|
Any opinions/analysis on comments by soon-to-be-AG Jeff Sessions made yesterday? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...m=.3757d51250f2 Jeff Sessions posted:“I think one obvious concern is that the United States Congress has made the possession of marijuana in every state, and distribution of it, an illegal act,” he said. “So, if you need — if that’s something that’s not desired any longer, Congress should pass a law to change the rule. It’s not so much the attorney general’s job to decide what laws to enforce. We should do our job and enforce laws effectively as we’re able.” Should people in legalized states start worrying or is it too soon to tell?
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2017 18:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 15:40 |
|
|
That's an incredibly myopic view. He's correct but there's also prosecutorial discretion.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2017 22:15
|
|
|
Tab8715 posted:That's an incredibly myopic view. He's correct but there's also prosecutorial discretion. He spent the entire thing dodging giving any kind of opinion on laws he'd have to enforce.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2017 22:21
|
|
|
Jeff sessions is a giant gently caress here in Alabama and am shouldn't be near the power of literally any organization.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2017 23:36
|
|
|
Nevvy Z posted:He spent the entire thing dodging giving any kind of opinion on laws he'd have to enforce. He could start enforcing federal marijuana law but putting people in Federal Prison for a crime that perfectly legal in their own State will not play out well in court of Public Opinion. It's exactly why Obama and even Bush looked the other way.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2017 05:55
|
|
|
Tab8715 posted:He could start enforcing federal marijuana law but putting people in Federal Prison for a crime that perfectly legal in their own State will not play out well in court of Public Opinion. It's exactly why Obama and even Bush looked the other way. Other than, you know, Gonzales v Raich.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2017 05:59
|
|
|
GreyjoyBastard posted:Other than, you know, Gonzales v Raich. I stand corrected.
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2017 06:04
|
|
|
Cross posting with OP's permission from TCC:Abugadu posted:Guam's governor, a Republican, has begun pushing a full legalization bill.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2017 01:53
|
|
|
During the Trump inauguration, DCMJ (the folks I volunteered for who legalized weed in DC) handed out over 8000 joints to protestors. Pretty awesome event, I would imagine from the other side of the world. The news media cited one individual member who donated a half-pound of weed to the joint effort. Though that seems like a lot, note that DC allows people to grow weed but has zero provision for commercial sale, so if you're technically law-abiding you're going to be way over-supplied. Anecdotally, last time I passed through DC I had colleagues mention they had weed coming out their ears since they were growing the legal max of plants, and since you can only carry 2oz in public, for every pound of weed you need to (freely) get rid of you need to either have eight friends pick it up or make eight trips. So if you're law-abiding (and/or watched very carefully by MPD) giving away shitloads of weed is a viable option. https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/01/20/the-free-pot-handout-was-rocking-this-morning/  (The weird Smurf hat is a "Phrygian cap" which DC ganja-meister Adam Eidinger promotes as a symbol of resistance) TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 07:36 on Jan 23, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2017 07:12
|
|
|
 
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2017 07:17
|
|
|
Just an FYI: Republican state legislators have filed bills in 2017 for medical in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Missouri, South Carolina, Indiana, and Wisconsin. There are more state legislatures that are considering full legalization. I am pretty confident that cannabis will be rescheduled during the Trump administration. http://www.ibtimes.com/which-states-will-legalize-marijuana-next-list-east-coast-states-more-considering-2478799 https://www.mpp.org/states/key-marijuana-policy-reform/
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2017 17:44
|
|
|
Dmitri-9 posted:Just an FYI: Maybe it will feel like when the space race happened under Kennedy and Johnson but Nixon got the moon.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2017 07:21
|
|
|
Inspector Hound posted:Maybe it will feel like when the space race happened under Kennedy and Johnson but Nixon got the moon. "Only Nixon could go to China..."
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2017 08:03
|
|
|
Inspector Hound posted:Maybe it will feel like when the space race happened under Kennedy and Johnson but Nixon got the moon. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2017 08:59
|
|
|
Dmitri-9 posted:Just an FYI: Isn't trump heavily against drugs though? He keeps talking about drugs and crime among other things.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2017 10:21
|
|
|
The more I read up on cannabis history, the more it becomes evident we're at a real turning-point in cannabis history. The Wikipedia article Timeline of cannabis law is really interesting for this. You have a few sporadic pieces of anti-cannabis legislation popping up and down (mostly in the Islamic world and Indian Ocean sphere) for centuries, and only in the late 1800s do you start to see the more immediate predecessors of the current drug war, with anti-cannabis legislation in Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, Greece, Romania, etc. For basically the entire 20th century, the news is almost all bad with country after country banning cannabis. Some banned it due to early anti-drug moral panic, others just because other countries were doing it even if they'd barely heard of weed in their own country, then another spot of bans in the 1960s-1970s as youth culture spread the habit around, and at the end of the 20th century a few developing countries (Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, etc) grudgingly banned cannabis under US pressure. But then look at the 21st century, and it's basically non-stop loosenings of national-level (thus not the US yet) cannabis law, particularly in Europe and Latin America. And not shown in that list but evident with a perusal of Template: Cannabis by country it seems like the majority of countries in the world are at least having a serious debate about their cannabis laws, from South Africa to Georgia to Sri Lanka. Just to pick one recent example with interesting photos, in October 2016 Ukraine had a big pro-cannabis protest in Kiev, with a bunch of young folks coming out to demand cannabis reform. Police ended up having to get involved to limit the head-busting, since a number of counter-protestors also turned out, like these fine patriotic youths:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-marijuana.html I'm still betting on Italy to come over to the Netherlands-Spain-Portugal style of enforcement relatively soon, or if Catalonia secedes they should be in on the ground floor.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2017 03:25
|
|
|
As an odd aside, two rare examples of national-level cannabis laws *loosening* in the 20th century: - Burma legalized production and sale of cannabis in 1939 - Comoros legalized cannabis in 1975 after a communist coup, to better gain the support of revolutionary youth who apparently liked weed.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2017 01:50
|
|
|
TapTheForwardAssist posted:I'm still betting on Italy to come over to the Netherlands-Spain-Portugal style of enforcement relatively soon, or if Catalonia secedes they should be in on the ground floor. They're already in on the ground floor as part of Spain, no?
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2017 03:15
|
|
|
PT6A posted:They're already in on the ground floor as part of Spain, no? Spain is one of those "legal vacuum" tolerant places, it's not like Uruguay where it's literally explocitly legal. I'm just saying that if Catalonia secedes, given that it's the most weed-centric part of Spain I could see them reforming with fully-legal weed from the start.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2017 04:13
|
|
|
It occurred to me that I hadn't heard much in the way of updates out of Alaska in the last few years, so did a little googling. Stores are up and running, and Alaska just collected its first full month of pot taxes, pulling in $80k for the state for November. Lots of issues with supply, stores running out and shutting down for weeks, re-opening for days, etc. There are some crops coming in that are expected to alleviate this, and outside businessfolks offering to bankroll future crops for a cut, but once summer comes and tourist season picks up they expect further shortages as demand might skyrocket. Oh, and also a state rep is looking to ban any offering of discounts for active-duty military; while I agree that ADmil folks shouldn't be smoking weed per their contractual obligations, it seems an overstep to punish the *stores* for this. https://www.adn.com/alaska-marijuana/2017/01/03/alaska-collects-its-first-full-month-of-marijuana-tax-revenue/ https://www.adn.com/alaska-marijuana/2017/01/04/legal-weed-is-hard-to-come-by-in-alaska/ http://www.weednews.co/alaska-politician-proposes-ban-on-marijuana-discounts-for-active-military/ TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Jan 30, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2017 06:05
|
|
|
For years I would've said that Wyoming would be one of the absolute last states to loosen its cannabis laws, though I was also pretty surprised when Louisiana legalized MMJ in 2015. Wyoming has a *really* high bar for signatures for ballot initiatives, to the point where none have made the cut since the 1990s, so the usual path to success is pretty closed. But fresh news from The Cannabist, turns out that NORML got really clever and found the perfect combo for change: their new state director is a Republican former mayor and state rep, who's dead set on legalizing MMJ and industrial hemp, and has his own medical conditions that MMJ would alleviate. So basically they found a motivated guy that knows everyone at the Old Boys Club in Cheyenne and can presumably sway them far better than a bunch of hippies. http://www.thecannabist.co/2017/01/27/wyoming-marijuana-laws-norml-frank-latta/72273/
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2017 23:20
|
|
|
so, is the smart money that we descend into outright authoritarianism but the gestapo lets us have weed so people are cool with it? :-/
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2017 02:25
|
|
|
Tim Raines IRL posted:so, is the smart money that we descend into outright authoritarianism but the gestapo lets us have weed so people are cool with it? :-/ If you're absolutely intent on finding defeat in victory, sure. That's like saying "I guess we're all just okay with interning Muslims now, so long as gay people can still marry". People can be upset about more than one thing at a time, and while progressive victories may cause some single-issue folks to dial back their activism, overall it frees up more time/people/money to address other activist causes. And that's completely setting aside the progressive advantages of having fewer people enter the criminal justice system, one less violation for cops to disproportionately target marginalized people for, etc. Basically the Overton Window has just shifted left hard (on this issue) in the last two decades, to a degree that's surprising a lot of people. Might as well enjoy this ongoing achievement with good grace, while focusing on consolidating this gain and making gains on other issues.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2017 20:22
|
|
|
Meanwhile, in Nevada, apparently the City of Henderson has been considering a year-long ban on weed sales. I have no idea what this is supposed to accomplish other than a defiant "gently caress you" to the voters, because pretty much nowhere in Henderson is farther than a five-minute drive to Las Vegas (or, more generally, not-Henderson). Just seems like a dumb way to lose out on a lot of money. From the same article, NV was going to consider grandfathering medical dispensaries into retail sales first until they finish drafting the regulations (they have until January next year to do so). Haven't seen any news on that front since, though.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2017 20:42
|
|
|
Zamujasa posted:Meanwhile, in Nevada, apparently the City of Henderson has been considering a year-long ban on weed sales. I have no idea what this is supposed to accomplish other than a defiant "gently caress you" to the voters, because pretty much nowhere in Henderson is farther than a five-minute drive to Las Vegas (or, more generally, not-Henderson). Just seems like a dumb way to lose out on a lot of money. Eh, the same happened in WA after legalization. It looks like the Mayor of Henderson was against Question 2 from the start, so that would probably be why.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 04:37
|
|
|
Maryland is already on a 2017 roll, with a bill proposed to legalize cannabis entirely, and a bill to put cannabis legalization to the voters in 2018. http://www.thecannabist.co/2017/01/30/maryland-marijuana-legalization-bill/72480/ Virginia meanwhile is considering loosening up its MMJ laws, but has already shot down early attempts at decrim in the last week. It produced some interesting debate, including this joy: http://www.thecannabist.co/2017/01/31/virginia-marijuana-decriminalization-legislation/72636/ posted:Sen. Dick Black, R-Loudoun, recalled returning from serving in the Marines in Vietnam in the 1960s. You know you've had a really interesting 1960s experience, including tours in Vietnam, when pot is the horror that stands out in your memory. Also some units had 10-14% of American enlisted troops using *heroin* in Vietnam, so the scene in general was kinda fraught there. EDIT: weed legislation is popping up in more states than I can even keep track of at this point. A lot of it is token or hail-mary, but even just a couple states getting through this year is a huge step forward, particularly as so far the only states to go legal have done so by referendum, but now legislature movements are in the works. EDIT2: For example, in Hawaii alone a dozen weed bills were initiated by this session's deadline: http://khon2.com/2017/01/25/capitol-sees-renewed-push-to-legalize-marijuana-in-hawaii/ TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Feb 1, 2017 |
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 05:25
|
|
|
Illustrating how global the trend has been since the turn of the century:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_cannabis_law posted:2000s
|
|
#
?
Feb 4, 2017 04:47
|
|
|
I'm here in the state capital building in Austin, for an lobbying day with Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy; overall pretty enthusiastic crowd and did pretty well on dressing up so we don't look like Deadheads. It's got to be 200-300 people that showed up, about 20 just to see my senator, so pretty solid turnout. The effort today is moving forward on SB269 (expanding TX's extremely narrow MMJ) and SB170 ("civil penalties" since apparently that polled better than phrasing it as "decrim"). TX only had a 140-day legislative session every two years, and they're crowded with a bunch of other controversies over immigration/abortion/bathrooms, but all we can do is give it a shot and hope something gets through. And in the 2019 session, the whole country might be in a better place... possibly.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2017 20:47
|
|
|
Word is Trump said in a meeting with police chiefs that he was going to massively step up the war on drugs but maybe weed won't be included 
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2017 21:00
|
|
|
Yeah, I'm concerned about that Trump speech too. Though as always, lord knows what he means... The Austin event had 200 pre-register, and 350 show up, so a pretty good day in Texas.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2017 01:06
|
|
|
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/715/text
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2017 01:16
|
|
|
Zamujasa posted:Meanwhile, in Nevada, apparently the City of Henderson has been considering a year-long ban on weed sales. I have no idea what this is supposed to accomplish other than a defiant "gently caress you" to the voters, because pretty much nowhere in Henderson is farther than a five-minute drive to Las Vegas (or, more generally, not-Henderson). Just seems like a dumb way to lose out on a lot of money. This is the case in a few spots in Colorado too. Plenty of lovely suburbs around Denver banned shops, so people drive in and we get their tax dollars. You can still posses it in the burbs so I guess they just hate tax revenue. Colorado Springs is the 2nd biggest city in the state (400K+ people) and all of their weed revenue goes to nearby tiny Manitou Springs. The best one is Garden City, CO, a 300-something person enclave of Greeley (100K people) gets all of their marijuana tax revenue. Garden City only even exists because Greeley wanted to stay dry past the repeal of Prohibition, so old habits die hard...
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2017 01:59
|
|
|
Countdown until Sessions' jackboots start raiding legal dispensaries?
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2017 02:01
|
|
|
A Tasteful Nude posted:Countdown until Sessions' jackboots start raiding legal dispensaries? I'd say... at minimum, a week to organize massive raids like that? So a week.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2017 02:06
|
|
|
A Tasteful Nude posted:Countdown until Sessions' jackboots start raiding legal dispensaries? I seriously think the backlash would bring Denver to its knees but maybe I'm just projecting and everyone will march around the block and then forget about it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2017 02:08
|
|
|
Pakistani Brad Pitt posted:I seriously think the backlash would bring Denver to its knees but maybe I'm just projecting and everyone will march around the block and then forget about it. I asked this in the Trump thread but this is probably a better place for it. How hard would a crackdown be, honestly? If you bust a few retail locations in high profile raids, use civil forfeiture to take the real estate, and hit the kid behind the register with the same charges as the owner, you send a really effective message even if the public gets upset. What property owner is going to be willing to renew a commercial lease after that? Plus, the state's you're punishing are Colorado, Washington, and Oregon which plays nicely with the administration's base. Cali, Nevada, and Mass might be frightened away from moving forward in that scenario. Accomplishes gently caress all but a return to the black market, but it would seem like a really effective knockout punch to legalization. The other thing I wonder about is whether they could try to go after state officials running the regulatory systems? There are probably legal reasons I shouldn't be concerned about that, right? Protections that project elected officials and administrative staff from being brought up on federal charges for administering state laws?
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2017 21:23
|
|
|
You might also want to consider the fact that, at least in Oregon, the state holds a record of any growers who are registered, as well as the dispensaries keeping ID info for x amount of time after a customer's visit.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2017 21:58
|
|
|
Not to pull took much of a Nate Silver "predict a little of everything and I'm sure to be right", but things are really on the verge of breaking one of two ways: -- I don't foree an actual massive crackdown and arresting individual weed buyers, but I could certainly envision Sessions creating a chilling effect by randomly loving over weed businesses. A lot of it just comes down to how much benefit they see this having, vice how much political capital it costs DOJ and Trump. It's hard to see much benefit to it other than just satisfying Sessions' personal hostility, and a general Trumpian interest in spitefulness, but that's balanced against an industry already worth billions and growing rapidly, and a majority public support for recreational and overwhelming support for medical. If it breaks this way, I'd be very curious to see if any states fast-track legalization/decrim even if they'll be barred from setting up any legal commercial apparatus, and just say "gently caress you, if you want to stop weed in Rhode Island, send your own people since we don't care." Basically whether more states would pull what DC did and just legalize without any legal commerce. -- There's already been some foreshadowing of this even from Sessions, but it wouldn't take too many moves to be a bipartisan "dammit, let's stop pretending and just admit most of the country allows weed". Congress re-schedules cannabis, and/or makes whatever modifications to banking laws, etc. and suddenly the cuffs are off and federal pressure on states falls away and the market just explodes. You would think this option would play to Trump's vanity, letting him be the kingmaker who finally resolved American's weed issues, undercut the cartels, and created billions in new business. Again I hate to waffle on predictions, but things are just really close to breaking one way or the other, since the status-quo is becoming increasingly untenable. Can we really have a full 4-8 years of states just doing whatever they want and the feds clucking their tongues about it?
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2017 22:18
|
|
|
Having read through this thread, you're a lot more knowledgeable on this topic than I am, but is there a reason you think it's an either/or? I would think given the general inertia at the federal level that scenario two is far more likely to happen as a result of scenario one than it is of occurring on its own.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2017 22:38
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 15:40 |
|
|
xrunner posted:Having read through this thread, you're a lot more knowledgeable on this topic than I am, but is there a reason you think it's an either/or? I would think given the general inertia at the federal level that scenario two is far more likely to happen as a result of scenario one than it is of occurring on its own. Sure, it's possible that a few token pokes against weed from the feds could result in a bipartisan backlash. That would suck for whoever was made an example of and had to take one for the team, but would ultimately be successful for us. Not to get too Reichstag, but I could almost envision Sessions taking a few swings deliberately the force the moment to a crisis, and then backing down after Congress thumps him. I'd have a grudging respect for Sessions if in his heart of hearts he knows that legalization is inevitable but he's sick of the ridiculous kabuki show we have now where everyone's pretending all the time, and just takes a poke to knock over the tower, and is satisfied that he's done his job once it's no longer a federal offense. Briefly getting back to Texas, there was a lot of buzz at the lobbying event about what Houston is doing. I'd been unaware of this since I've been in and out of the country (and in and out of life) for the past few years, but Harris County apparently has been getting hardcore laissez-faire on weed: quote:In October 2014, Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson announced the First Chance Intervention Program, under which persons possessing two ounces of cannabis or less could be offered a diversionary program of 90 days of community service or drug education, in place of criminal charges and imprisonment. Effective January 2016, the program was expanded to be mandatory for all law enforcement within the county.[11][12] Apparently after Republican AG Anderson started this drug-diversion program, Ogg successfully attacked her from the left, accusing her of taking half-measures to meet a clear public mandate. Ogg beat her out for AG in November, and right from swearing-in has been completely revamping Harris County policy, apparently trying to take weed possession entirely out of the criminal justice system and just do fines and diversion. I dislike Houston on a personal/aesthetic level, but they've had some really progressive random moves in the last few years.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2017 22:59
|
|