Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Congress To Give Jeff Sessions More Power To Ban Whatever Substance He Doesn't Like
libertyblitzkrieg.com ^ | 21jun18 | Michael Krieger

Posted on 06/23/2018 9:00:01 PM PDT by vannrox

Authored by Michael Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

Allowing government to arbitrarily determine which substances human beings can put into their own bodies is one of the most idiotic things a society can do. As such, its no surprise Congress is salivating at the prospect of furthering this travesty by giving additional discretion on the matter to drug war-crazed loon, Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Reason published an excellent article on the topic in yesterday’s piece: Congress Wants To Give Jeff Sessions Unprecedented New Drug War Powers.

Here are some key excerpts:

If you think the Department of Justice has more than enough tools to wage the war on drugs, a bill passed by the House would create a fast-track scheduling system that could lead to the criminalization of kratom, nootropics, and pretty much anything that gives you a buzz and isn’t already illegal.

The House of Representatives voted on Friday to create a new schedule of banned drugs under the Controlled Substances Act, called “Schedule A,” and to give Attorney General Jeff Sessions broad new powers to criminalize the manufacturing, importation, and sale of substances that are currently unregulated, but not illegal. The bill is now headed to the Senate, where co-sponsors Dianne Feinstein (D–Calif.) and Chuck Grassley (R–Iowa) will likely have little problem whipping votes.

The Stop the Importation and Trafficking of Synthetic Analogs Act, or SITSA, is intended to crack down on drugs that closely resemble currently banned or regulated substances in either their chemical structure or intended effects. SITSA would also empower the attorney general (A.G.) to add drugs to this new schedule with few checks from other branches of government...

While Department of Justice (DOJ) complaints about analogs aren’t new, the rise of fentanyl analogs have inspired Congress to act more aggressively and clumsily than usual. The Senate version of SITSA introduced by Feinstein and Grassley gives the attorney general unilateral and unchecked power to add a substance to Schedule A. It contains no congressional review provision and vests no authority in the Department of Health and Human Services to challenge the DOJ’s scheduling decision.

When SITSA came up for a vote in the House, the House Liberty Caucus released a statement condemning the decision to “cede more of Congress’s legislative authority to the Attorney General and grant the AG more power to fight the war on drugs, which has eroded federalism, eviscerated numerous individual rights, entrenched severe discrimination in our criminal justice system, and failed to meaningfully limit the proliferation of illicit drugs”...

Fans of the herbal opioid remedy kratom have expressed concerns about SITSA, as have nootropic users and research chemical enthusiasts. The combined vagueness and broadness of this bill should worry all of them. While the immediate justification for the bill is fentanyl, the legislation is so much broader than that. Were coffee and booze not historically entrenched in our culture, this bill would absolutely allow the DOJ to add both caffeine (as a stimulant) and alcohol (as a sedative) to Schedule A of the Controlled Substances Act.

Two major points I want to make on this beyond the obvious.

First, the failed drug war perfectly demonstrates why most things should be decided at the state/local level. Since Colorado and Washington led the charge in 2012, seven other states (plus D.C.) have legalized recreational cannabis. All the while, Congress has been an absolute zero on the topic, and is now trying to make the situation worse and more arbitrary with this crazy SITSA bill.

Second, I’m sure you noticed senior Democrat Dianne Feinstein is a leading sponsor of this nonsense in the Senate. It’s good to know Jeff Sessions is so terrible (and he is) that some Democrats are working tirelessly to empower him in yet another irresponsible way.

Drumpf's crazy. A maniac. Horrible. Hates children. Let's give him a massively bigger military budget to attack more people who haven't attacked us.

Sessions is awful. Horible. The worst. Let's give him more power to put people in jail for using things less dangerous than booze — Rudolf E. Havenstein (@RudyHavenstein) June 21, 2018

You can't trust Trump. He's a Nazi. Let's give him more massive surveillance powers. — Rudolf E. Havenstein (@RudyHavenstein) June 21, 2018

Welcome to “The Resistance™”

*  *  *



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ban; drug; jeffsessions; liberty; sessons
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-31 next last

1 posted on 06/23/2018 9:00:01 PM PDT by vannrox
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: vannrox

After Trump signs the legalization of recreational pot, 2020 will be a 40-state romp.


2 posted on 06/23/2018 9:01:23 PM PDT by montag813
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vannrox

Can we have Mueller and Rosenstein declared “controlled substances”? Then Sessions could ban them.


3 posted on 06/23/2018 9:02:14 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vannrox

sessions is so high hillary is not in prison


4 posted on 06/23/2018 9:05:19 PM PDT by morphing libertarian ( Build Kate's Wall)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: montag813

We’ll be saying to each other “What happened to the Keebler elf?”


5 posted on 06/23/2018 9:06:31 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: vannrox

“Designer drugs” should be at as much risk as nature’s.
Sessions is a good man and I trust him. Others, however. would likely be poliitically influenced.
Not an easy amswer to attempts to addict here.


6 posted on 06/23/2018 9:06:36 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vannrox
Allowing government to arbitrarily determine which substances human beings can put into their own bodies is one of the most idiotic things a society can do.

In principle I don't argue with that, but if to uphold that notion is to render wrongheaded the institution of making medical drugs available by prescription only. Which might or might not be a good thing.

7 posted on 06/23/2018 9:15:37 PM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vannrox
arbitrarily determine which substances human beings can put into their own bodies

The problem arises when you bring your own body to the emergency room after experimenting with bath salts.

8 posted on 06/23/2018 9:18:38 PM PDT by oldbrowser (Trump is our avatar.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ProtectOurFreedom

“Can we have Mueller and Rosenstein declared “controlled substances”? Then Sessions could ban them.”

Hilarious.


9 posted on 06/23/2018 9:20:49 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: vannrox
Congress To Give Jeff Sessions More Power To Ban Whatever Substance He Doesn't Like

Well so much for testosterone, that'll be first on his list.

10 posted on 06/23/2018 9:33:47 PM PDT by pepsi_junkie (Russians couldnt have done a better job destroying sacred American institutions than Democrats have)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vannrox

A little off topic, but just a little. “Cool Fact” daily in my newspaper- today’s is: Ferret means “little thief” and a group of them is called a “Business”.


11 posted on 06/23/2018 9:39:50 PM PDT by Mark (Celebrities... is there anything they do not know? -Homer Simpson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vannrox
In before the Sessions bashing.

Mr. Magoo

The Keebler Elf

Granny from Beverly Hillbillies (My favorite)

12 posted on 06/23/2018 9:42:17 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Democracy: The cliff's edge of Marxism)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #13 Removed by Moderator

To: vannrox

Just my opinion but it’s looking like Sessions is about to ABRUPTLY run out of road.


14 posted on 06/23/2018 10:01:41 PM PDT by VideoDoctor
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mark

A “business” — that’s a new one. Who comes up with these?

Do you know what a group of Pelicans is called?


15 posted on 06/23/2018 11:26:22 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: montag813

For Trump to sign something like that, it’d have to pass the house and the senate. Since not even house members of the large states which has legalized the recreational use have even proposed legalization on the federal level, I sincerely doubt that Trump will be signing anything like that before 2020.

Honestly, I really expect this to go through SCOTUS and for them to find for the states. SCOTUS, writing legislation that congress is afraid to do...


16 posted on 06/23/2018 11:56:24 PM PDT by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: vannrox

**to arbitrarily determine which substances human beings can put into their own bodies**

go ahead. Kill the eels. Meanies. :p

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/21/cocaine-in-rivers-harming-endangered-eels-study-finds


17 posted on 06/24/2018 2:18:42 AM PDT by blueplum ( "...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vannrox
Parents give their kids a toy to keep them distracted - don't they?

Watch the little tick-tock and don't pay
attention to those FBI and DOJ criminals


18 posted on 06/24/2018 3:36:51 AM PDT by Vlad The Inhaler ( Liberals love all mankind without reservation. Except those who don't agree with them 100%.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vannrox
And next, we'll elect a Mormon …

...better stock up on Diet Coke and tea.

19 posted on 06/24/2018 3:37:57 AM PDT by sphinx
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sphinx

And coffee!

And that’s funny right there! Ha!


20 posted on 06/24/2018 3:44:44 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-31 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson