Trump, Sessions, DOJ Gear Up For Crackdown on Marijuana

Since the current Administation nominated Jeff Sessions for Attorney General, the question has not been 'if' but 'when' he would take action to enforce Federal laws contradicted by legalized recreational marijuana use laws in seven states and Washington DC.  Smart Dissent reported on this back in February 2017.

While States' rights are routinely utilized by conservatives as justification for what Steve Bannon ominously labels "dismantling the administrative state," it should be no surprise that matters such as marijuana usage rise to their level of needing "big government" to set the rules.

The Trump administration is readying for a crackdown on marijuana users under Attorney General Jeff Sessions.  Trump’s Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety, led by Sessions, is expected to release a report [this] 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.  

“Task Force subcommittees will 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,” [Sessions] wrote. 

The report is expected to be crafted to create a case for marijuana crackdown claiming it is a cause of violent crime.

“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.  

Sessions and the DOJ are specifically seeking to enforce federal laws against states that have legalized marijuana either for recreational or medicinal use.

Sessions sent a letter in May asking congressional leaders to do away with an amendment to the DOJ budget prohibiting the agency from using federal funds to prevent states "from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana." 

Eight states and the District of Columbia have legalized the recreational use of marijuana, and another 21 states allow the use of medical marijuana, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, but marijuana use is still illegal under federal law.

Can you believe Trump lied about this issue?  Shocking.

Trump pledged to leave marijuana legalization up to the states while on the campaign trail. But last month he reportedly pushed back against the congressional ban on the DOJ interfering with state medical marijuana laws in a signing statement, asserting that he isn’t legally bound to the limits imposed by Congress. 

Sessions and Trump aren't alone.  Many Republicans will welcome a report creating a false pretense to crackdown on marijuana.  “I believe marijuana probably needs to be cracked down on, but we’ll see when he sends it over,” Lindsey Graham said of the task force report.

Source: http://thehill.com/regulation/administration/343218-trumps-doj-gears-up-for-crackdown-on-marijuana