Please note that the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment is still technically protected until January 19th by Congress. Should Congress fail to enact a new spending bill and reinstate the Rohrbacker-Blumenauer Amendment, Sessions will be also be able to pursue medical cannabis.
In short… adult-use cannabis should be on high alert for now, medical cannabis is still protected.
Personally, I hate this kind of irresponsible behavior from politicians and officials. An industry that is employing many people and providing hope and inspiration to countless others is being targeted despite overwhelming popular support. This instability makes it very difficult to operate legally.
Its not a huge surprise from Sessions.I feel that all the current administration is doing is dismantling anything Obama touched, as opposed to trying to do some good. There are literally a thousand other things they should be concentrating on.
I am not surprised that Sessions is choosing this new year to pick on this part of the Obama “un-do” list. He is going to have to really push his heavy hitters to think that the 28 state senators, where legalization is allowed wont fight him and hard.
In this case, Money speaks loudly and these states are seeing and feeling the influx of positive cash flow to their states bottom line - the state senators are going to fight this tooth and nail.
This may be the backfire we need on sessions though, from an optimistic view it could become a battle for the Supreme Court to hear and they could repeal the initial restrictions and re-schedule it. It could happen…
I am in a dirty dancing mood right now and to me no one puts baby in the corner, the Cannabis industry will definitely not take kindly to this.
I genuinely don’t understand the desire to destroy everything Obama touched. It doesn’t do anything for your own personal legacy, just that they become the person who tried to destroy somebody else’s.
I’m freaking out a little bit. I think the industry as a whole will be fine- lawsuits can hold up til a blue wave can change things and there’s some bipartisan support to fix it in Congress right now, but I’m concerned about DC, where the gov’t isn’t making money off of it. Will they just roll over or let I-71 continue? Checking the Mayor’s twitter feed for a statement all day…
Trying to decide whether I should stay here or move to Western legal state like Nevada. Lease is up at the end of the month and was gonna stick around, just found a place yesterday. Now…?
“Obama sucks!” is, in my opinion, the only thing a lot of these guys have in common. Pence and Sessions are clearly “classic” conservatives more concerned with moral crusading than anything. I don’t see them having much in common with Trump or Bannon or the rest of that crew.
It still baffles me, though, as legal weed seems like a great revenue stream for red states that are generally not running a federal tax surplus. I feel like you’ve gotta be a real old-school moralist (like Sessions) to not see the obvious benefits of legalizing it.
That’s the thing. I don’t see it as a partisan issue at all. Veterans strongly want cannabis legalized. Many police organizations want it legalized. These groups aren’t known for being particularly left.
The tax revenue alone should have fiscal policymakers practically salivating.
I am not surprised by this move, but I actually think it will be a great thing in the long run. I hope this will force congress to change the classification. That is what truly needs to happen and I think this move will be the spark.
I hope…
That’s where the “Obama Sucks” thing comes in hahaha. It’s like the whole issue with Net Neutrality: people are overwhelmingly in favor of it, but it had to do with Obama and therefore, in the eyes of the current administration, it must be destroyed. I sure hope the one time politicians care more about policy than money isn’t when it comes to keeping weed illegal lol.
Doesn’t the most effective path to legalization involve removing the plant from schedule 1 status rather than relying on a memo directed at not enforcing such status?
Go back to the original “Marihuana Tax Act” of 1937, which the American Medical Association opposed. Or, go back even further and discover that the real reason for government control of this most useful plant was to eliminate competition for the robber barons and the corporate/financial takeover of government. See: The Marijuana Trick http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=3874
Not sure what the congressional makeup currently is as a number of them are leaving early. Besides, with an administrative agency (DEA) I believe Congress’ only control is via purse strings or a fundamental change to the authorization.
If you haven’t noticed, there is an internal war involving the deep state. Lots of sealed federal indictments (9,294 since Oct. 30th !!!) and unusual flight activity, including to a renovated Gitmo. So, I think the repeal of this memo is a strategic maneuver, which is not aimed at the legal cannabis industry at large. Enjoy the Show!
Some practical views from a former prosecutor. Looking at this in more detail, especially in light of Trump’ campaign comments on leaving the mmj issue up to the states, it appears to me that this recent move by the AG sets the issue up to be used as a lever for concessions from congress. We’ll see…