Under the Obama administration the Attorney General's office chose not to enforce federal marijuana laws.
Numerous states 'legalized' pot for various uses, and those ranged from recreation to medical. The federal laws were still in place, banks could not accept pot profits, there were many hurdles that still existed but 'legal' pot markets flourished in many states. Tax revenues on the newly legalized market reached billions annually.
Then comes along Jeff Sessions. Sessions said that the federal law is still the law of the land and he would reverse the prior administration's policy, essentially making it illegal again.
Was it Session's desire to throw the job of marijuana legalization back to Congress where it belongs? Or is Sessions just an old fudd who wants to jail people with glaucoma, cancer or PTSD that use pot to relieve their problems?
Oddly enough, I did not see any commentary from the snack food industry. I figured the stock of Frito-Lay would drop too. Hmmm?
As a libertarian I am all in favor of legalizing marijuana. I've never smoked it. Don't care to start. But sometimes the laws we have are beyond silly and enter the realm of really really stupid. Such is the case with some of our drug laws.
Numerous states 'legalized' pot for various uses, and those ranged from recreation to medical. The federal laws were still in place, banks could not accept pot profits, there were many hurdles that still existed but 'legal' pot markets flourished in many states. Tax revenues on the newly legalized market reached billions annually.
Then comes along Jeff Sessions. Sessions said that the federal law is still the law of the land and he would reverse the prior administration's policy, essentially making it illegal again.
Was it Session's desire to throw the job of marijuana legalization back to Congress where it belongs? Or is Sessions just an old fudd who wants to jail people with glaucoma, cancer or PTSD that use pot to relieve their problems?
LINK TO FULL ARTICLE>>> https://www.politico.com/magazine/s...rijuana-legalization-congress-216251?lo=ap_e1
Full story is at the link above.Did Jeff Sessions Just Increase the Odds Congress Will Make Marijuana Legal?
The attorney general has created intolerable uncertainty for a growing industry that is now demanding legal protections from Congress. And lawmakers are listening.
Susan B. GlasserJanuary 06, 2018
When Jeff Sessions announced Thursday morning he had removed the barrier that had held back federal prosecutors from pursuing marijuana cases in states that had made pot legal, he delivered on something he had all but promised when he was nominated as attorney general. Most of the marijuana world saw it coming, but they freaked out anyway.
A fund of marijuana-based stocks dropped more than 9 percent in value and, as a sign of how mainstream marijuana has become, Sessions’ decision to repeal the Cole memo, an Obama-era protection for states that have legalized marijuana, even affected the stock price of Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, which dropped more than 5 percent. Business leaders in an industry that was worth $7.9 billion in 2017, called Sessions’ action revoking “outrageous” and “economically stupid.”
Capitol Hill screamed just as loudly. And it wasn’t just the Democratic members of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus. It was Republican senators, too. Cory Gardner of Colorado took the Senate floor to issue an ultimatum to Sessions: “I will be putting a hold on every single nomination from the Department of Justice until Attorney General Jeff Sessions lives up to the commitment he made to me in my pre-confirmation meeting with him. The conversation we had that was specifically about this issue of states’ rights in Colorado ... Gardner is no fringe Republican; he’s the chair of the NRSC.
...Nancy Pelosi, who issued a blistering statement against Sessions, saying that she would push for an amendment in the new spending bill to protect states that had legalized not just medical marijuana but recreational use too, a move that could make ongoing budget negotiations much more tense.
Thursday may well turn out to be a pivotal moment in the marijuana industry’s evolution as a political force. Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe in some form of legalized marijuana, but does the nascent industry have the sway to rewrite nearly 50 years of federal drug policy?...
Oddly enough, I did not see any commentary from the snack food industry. I figured the stock of Frito-Lay would drop too. Hmmm?
As a libertarian I am all in favor of legalizing marijuana. I've never smoked it. Don't care to start. But sometimes the laws we have are beyond silly and enter the realm of really really stupid. Such is the case with some of our drug laws.