{"id":7295,"date":"2017-03-19T04:27:45","date_gmt":"2017-03-19T04:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/?p=5932"},"modified":"2017-03-19T04:27:45","modified_gmt":"2017-03-19T04:27:45","slug":"jeff-sessions-alternative-facts-on-marijuana-and-legalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/jeff-sessions-alternative-facts-on-marijuana-and-legalization\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Sessions\u2019 Alternative Facts On Marijuana And Legalization"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/jeff-sessions-alternative-facts-on-marijuana-and-legalization\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Attorney General Jeff Sessions became the second member of the Trump administration in less than a week to provide \u201calternative facts\u201d and backward analysis when it comes to marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, in a meeting with reporters, Sessions spoke out against marijuana legalization and implied that it\u2019s leading to more violence. \u201cI\u2019m dubious about marijuana. I\u2019m not sure we\u2019re going to be a better, healthier nation if we have marijuana sold at every corner grocery store.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Experts are telling me there&#8217;s more violence around marijuana than one would think,\u201d said Sessions. &#8220;You can&#8217;t sue somebody for a drug debt. The only way to get your money is through strong-arm tactics, and violence tends to follow that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, Sessions\u2019 comments are actually an argument for legalization. There is some violence associated with the illicit marijuana trade \u2013 but it\u2019s caused by prohibition and the absence of legal regulation, not the marijuana plant itself.<\/p>\n<p>Prohibiting marijuana is what makes it worth so much money. And there\u2019s no legal mechanism for resolving disputes in the unregulated, multi-billion dollar marijuana trade \u2013 which inevitably leads to violence. When we had alcohol prohibition, we had Al Capone and shootouts in the street.<\/p>\n<p>Now that alcohol is legal, no one is murdered over a beer deal gone wrong. Likewise, the eight states that have approved legal regulation of marijuana are taking profits away from the illicit market and reducing the violence associated with it. <\/p>\n<p>Those states have also created tens of thousands of tax-paying jobs, added hundreds of millions of dollars in state revenue, implemented rigorous oversight of marijuana production and distribution, and drastically reduced marijuana arrests, which have saddled tens of millions of people \u2013 disproportionately Black and Latino \u2013 with criminal records. At the same time, marijuana legalization has not led to more youth marijuana use, traffic fatalities, or crime. (For more on this, see the Drug Policy Alliance\u2019s latest status report on marijuana legalization.)<\/p>\n<p>Sessions\u2019 statements follow Press Secretary Sean Spicer\u2019s comments last week indicating that the Justice Department will crack down on legal regulation of marijuana. When asked about whether the federal government will take action in states that have legalized marijuana, Spicer replied, \u201cI do think you\u2019ll see greater enforcement. The Department of Justice, I think, will be further looking into [the issue]. I believe they are going to continue to enforce the laws on the books with respect to recreational marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spicer also provided a stunningly ass-backwards analysis when he implied that legalizing marijuana was contributing to our country\u2019s opioid problem. \u201cWhen you see something like the opioid addiction crisis blossoming in so many states around this country, the last thing we should be doing is encouraging people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As it turns out, the notion of marijuana as a \u201cgateway\u201d to other illicit drugs has been rejected by the National Academy of Sciences\u2019 Institute of Medicine. Legally regulating marijuana separates it from markets in other illegal drugs. And ample evidence shows that people are substituting marijuana for opioids to manage different types of pain, with remarkably lower rates of fatal overdose in states that allow medical marijuana. (For more on this, check out DPA\u2019s fact sheet on marijuana and opiates.)<\/p>\n<p>Sessions and Spicer are out of step with the American public when it comes to marijuana policy. A poll last week found that a majority \u2013 59 percent \u2013 of U.S. voters believe that marijuana use should be made legal in the U.S. Even more importantly, 71 percent agree the government should not enforce federal laws against marijuana in states that decide to legally regulate marijuana \u2013 including a majority of Republicans and older voters.<\/p>\n<p>Sessions and Spicer should remember what their boss said on the campaign trail: \u201cIn terms of marijuana legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/jeff-sessions-alternative-facts-on-marijuana-and-legalization.jpeg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p>News Moderator: Katelyn Baker <a href=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\" target=\"_blank\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a><br \/>\nFull Article: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.drugpolicy.org\/blog\/jeff-sessions-adds-trump-administrations-alternative-facts-marijuana-and-legalization\" target=\"_blank\">Jeff Sessions&#8217; &#8220;Alternative Facts&#8221; On Marijuana And Legalization<\/a><br \/>\nAuthor: Tony Newman<br \/>\nContact: <a href=\"https:\/\/engage.drugpolicy.org\/secure\/contact-us?_ga=1.69871824.1385427034.1486745123\" target=\"_blank\">Drug Policy Alliance<\/a><br \/>\nPhoto Credit: Bill Clark<br \/>\nWebsite: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.drugpolicy.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Drug Policy Alliance<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Attorney General Jeff Sessions became the second member of the Trump administration in less than a week to provide \u201calternative&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/2017\/03\/jeff-sessions-alternative-facts-marijuana-legalization\/\" class=\"read-more\">[Read More]<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2329,9,1,3],"tags":[4896],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}