Law Enforcement Backs Sessions’s Ending of Hands-Off Approach to Marijuana

freebeacon ^ | January 7, 2018 | Charles Fain Lehman

[MarvinStinson]

Cite car accidents, opioid epidemic, rule of law as reasons for support

Law enforcement and prosecutor organizations gave their support to Attorney General Jeff Sessions's Thursday decision to rescind Obama-era guidance which discouraged prosecutors from enforcing the federal laws against marijuana in states which had legalized the drug.

Sessions's guidance most prominently overturned a 2013 memo from then-Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole. Issued in the wake of marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington state, the memo instructed U.S. Attorneys to not enforce marijuana's schedule I status in states where its recreational consumption had been legalized and regulated.

In its place, Sessions's new guidance simply instructs prosecutors to "follow the well-established principles that govern all federal prosecutions."

Law enforcement officials applauded Sessions' move.

"We applaud the Attorney General for this action today that brings clarity on enforcement of the law by rescinding a confusing policy brought on by the previous administration that hindered law enforcement. This will allow sheriffs to carry out their mission of upholding the rule of law and keeping their communities safe," said National Sheriffs' Association President Harold Eavenson and Executive Director Jonathan Thompson in a statement.

Chuck Canterbury, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said, "The Attorney General's announcement is good news for public safety and public health," Canterbury said. "There will be no Federal agents chasing individual users—but it will give law enforcement the discretion it lost when the Cole Memo was issued."

Canterbury was one among a number of law enforcement officials who claimed that state-level marijuana legalization had an adverse impact on public safety, pointing to increases in marijuana-related traffic fatalities.

"This experiment of giving cover to drug dealers has had fatal consequences. When marijuana was ‘legalized' in Colorado, traffic-related deaths due to marijuana rose from 13% to 20%. This is costing people their lives," he said.

"Drug-related deaths currently exceed motor vehicle deaths, and while some states have taken steps to change the legal status of marijuana, the substance's illegality remains federal law," noted Nathan Catura, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association.

Bob Bushman, president of the National Narcotic Officers' Associations' Coalition, said enforcement was especially important given the nation's increasingly deadly opioid epidemic.

"Given the current drug epidemic facing our country that is resulting in so much addiction and so many drug poisoning deaths," said Bushman, "we should be doing everything we can to discourage and curb illegal drug use. That includes marijuana."

The President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis concluded in its report that "there is a lack of sophisticated outcome data on dose, potency, and abuse potential for marijuana."

Law enforcement also voiced support for Session's general commitment to enforcing laws as written, rather than encouraging rulemaking through overbroad prosecutorial discretion. The National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys made that case in its press release, calling for prosecutorial deference to the "rule of law."

"NAAUSA's position is that the debate over whether or not to legalize marijuana should occur in the halls of Congress and not in the halls of the Department of Justice," the release read. "Accordingly, NAAUSA believes that the Attorney General's recent action with regard to marijuana enforcement is consistent with this strongly held principle that prosecutors should follow the Rule of Law as enacted by the Congress."

The A.G.'s order was condemned by pro-marijuana legalization organizations like the National Association for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

Sheriff Grady Judd, vice president of the Major County Sheriff's of America, specifically targeted such objections in his praise for the order.

"The push across the nation by organizations like NORML to legalize marijuana under the guise of helping the sick has caused black market sales of so-called legal pot to proliferate in this nation, and it has given a greater and easier access of the drug to our country's most precious resource—our children," Grady said. "I commend President Trump and Attorney General Sessions for their leadership and action in repealing the Cole Memo."

[edzo4]

I don’t know ask one?

[edzo4]

Wow you are so clever,look at me look at me I call them names do you think I’m cool now?

[yldstrk]

Yes, in point of fact. There is nothing inherently illegal, it has to be legislated so.

[yldstrk]

We already have more people incarcerated than most countries, we don’t need more, they just become worse.

[Vision Thing]

Wreck-creational pot. Wreck-creational heroin. Because according to the social liberals, the freeflow of drugs is the ultimate fulfilmemt of the Constitution and the only reason the Constitution was ever enacted in the first place.

[lilypad]

Or maybe treat marijuana like cigarettes? Even after marijuana was legalized the underground sales that went on around us was staggering in the little town in Colorado. And then the marijuana wasn’t good enough so in came heroin and tar. A parole officer out there told us that’s what happened. Got out sold our house.

[yldstrk]

Bingo!

[BlackAdderess]

Then they need to change the law. Building a bunch of businesses off of the legal ground offered by a fricking letter signed by the “king” was a stupid thing to do.

[Larry Lucido]

Law enforcement Politicians, union leaders and appointed government officials with special interests

Fixed it.

[Vision Thing]

And Team Pothead is not a special interest. Wrong.

The WeedWeakling movement is the furthest thing from promoting the general welfare. Instead, it only benefits the PotPimps™ and the taxers. It weakens and burdens everyone else.

The WeedWeakling movement promotes the specific welfare of the few against the general welfare of the country.

[edzo4]

Sorry I’m not a pearl clutching dinosaur like you. I’m Less concerned that the citizens of CA voted to make a state law making pot legal than the state just arbitrarily decided to ignore immigration law.

But what was it like to be involved in the temperance movement?

[trebb]

Sessions pushing the system into its proper realm - despite those who are upset with him.

[edzo4]

Yeah California and:

Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada (also Washington, DC)

States with Marijuana Decriminalization (14): Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont

States with Medical Marijuana Legalization (30): Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia (also, Washington, DC)

Legalization - CBD Oil Only (16): Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

Hemp Legalization (29): California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington

I'm Curious do dinosaurs know when they ate dinosaurs?

[BlackAdderess]

I guess being called a “dinosaur” is fair, I did say that using the legal authority of a letter was “stupid,” which it is BTW, though there was probably a less blunt way to put that. The immigration law thing is similar to the pot thing. We have laws because that is the most equitable and sane way of handling these issues that we’ve got.

It seems likely that either the Congress will have to address the pot issue or else a SCOTUS decision will do so. The California-ing of the whole rest of the country by the Obama administration only served to devastate the economy of the rest of the country and to p*ss lots of people off.

Personally, I have lobbied (successfully) for the decriminalization of pot. Basically, the only way people will be arrested locally is if they make a total nuisance of themselves. There are no large-scale pot growing enterprises to attract Federal scrutiny, and it would be a costly waste of Federal resources to come into our community and start chasing down all of our local stoners. I mean, if they want to donate law enforcement services to my community, I’m sure the local taxpayers won’t complain, but it seems like a no-win for the Feds ;)

[Wolfie]

Alternate title: Union Members Back Job Security Through ‘Make Work’ Program.

[MarvinStinson]

I’m curious.

Does pot advocate edzo know know that George Soros bankrolled everything mentioned in that post?

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

Bingo!

The cops can confiscate cash and property from innocent citizens through asset forfeiture under the guise of enforcing the drug laws. Can’t have anything interfere with that.

[edzo4]

I agree, I think it should be a state issue and the feds have bigger fish to fry, also I don’t remember any of the muliple posts on FR for the last year against talking about how crummy a job sessions was doing having any comments about how they wished he would go after California and Colorado for legal weed, Jeff must be thrilled with all the freepers that are apparently back in bed with Jeffy.

[edzo4]

Just go to democrat underground replace “Soros” with “Koch brothers” in all your posts and you’ll fit right In With all those conspiracy nutjobs.

[vooch]

interesting that the bureaucrats who advocate for the war on drugs never have their motives questioned in the media.

The Union officials and their ilk would be out of a cushy gig if drugs were decriminalized.

To repeat - the drug war has not reduced drug additiction one tiny bit.