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posted by martyb on Thursday January 04 2018, @09:56PM   Printer-friendly
from the up-in-smoke dept.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will reportedly rescind the Cole Memo (DoJ), effectively ending the moratorium on enforcing cannabis prohibition in states where it has been legalized:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions will roll back an Obama-era policy that gave states leeway to allow marijuana for recreational purposes.

Two sources with knowledge of the decision confirmed to The Hill that Sessions will rescind the so-called Cole memo, which ordered U.S. attorneys in states where marijuana has been legalized to deprioritize prosecution of marijuana-related cases.

The Associated Press first reported the decision.

Sessions, a vocal critic of marijuana legalization, has hinted for months that he would move to crack down on the growing cannabis market.

Republican Senator Cory Gardner says he will hold up the confirmation process for DoJ nominees:

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) threatened on Thursday to start holding up the confirmation process for White House Justice Department nominees unless Attorney General Jeff Sessions reverses a decision to roll back a policy allowing legalized recreational use of marijuana in some states.

Gardner said in a series of tweets that Sessions had told him before he was confirmed by the Senate that he would not change an Obama-era policy that discouraged federal prosecutors from pursuing marijuana-related offenses in states where the substance had been legalized. Colorado is one of those states.

[...] The Justice Department's reversal of the Cole memo on Thursday came three days after California's new law allowing recreational marijuana use went into effect.

Other politicians have reacted strongly to the news.

Previously: New Attorney General Claims Legal Weed Drives Violent Crime; Statistics be Damned
4/20: The Third Time's Not the Charm
Jeff Sessions Reboots the Drug War
According to Gallup, American Support for Cannabis Legalization is at an All-Time High
Opioid Commission Drops the Ball, Demonizes Cannabis
Recreational Cannabis Goes on Sale in California

Related: Attorney General Nominee Jeff Sessions Backs Crypto Backdoors


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Thursday January 04 2018, @10:54PM (6 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday January 04 2018, @10:54PM (#618042) Journal

    Congress did very little on this issue before the Cole memo. They passed the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment [wikipedia.org] after the Cole Memo.

    Maybe there will be enough pressure for Congress to take this seriously. But the rescindment doesn't help. It just hurts businesses in the states that have legalized cannabis by murking things up. It would have been fine to let the states lead the way. In fact, Trump said during the campaign that he believed [wikipedia.org] states should have the right to decide their own cannabis policies. But after being elected he signaled [bloomberg.com] that he could ignore the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment passed by Congress (every year). In no way has Trump done a "great" thing for America with this move.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday January 04 2018, @11:14PM (1 child)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Thursday January 04 2018, @11:14PM (#618060) Homepage Journal

    It's not me, it's Jeff. I really don't care if you kids smoke your pot. I think it's a bad habit. We all have bad habits. Are we babies? We're not babies. Trust me, I have some bad habits of my own. Which, believe me, you don't want to know about. But Jeff has a thing about pot. Which I knew about when I hired him.

    Let me tell you, Jeff was very loyal to me at one time. At a very important time. When a lot, a lot of people were saying I would lose. Saying I would never be elected. But little Jeff believed in me. He had a big job in the Senate, but he took time to go to my rallies. To stump for me. Very loyal! So I hired the little guy, even though we don't always see eye to eye. Imagine my surprise when he RECUSED himself! I wanted to fire him for that. But my lawyers, some of my lawyers, told me not to. So we're all stuck with him.

    • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday January 04 2018, @11:55PM

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday January 04 2018, @11:55PM (#618087) Journal

      That McDonald's addiction is more of a moral failing than any substance abuse problem!

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday January 04 2018, @11:39PM (3 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday January 04 2018, @11:39PM (#618072) Homepage Journal

    Funny, this is one of the few things I think he actually did right. The executive branch has no business deciding which laws it will and won't enforce. Selective enforcement of the law is tyranny, plain and simple.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by dry on Friday January 05 2018, @05:48AM (2 children)

      by dry (223) on Friday January 05 2018, @05:48AM (#618224) Journal

      It's also tyranny to enforce an immoral, unconstitutional law that neither the courts nor the legislature will take the correct step to strike it from the books.
      There is also the question of where resources should be spent. Here, many moons ago, the cops literally said they aren't going to enforce non-profit copyright infringement as they had better things to do with their time. Now they have the same attitude to drugs, at least where I live.

      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday January 05 2018, @12:25PM (1 child)

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday January 05 2018, @12:25PM (#618292) Homepage Journal

        Yes, it is. Fortunately there are multiple, entirely legal methods of removing said law.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 2) by dry on Friday January 05 2018, @05:58PM

          by dry (223) on Friday January 05 2018, @05:58PM (#618418) Journal

          Unluckily there is a flaw in democracies, namely that 51% can vote to remove rights from the 49%. This is why some countries have a bill of rights in their Constitutions. Unluckily, you can't list all the rights and some were never dreamed of being needed. I'd say that the idea that the government would ban hemp was never imagined and if it was, it may have been added to the bill of rights.