AG Jeff Sessions' passion against legalized pot (recreational or medicinal) is well documented. Folk have been expecting dire, direct against against states which have legalized one or both kinds since he was appointed, but — aside from asking Congress pretty-please to let him spend money against states that have medical marijuana laws — he's been pretty inactive.
But he's been getting some good (if possibly reluctant) advice from his justice department — go slow and make the case before launching any new initiatives. So he's reached out to the governors of states with liberal pot laws (such as Colorado), asking them how they are dealing with "problems" regarding people trying to export legal pot to states where it is not legal, kids illegally getting access to legal pot, and people illegally driving whilst intoxicated.
The clear idea is that if the states can't show that they are stopping all of those problems, then the feds will be justified in stepping in. That might be its own interesting argument — the stats I've seen have indicated while those things are happening, they are not happening in any significant, newsworthy fashion. I've actually read some material showing that youth pot use is down (having lost its Forbidden Fruit status), but I would need to do more research to be able to speak definitively on the matter.
I don't approve of underage drug use, or DWI, or even exporting materials to states where those materials are illegal. The question of when those become a significant enough problem (in numbers or impact) to warrant draconian and undemocratic measures that we know are costly and frequently unjust, is a lot more nuanced, and something I don't expect Mr Sessions to be a particularly neutral party in judging.
Sessions raises “serious questions” about Colorado’s marijuana management in letter to gov
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is questioning the efficacy of marijuana regulatory structures in Colorado in a letter to Gov. John Hickenlooper obtained by The Cannabist.
Best one yet Mr. Hill. Marijuana is not the Boogeyman.
Indeed, that's a legal dispute calling for putting researched figures on claimed costs and benefits of policies and non-policies. Trump and team seem to me to typically illustrate John McCarthy's quip that "He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense"
Will the Feds step in when kids are illegally getting access to legal alcohol and people are illegally driving whilst intoxicated on alcohol?
+Scott Randel Of course not — alcohol isn't a gateway to LSD and Heroin and Opioids and Demon Rapist Mexican Crimelords. It's made by good ol' boys out in the back woods.
The first paragraph needs a proof-read… 😉
+Simon B Well, it's technically correct, I think, but not the smoothest-written thing I've ever posted. Unless I've missed something again.
Spinning in circles as a kid in your yard is the true gateway drug.