Posted on 02/16/2014 6:00:08 AM PST by Libloather
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) says the Treasury Department is overstepping its bounds with a memo outlining how banks can provide services for businesses selling marijuana.
Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said it’s illegal for banks to deal with marijuana sale proceeds, and that only Congress can change those laws.
“The administration can’t change the law with a memo,” he said in a statement released late on Friday. “While the Justice Department’s memo tries to guide prosecutorial discretion, that discretion shouldn’t be used to facilitate illegal conduct.”
Grassley said the Justice Department was encouraging an “improper use of prosecutorial discretion,” and tied it to the more general GOP criticism that the administration is seeking to do too much with executive authority.
“This is just one more area in which the Obama administration is undermining our system of checks and balances and the rule of law,” he said.
Marijuana is officially a Schedule 1 substance in the eyes of the federal government, but medical pot is legal in 20 states and the District of Columbia. In Colorado and Washington, it is legal to buy, sell and use marijuana for recreational purposes.
The Obama administration has taken a hands-off approach to those state laws, and pledged not to interfere. Last summer, the Justice Department issued a memo advising prosecutors to prioritize keeping childen safe and other goals, instead of cracking down on low-level drug busts.
Still, banks have been reluctant to get involved with marijuana dispensaries and other businesses. They have expressed concern that serving those companies could open them up to federal prosecution for money laundering.
On Friday, the Treasury Department issued guidelines allowing banks to do business with companies that sell marijuana, so long as they make sure that the businesses have the proper state licenses.
Under the guidelines, banks are also told to watch out for suspicious behavior such as a business owners’ inability to show the correct paperwork or “cash that smells like marijuana” from someone trying to hide their weed business.
President Obama has admitted that he personally smoked pot as a kid and said in a recent interview that the drug was akin to smoking cigarettes.
“Odumbo can’t change the law”?.............Somebody better damn soon wake up as odumbo is changing our laws every day and making many more of his own. Who’s going to stop him and when is the question we all should be asking.
When and if, FRiend. When and if. It sure didn’t work out that way in Virginia.
The GOP faction of the uniparty seems to be counting on electoral victory this coming November. And they base that on what? The great dislike for dear leader? That doesn’t mean that there is any great love for the GOP. I’d argue quite the contrary; if the GOP faction doesn’t offer something clearly better, then it’s own base will just stay home.
As far as I’m personally concerned, there is no strong conservative running in November and unless there is, I see no point in taking time out of my day.
Maybe that's why he was lying about leaving medical marijuana alone.
Feds bust one medical marijuana collective in Olympia Wednesday
DEA agents did not make any arrests during the raid, Lee said. They also left his computers alone, he said.
Perhaps his competitors made the proper campaign contributions, and he didn't.
There is money to be made here. The trial lawyers garnered huge monetary fees for their services. The big and bad tobacco companies “knew or should have known” that their product, when inhaled or ingested wreaked havoc on your health. Now this administration wants to legitimize marijuana while simultaneously decrying the use of tobacco products and its users?
No mention of marijuana as a carcinogen?
No mention of marijuana in terms of adverse effects of second hand smoke?
No mention of marijuana as a mind altering illegal substance?
No mention of marijuana as a “gateway drug” leading to further addiction to other mind altering substances?
No mention of marijuana in terms of how much money there is to be made, by the trial lawyers, when the manufacturers “knew or should have known” the deleterious effects of inhaling or ingesting their products?
The war on tobacco was not about health, it was about money, otherwise all tobacco products would have been taken off the shelves by now. Now we are legitimately replacing tobacco products (not a mind altering product) with a product that is exponentially worse?
What are they smoking in the CHOOM GANG!?
We had a good run indeed!
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/huge-law-fees-tobacco-lawsuits
Hahahahaha, he can do anything he wants and has done so for the past 5 to 52 years and will continue to until the entire Congress stands up to prez Stompy Feet.
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