Trump Administration Expected to Announce Marijuana Crackdown, Possibly Link Usage to Violent Crimes
Attorney General Previously Called Marijuana Usage ‘Slightly Less Awful’ Than Using Heroin
Donald Trump’s Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety, led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is expected to announce its crackdown on marijuana usage next week.
As The Hill reported, the expected crackdown is one 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.”
They further cited a memo that Sessions sent to U.S. Attorneys and component heads on the work of the task force at the Department of Justice (DOJ), which requested review of “existing policies in the areas of charging, sentencing, and marijuana to ensure consistency with the Department’s overall strategy in reducing violent crime with the Administration goals and priorities.”
“The task force revolves around reducing violent crime and Sessions and other DOJ officials have been out there over the last month and explicitely the last couple of weeks talking about how immigration and marijuana increases violent crime,” Inimai Chettiar, director of the Bennan Center’s Justice Program told the outlet.
“Our attorney general is giving everyone whiplash by trying to take us back to the 1960s,” California Democratic Representative Jared Huffman recently told The New York Times.
In March, Sessions called marijuana usage a “life-wrecking crisis,” calling it “only slightly less awful” than using heroin:
“I reject the idea that America will be a better place if marijuana is sold in every corner store,” the Attorney General said. “And I am astonished to hear people suggest that we can solve our heroin crisis by legalizing marijuana – so people can trade one life-wrecking dependency for another that’s only slightly less awful.”
Mirroring these assertions, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced last August that it would not reschedule its classification of marijuana under the Controlled Substance Act, keeping the drug in the same class as heroin despite a majority of Americans favoring its legal use.
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Filed under: General Problems
The large majority of people believe that the federal mj ban should be lifted. Over half of the states have now voted for mmj (along with a few which also voted for it to become available recreationally). How in the HELL this government can justify going after a substance that 1) is a natural botanical; 2) most of the voters wish to be available; 3) is not dangerous to the human body (depending upon how it’s ingested though I’m not even sure on that one); 4) can help alleviate some types of physical pain, along with nausea associated with diseases or treatments of diseases …. This is truly an abuse of power. I’m convinced they have just about ran out of opioid prescribing doctors to harass, so now they need to move onto mj and mmj for the profit of snagging assets. I’m starting to question why we even waste time to vote anymore. If only George Orwell knew that 1984 would become alive and well in America …
These people are apparently just ignorant. My Physical Therapist tells me that the older generation must die before cannabis will ever be legalized. Apparently, the will of the people means nothing.
now wait a minute,,Im older,,52,,,,and I believe in medical/personal use of ALLLLL MEDICINAL PLANTS,,, in their natural form,,,,not just pot,,coca,,poppy,and the marijuana plant,,,or,,,any plant in nature cannot be illegalized,,,,ever,,,,,,,maryw
When any government agency does not listen to the ,”will” of the people,,,they are abuseing their ,”just”,, power derived from the governed,,,Archaic,,,but in a position of power,,and abuseing that power,,,we’ve seen what it is doing to the medically ill,,,,its killing us,,,,literally..U know other countries are no-longer taking thee punishment ,,/crimnal stance on people who take marijuana for recreational use,,,,and its working,,,,,Until someone defunds ,or strips the dea of its power,,,they will continue to abuse it,,,,,jmo,,maryw