Legal Marijuana 2017: Increasing Weed Enforcement Could Be Dangerous, Governors Tell Trump Administr

[Judi Lynn]

Source: International Business Times


BY JOSH KEEFE @THEJOSHKEEFE ON 04/03/17 AT 5:25 PM


Increased enforcement of federal marijuana laws could lead to dangerous and unintended consequences, the governors of four Western states said in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday.

The governors of the first four states that legalized recreational marijuana use — Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington — sent the letter after the Trump administration signaled it would step up enforcement of federal marijuana laws, which often conflict with state laws. In 2013, the Obama Justice Department issued guidance for federal attorneys called the "Cole Memo" that recommended prosecutors avoid pursuing charges against marijuana users and businesses in states that had legalized the drug.

"We understand you and others in the administration have some concerns regarding marijuana," the governors wrote. "Overhauling the Cole Memo is sure to produce unintended and harmful consequences. Changes that hurt the regulated market would divert existing marijuana product into the black market and increase dangerous activity in both our states and our neighboring states."

The letter was addressed to Sessions, the nation's top law enforcement officer and the person, besides the president, most capable of changing the way the federal government treats the wide discrepancy between federal and state marijuana laws.

Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/legal-marijuana-2017-increasing-weed-enforcement-could-be-dangerous-governors-tell-2519999

[msongs]

1. sessions does not like pot - black people use, brown people use it, even the KKK uses it nt

[yuiyoshida]

2. IF we're extremely lucky Sessions will be

removed from the scene in Washington, especially if he has ties to the FBI investigation about Russian Collusion. I would love to see that asshole dragged away in chains, maybe someone will offer him a joint on his way to Prison!

[Achilleaze]

3. freaking republican perjurers on intimate terms with russian agents

have no freaking place at all in the office of the Attorney General. Republicans have no ethics, no loyalty to America.

Deplorable

[yuiyoshida]

4. Absolutely right...

[riversedge]

7. #1

[lark]

5. Sessions wants more crimes to be committed.

Private prisons are his top contributors and he will do nothing to decrease the number of people being arrested and will actually do the total opposite. He wants weed illegal so they can arrest pot smokers, he also wants it illegal so opioid abuse is still a big issue. Bet he implements stop and frisk nationally, again to increase the rate of incarceration for behaviors that only hurt the people themselves. He wants more criminals also because he's a hate filled mean vindictive pathetic inhumane asshole.

[LakeArenal]

8. Exactly...

I once read an article ( I may not have it quite right) that some private prison wanted to open up, but told the city fathers that they would only build it if the city would guarantee 95% occupancy.. That means all the low violence prisoners they can muster...

[lark]

9. I've read that several times.

It happened in KS, where the state signed a contract and guaranteeing a certain occupancy and had to pay the company for failing to incarcerate enough people. Heinous practice.

[LakeArenal]

10. Even worse than I remember... Thanks for the reminder!

[tblue37]

11. Perverse incentives. nt

[hibbing]

6. Freedom!

So you have the freedom not to have health insurance, but not the freedom to do the evil weed.


Peace