Trump's DOJ gears up for crackdown on marijuana

originally posted by: Tranceopticalinclined
I still stand by my thought that Trump is saving weed national legalization for a popularity move.

It's too perfect to not be by design, that the nations 1st billionaire president has now the ability and DATA to utilize the tax revenue from weed legalization for a plethora of needs our country has.

Seems to me that instead of starting a war to make money, we can for once, end one to make money!

I think that as well, all this is just to stir the pot a bit, then regulate the hell out of it, for tax dollars. Opening up for big tobacco to swoop in and get a piece. Perfect for the late 3rd or early 4th year

a reply to: dreamingawake

The ol' two party collaborative bait and switch.
Free it up under Obama, then snag em big time under Trump.

...it's a trap!

originally posted by: prevenge
a reply to: dreamingawake

The ol' two party collaborative bait and switch.
Free it up under Obama, then snag em big time under Trump.

...it's a trap!

More on that, the Cole Memo:

It suggests that while Sessions remains deeply skeptical of efforts to legalize recreational marijuana use, the Justice Department's actions on the issue are, for now, still dictated by the Cole Memo, an Obama-era document that lays out a policy of federal non-interference with state laws so long as public health and public safety are not threatened.

Sou rce

originally posted by: dreamingawake
Sessions sent a letter for Washington State as shared to the Washington State officials. He says a report raises serious questions about marijuana "regulatory structures" in the state. See more at washingtonpost ...sorry can't link at the moment.

“This report raises serious questions about the efficacy of marijuana 'regulatory structures' in your state,” Sessions concludes.

The Sou rce, more on it:

Sessions's letter acknowledges correspondence from Washington and other legal marijuana states, which characterize the Cole Memo as “indispensable” to those states' marijuana regulatory structures. Sessions then goes on to underscore the final sentence of the Cole Memo: “Nothing herein precludes investigation or prosecution, even in the absence of any one of the factors listed above, in particular circumstances where investigation and prosecution otherwise serves an important federal interest.”

Sessions then cites a litany of concerns about the outcomes of Washington's regulatory experiment, culled from a report by the Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), a federally funded drug task force. Those concerns include diversion of legal marijuana from Washington to other states, an increase in drivers testing positive for past marijuana use, and an increase in marijuana-related calls to the state's poison control center.

The letter suggests the Feds are serious on what's going on with the legal states.

Here's the issue brought up about that:

But Hudak has own concerns about the accuracy of data Sessions is relying on. Those reports are compiled solely by law enforcement authorities and are “notorious for cherry-picking data and failing to put data into context,” Hudak said. He points out that while the report was issued in 2016 it includes only data covering the first six months of Washington's commercial market, which opened midway through 2014.

Cherry-picking... and planting evidence in the case in Baltimore-see here-how many more cases?.

“We don't know, based on [the HIDTA] data, what Washington has done since then,” Hudak said. “The attorney general is drawing these grand conclusions based on incomplete data or data taken out of context.”