfare (i.e. roads, water, sewer, currency, post office, etc.).
Freedom, free enterprise and private property mean that people get a job and buy insurance and government stays OUT of the insurance and every other industry.
Competition in the free markets of the private sector produces the best product at the lowest price.
Get a job. Buy insurance. Unrestricted competition in the insurance industry.
“Gail & Dale On The Lawrence Welk Show perform a “modern spiritual.”
“Having made Nixon’s enemy’s list and special rebuke from Spiro T. Agnew, Michael Brewer and Tom Shipley perform their famous hit for a National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws party in Washington, DC 1998.”
National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws
A project of Hugh Hefner, mult-line vice entrepreneur.
It’s really worked well in Denver. Just ask all the homeless who flooded into the city after marijuana was legalized.
Gee, are there any alcoholic homeless??
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/893462025430601729
Trump is an evangelical teetotaler, having seen his brother die from alcohol. My fear is w/ Christie heading the opioid task force is chronic pain people will be driven to cartel fentanyl. Docs have cleaned up their act and are much more prudent prescribing pain meds. The cartels saw a huge opportunity and flooded this country w/ cheaper heroin and fentanyl. THOSE drugs are what’s killing people. Many docs have swung too far. I have a friend w/ a herniated disc, shown on MRI. He is doing PT, steroid injections, acupuncture. His doc would not prescribe vicodin. Finally, his physical therapist called the doc and told her this guy can’t do the work needed because he’s in too much pain and can’t sleep. She finally relented and wrote him an RX.
Chronic pain patients are the new lepers and instead of Father Damien, we have Chris Christie! Cannabis does work for some people vis a vis pain. The cannaboid receptors in the brain are identical to opioid receptors.
Indeed, 49 percent want pot legalized outright for recreational use.
Yeah, and 50% of them never vote in elections (because they know nothing or are stoned), 40% vote Democratic every time, and 10% are soi-disant libertarians who never vote except to strike stupid attitudes.
Congesscritters can’t.
Our AG, Henry Gibson, is a puritanical weasel. This is stupid, and “Stupid is as stupid does.”
Maybe Mr. Sessions will effectuate the opposite of what he wants to do.
By ignoring the problem, and letting it just be, past administrations have allowed the the federal laws to fester in place, the cognizant dissonance of federal laws being in conflict with so many states’ laws allowing both to co-exist, when in fact they are in conflict with each other.
If the federal laws are aggressively enforced, as you imply they should be, the up-until-now theoretical catastrophe of federalism will come to a head, where the federal government will be in direct conflict with a majority of the states.
In fact, the States never agreed to such federal regulation in forming the compact of the United States.
The Commerce Clause has been corrupted and perverted by the federal government; the Commerce Clause only explicitly allows federal regulation of commerce between the States, not within a State.
So the federal government is trying to enforce a law that the Constitution never authorized to do, Also see 9th & 10th Amendments on this.
So, the likely practical effect will be federal marijuana legislative legal reform, accelerated and exigentized by the fevered pitch of anachronistic drug warriors in power.
Good post Gary.
How would (or does) law enforcement handle the citizen that legally purchased a product in one state who then transports that product into a state where it is illegal?
I’ll tell you how Utah and Nebraska “handle” it. They patrol their border w/ Colorado just like during Prohibition. The similarities to our insane War on Drugs and Prohibition are countless.
When you want to know why Swamp Rats in DC do something, you follow the money. The liquor and Big Pharma Lobby are anti-cannabis. It hurts their bottom line.
Exactly right
The similarities to our insane War on Drugs and Prohibition are countless.
The man who tells me I’m dumb as a bag-of-hammers is fond of inept analogy and argument-by-rhetorical-assertion.
Stevie Wonder can see Prohibition and War on Drug analogies, right down to the ascendancy of Al Capone and Meyer Lansky to Pablo Escobar and El Chapo. And, after the alcohol and drug lobby, the govt. employee unions and Deep State LOVE the War on Drugs. It’s a full employment war for cops, prosecutors, probation and prison employees.
And, although there are many examples, Diane Feinstein is the best example of the liquor lobby not wanting legal cannabis. The quite liberal, SF Senator, someone you would expect would support cannabis being legal, has opposed legalized cannabis for decades. And, year in and year out, the wine industry lobby is one of her biggest contributors.
Stop carrying that chip on your shoulder, Desperate.
Diane loves to sing the “It’s about the children” ballad.
Good comment Gary. An slightly straighter line is simply follow the money. At this point, Sessions is, at most, a temporary hiccup from a day when the idea that blacks would get hold of drugs and go on wild sprees of rape and mayhem truly terrified a certain class of people..
But as you point out, this latest version of demon rum has gone too far [that is, become far far too profitable and potentially profitable for the right people in the right places] to be turned back and any wrinkles between the Federal and State lawmakers will be quickly ironed out by that all leveling magic called money.
Reefer madness.
My favorite argument against marijuana is the pathetic claim that it’s a gateway drug; meanwhile most who engage in harder drugs actually experienced alcohol long before marijuana. So it’s time to bring back Prohibition then. And repeal the 19th Amendment while they’re at it.
Sessions speaking about drugs is like priests dictating about sex. Shut up.
I’m all for it. Legalize it. But, when/if a stoner causes an accident their license is gone, forever. When/if a stoner kills someone, they are going to prison, forever. Sam for alcohol.
100%.
First time I think we’ve ever agreed…
So now the cool dads want Life Without Parole for vehicular manslaughter. Sweet chaps, you.
Yes, it’s called being responsible for your actions. Same for texting. We don’t need a law against texting and driving. Just punish the ones who cause accidents or kill doing it. I guess I’m a cool dad?
It doesn’t seem to occur to you that criminal sentences are scaled to roughly reflect the severity of the crime.
Presumably the death penalty for overtime parking would be very effective. Just holding people responsible. Or whatever.
So in your world there is a moral equivalence of killing someone to overtime parking? Cool dad thinks your grasping.
No, it the world I actually live in, Jim22, reckless manslaughter is a class C felony. The judiciary has some discretion in such matters. The harshest penalty is an indeterminate sentence of 7.5 to 15 years in prison. To receive that sentence, you have to be of the single-digit minority of defendants who’s actually convicted at trial and you have to hack-off the judge big time.
Life without parole is a sentence applied to persistent offenders and to murderers.
Maybe it’s time for more black and white law instead of all the grey.
Jim. While the US is one of the most lenient countries regarding DUI. there is a wide range in state enforcement. Arizona and Alaska have some of the toughest laws. Wisconsin, where I lived for 3 decades and saw the strength of the liquor/tavern lobby keeping DUI laws lenient, has some of the worst enforcement. But, and this will not surprise an urbane man like you, the most lenient DUI laws are where drunken politicians and lobbyists drive, that being DC!
When in doubt, request more studies and refer to statistics that illustrate one’s position. When all the studies have been done, the statistics illustrate the opposing position, and paradigms are numerous where drug use treated as a medical issue and not as a criminal issue reduces drug issue, associated crime, and violence; then you have someone like Jim Inhofe or Jeff Sessions. How do these idiots get in power? That’s what we should be focusing on. Take the oligarchs and money out of our political system and we will get a better selection from which to pick our representatives. It seems to work for the real democracies of this world.
People smoke several things. All of those things do damage to lungs and the heart. The worst is tobacco. Pot is not as bad. Bob Marley discusses this issue in a song he wrote many years ago.
I wonder if Jeff Sessions smokes tobacco. Any blogger out there know if he does? We need a law outlawing tobacco. It kills.
Warning – The surgeon general warns
Cigarette smoking is dangerous… Dangerous
Hazard to your health
Does that mean anything to you?
Then legalize marijuana
Right here in Jamaica yeah
Dem say it cure glaucoma yeah
I’m an a de bush doctor yeah
So there’ll be no more
Smokin’ and feeling tense
When I see dem a com
I don’t have to jump no fence
Legalize marijuana
Down here in jamaica yeah
Only cure for asthma yeah
I man a de minister yeah
So there’ll be no more
Police brutality
No more disrespect for humanity
Legalize marijuana yeah
Down here in jamaica yeah
It can build up a failing economy yeah
Eliminate the slavish mentality
So there’ll be no more
Illegal humiliation
And no more police
Interrogation
Legalize marijuana
Down here in sweet jamaica
Only cure for glaucoma
I’m an a de bush doctor yeah
And there’ll be no more need
To smoke and hide
When you know you’re takin’
A legal ride
Legalize marijuana
Down here in Jamaica
It’s the only cure for glaucoma
I’m an a de minister…
“People smoke several things. All of those things do damage to lungs and the heart.”
Look at the air quality across several major cities. It can be just as bad.
Look at the air quality across several major cities. It can be just as bad.
Anyone who’d live in Los Angeles deserves Los Angeles good and hard.
As for the rest of us, those of us who recall the world of 1970 are untroubled by urban air quality today. My mother grew up in a world where people heated with coal. A more productive economy breeds margin for nice things, like agreeable air to breathe in urban areas.
Darren – OT as usual — are you or JT ever going to cover the Awan bros infiltration?
The T rump administration is repressive on just about everything. Ban the trans, ban the marijuana, ban the immigrants yada yada yada
Very damaged people who fancy they were born in the wrong body do not belong in the military. It is not the job of the military to be a refuge for kooks. It’s the job of the military to defend the shores and fight enemies.
“Kooks” like some of these folks?
https://www.bustle.com/p/who-is-kristin-beck-the-trans-retired-navy-seal-is-speaking-out-for-military-heroes-72750
Autumn, This is a story the MSM are ignoring. It’s a scumbag Dem, they get a pass.
It’s now a 9th and 10th Amendment issue. but since there is a lot of windfall income the federal government does not have to keep supporting the nouveau riche states. let California rebuild their own damn dams and let a more deserving area handle the Olympics. without federal funding
Absolutely. Let’s also get rid of federal funding for fighting wildfires and any funding for those affected by tornados, too.
Funny that you specify California. If I recall, blue states supply more revenue to the federal government than red states while the latter use more federal funding to tackle problems such as natural disasters. Red-state welfare.
Absolutely. Let’s also get rid of federal funding for fighting wildfires and any funding for those affected by tornados, too.
Someone who can think analogically would not put disaster relief in the same pigeonwhole with optional public works and the biennial Olympic graft lallalaooza.
Funny that you specify California. If I recall, blue states supply more revenue to the federal government than red states while the latter use more federal funding to tackle problems such as natural disasters. Red-state welfare.
Fat, drunk, stupid, talking-point bot is no way to go through life, son.
Prior to Nixon’s so called “War on Drugs” and the updated drug statutes which continued the rediculous overstretch of the Constitution’s Commerce Clause in an in illconceived attempt to control undesired human behavior (motivated by the administration’s desire to control undesired humans) by controlling “stuff”. A strategy which always fails and which always creates a violent criminal supply chain to serve the undiminished demand for the banned “stuff” (which now commands premium prices). They used the Government’s ability to regulate & tax a commodity to regulate cannabis (they simply refused to issue the tax stamps), we could solve some fiscal problems by reclassifing cannabis as a class IV (prescription only) controlled substance, and renewing the issuing of federal tax stamps for anyone wishing to grow (and subsequently possess) cannabis.
Allow it to be dispensed through our existing infrastructure used for other prescription drugs (doctor/pharmacy) and not largely unregulated dispensaries.
Nearly every state proscribed possession and sale of marijuana up until about 10 years ago. The federal authorities would have been well within their proper boundaries had they just proscribed the transportation of marijuana across state and national borders. The essence of the resulting legal regime would have been the same. It’s just that the balance of the caseload between the state and federal courts would have been different.
Isn’t marijuana illegal by federal statute? State legalization is therefore in conflict with federal law and constitutionally federal restrictions on the drug would supersede any state law legalizing it. Would it not be wiser for congress to pass legislation legalizing Marijuana rather than simply ignoring law breaking in the states. Ignoring prohibition laws in the 1920’s led to a more general disrespect for all law..
So, why did the prohibition of alcohol require a Constitutional Amendment, while 40+ years later we would allow the Federal Government to stretch their authority to regulate interstate commerce to ban a whole bunch of other similar substances?
(Previous regulation used the same authority, but relied on the Feds authority to tax a commodity where they then refused to issue to tax stamps). I know that SCOTUS has upheld this fantasy of federal power (I don’t believe they were right to do so).
I’m reminded of a quote:
Madison was talking about a law for supporting teachers of religion through public money, but he elucidates a principle with far more general import. Enacting (or maintaining) laws that the people do not want and which the government cannot enforce undermines the very legitimacy not only of that law, but of the entire government system.
General police power adheres to the state legislatures. The federal authorities can permit importation and cross-state transportation of maryjane. States are free to proscribe its possession and use. (At least, they’re free to use their discretion when federal judges and state appellate judges are being conscientious and intellecutally honest, which they typically are not on contentious matters).
possession, sale, and propagation.
“What do you think?”
~+~
While I support legalization of recreational and medicinal marijuana Congress is more to blame than Mr. Sessions.
The role of the attorney general is to enforce legislation, not to create or repeal such. The Obama Administration as we well know formulated a non-enforcement policy contingent on state legalization AND greatly regulating the industry. The states in some cases went far beyond this and overregulated but that is another matter. It should be recognized that this was a policy of enforcement and was entirely optional on their behalf.
In many respects it could be equally argued from another perspective that the Obama Administration effectively subverted federal law that has been in place in one manner or another for over seventy years. One could argue the former administration subverted its duty to enforce federal law in a unilateral fashion.
Congress needs to act. There always has been a formidable legislative risk, or more accurately an enforcement risk, in establishing businesses for which an individual could be under federal law treated no differently than an illicit drug manufacturer and trafficker. While an entrapment defense is strongly plausible, it is a defense to be offered post arrest and people can go to prison and receive forced civil action to seize assets.
Again, the problem lies with Congress. If it wants to make changes, or forestall an enforcement it is their prerogative to do so.
Convince congress to act. My congesscritter won’t because she thinks not enough research has been done, failing to realize the current laws make research rather difficult.
Sounds like she lacks the courage to make a decision on that matter. Demanding that more studies occur often is indicative of kicking the can down the road.
Governor Inslee did just that with raising the speed limit on interstates to 75 mph. The original bill had essentially two elements: the 75 mph increase and the other funding a study on highway speed limits generally. He line-item vetoed the speed increase and preserved the study.
Congress isn’t likely to do anything that might have a negative impact on favored special interest groups – and the list of them is lengthy.
LEO chiefs should simply tell their officers to put their efforts towards solving violent crimes, property crimes, and especially…financial crimes.
Arresting someone for smoking a flower is tantamount to marketing on behalf of special interest groups.
and especially…financial crimes.
Yes, I want my local patrolman to put the screws to structured-finance mavens, because Joos.
You must live in a small town. Mayberry? Your local patrolman probably isn’t any more competent to investigate financial crimes than you are, and if your retort is any indication, you and Barney have a lot in common.
I think that before he announces a “crackdown ” of some sort on the public, he should first announce a “crackdown ” which require all White House employees, cabinet members, and Presidential appointees to undergo mandatory regular testing for marijuana use. Then do the same to members of Congress. If he did that, I suspect that the public crackdown would never materialize.
Reblogged this on WilliWash.