The gilded bubble on the Potomac – Washington, D.C. – is abuzz about the Department of Justice Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions leads the Task Force. It is expected to release a report next week.
And some marijuana advocates worry it could bring bad news.
Here’s why: AG Sessions hates marijuana the way a vampire hates holy water. And the cannabis community fears he’ll use that report to link marijuana to violent crime.
Sessions is already on the warpath. In May, he sent congressional leaders a letter. In it, he asked them to do away with an amendment to the Justice Department budget.
That 2014 amendment prohibits the DOJ from using federal funds to prevent states “from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana.”
In his letter, Sessions wrote: “I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime.”
Congress politely ignored Sessions on that one. Maybe they think he’s full of cabbage. Maybe because their own states are telling them otherwise. (I’ll get to that in a bit.)
First, let’s establish that what Jeff Sessions believes about marijuana is simply wrong. Study after study shows that legal marijuana does not increase violent crime.
In fact, a well-regulated industry can instead decrease crime rates by curtailing black-market cartels.
That’s according to wide list of sources that includes the states of Colorado, Oregon and Washington, plus the FB Freaking I. And other independent reports.
Sure, there are reports that say the opposite. Funny how you’ll find those reports funded by groups that want marijuana to stay illegal. Maybe so they can keep shoving addictive, deadly, EXPENSIVE drugs down the throats of desperate Americans.
Some 33,000 Americans died in 2015 from overdosing on prescription painkillers, heroin or similar drugs.
Do you know how many people died from marijuana overdoses during that time? ZERO!
Despite the facts, Sessions has fallen for that malarkey hook, line and sinker. And that’s why the cannabis community is afraid of the fallout for both recreational and medical marijuana.
The federal prohibition on marijuana already drags on the full social and economic benefits of legal cannabis. It keeps businesses from accessing basic banking services. Some businesses must deal entirely in cash.
Despite that, business is booming. Nevada is looking at $100 million just in marijuana tax revenue this year. Previously, the state faced a $40 million shortfall.
In Colorado, the state has harvested some $506 million in tax revenue since retail sales began in 2014. That’s more than half a billion dollars.
And that brings me to the real reason why Sessions’ ham-handed attempts to crack down on marijuana will fail …
States need the money.
Here’s a fun fact: A whopping 33 U.S. states reported they have collected fewer taxes than they projected for their budgets in 2017. That’s according to the National Association of State Budget Officers.
This is the most states reporting budget shortfalls since the Great Recession. It also marks two years in a row when the majority of states aren’t meeting their budgets.
Of the states falling short, at least 23 made budget cuts to get through the rest of this year.
Yet here are Nevada and Colorado, all tra-la-la with boatloads of marijuana tax money.
Others are following.
Alaska just legalized sales of recreational marijuana in October. California, Maine, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., have also legalized recreational marijuana. But those states’ retail sales have not begun.
On the other hand, medical marijuana is already legal in 29 states.
So that’s 29 out of 50 states that say AG Sessions is on the wrong side of history. 29 so far. At a time when President Trump needs all the allies he can get.
And that’s why any crackpot anti-cannabis recommendations he comes up with in his Crime Reduction Task Force should splatter on arrival.
Sessions may not be long for his job, anyway. President Trump has ripped the attorney general in recent tweets for being weak on Hillary Clinton.
And on Tuesday, new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci dropped a bombshell. He said it is “probably” correct that President Trump wants Sessions gone.
Sessions says he doesn’t plan to quit. But if he’s fired, that will be a big weight off marijuana stocks. That might fuel a ripper of a rally.
Position yourself ahead of that. Marijuana stocks are already bouncing off recent lows. It won’t be long until they set their sights on new highs.
All the best,
Sean Brodrick
Arthibodeau August 2, 2017
The fed has no wright to write state statutes. Sessions will be history
And let the green flow freely
As the populis will invariably
Puff it up
Jim August 1, 2017
If i were the governor of a state using it’s sovereignty to conduct business, i would tell the sawed-off creep that if ONE business was raided by slime from the DEA or any other Federal Agency, i would arrest every one of them and hold them until Sessions HIMSELF came to the lockup and bailed them out with CASH. Enough of this corrupt bunch of Maia-types running rampant.
Peter Last July 29, 2017
Lucky Americans. The UK government is scared of legalizing the weed even though several cabinet ministers
have previously admitted to using it. Anyway I have it on good information that over 50% of violent crimes are carried out
by thugs known to have eaten bread in the last 24 hours. Why not ban bread eating forthwith and send all known eaters to prison for a very long time.
nick July 28, 2017
Sean, I have to disagree.Recreational pot leads to more harmful drugs. As a former school teacher, I have seen what it can do.High school students get started this way. Medical pot maybe a good thing but not recreational. I know your main interest is making money and as a Real Wealth customer I am asking that you reconsider this idea. The states will just have to get a long with new taxes. Mass. politicians will just find other ways to spend this great new money source. It will never do any good here.
Robert Schubring July 26, 2017
Full legalization of cannabis would result in better pain management, as cannabis is an anxiolytic agent and a secondary muscle relaxant. Folks who suffer severe non-cancer pain, from muscle and joint ailments, often get pain flareups due to anxiety and muscle tension. The opioid drugs relieve pain directly, and the cannabinoid drugs relieve anxiety and tension. Under present law, the patient must make the choice of whether to see a doctor and get opioids for pain, and possibly a benzodiazepine tranquilizer for anxiety, or get cannabis from a cannabis doctor. Those patients who would benefit most from a proper dose of both classes of drug, can wait until 2018 and emigrate to Canada, or can suffer on one or the other.
Both cannabis and opioids became regulated in this country, because of DW Griffiths’ racist movie, “Birth of a Nation”, which in 1915 advocated the concept that African Americans cannot control themselves when on drugs. To solve the racism problem that underlies the entire drug problem in the US, it’s necessary to address the fact, that illegal drugs became illegal, because racists needed a way to legitimize the political terrorism by which they had seized control of Southern states in the 1876 elections.
DW Griffiths’ hateful images of a drug-crazed Black actor preparing to rape a white woman, did the trick. His movie created just enough doubt in the North, that anti-Black laws got passed on the federal level.
It’s important to understand the intimate linkage between racism and anti-drug propaganda, to see the scam being played on us about the opioids.
There is no medical reason why cannabinoids are “better” or “worse” than opioids.
They each serve different functions.
Our bodies naturally contain both of these substances.
Cannabinoids appear to regulate how myelin insulation is installed inside the brain, preventing electrical interference from leading to seizures.
Opioids exist in every cell of the body, in the mitochondria that metabolize food to provide us with energy. A chemical reaction between nitric oxide and morphine, tells mitochondria when to produce more energy, and when to produce less.
Understanding that both these substances exist within us, naturally, gives us needed rationality, in dealing with the fear-mongering racists who prohibited the sap of the poppy flower and the sap of the hemp flower, from their long-standing use in medicine.
Sean Brodrick July 28, 2017
You really bring some excellent historical context to the conversation, Robert. Thanks for sharing.
Best,
Sean
Lonnie July 26, 2017
There has never been a war on drugs. It has always been a war on the American people. To say Marijuana is a Class 3 narcotic makes you an ignorant fool. Read the facts or requirements to be a class 3 narcotic, pot is not even close.