Posted on 06/13/2017 9:50:21 AM PDT by Drew68
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is asking congressional leaders to undo federal medical marijuana protections that have been in place since 2014, according to a May letter that became public Monday.
The protections, known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, prohibit the Justice Department from using federal funds to prevent certain states "from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana."
In his letter, first obtained by Tom Angell of Massroots.com and verified independently by The Washington Post, Sessions argued that the amendment would "inhibit [the Justice Department's] authority to enforce the Controlled Substances Act." He continues:
I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund particular prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime. The Department must be in a position to use all laws available to combat the transnational drug organizations and dangerous drug traffickers who threaten American lives.
Sessions's citing of a "historic drug epidemic" to justify a crackdown on medical marijuana is at odds with what researchers know about current drug use and abuse in the United States. The epidemic Sessions refers to involves deadly opiate drugs, not marijuana. A growing body of research (acknowledged by the National Institute on Drug Abuse) has shown that opiate deaths and overdoses actually decrease in states with medical marijuana laws on the books.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“Marijuana does have legitimate medical use, in cases of severe cancer pain or lack of appetite.”
What are your qualifications to make such a declarative statement, please?
There are countless of aliments cannabis is legitimately used for: seizures, depression, anxiety, PTSD, MS, ALS, Parkinson’s just to name a few.
I agree. Perhaps our society would be better off legalizing heroin use but not controlling its distribution. Competition among dealers for the most potent product would lead to mass deaths by overdose resulting in a reduction in societal cost to prosecute and house users and subsidize their medical costs.
Nobody needs to push anything except Liberty.
You don't threaten Americans with prison for possessing the wrong plant, medicine, or liquid spirits. That's Tyrannical, worthy only of nanny-state authoritarians.
Jeez...
“Plenty of rarely seen posters coming out on this thread pushing marijuana.”
Oddly enough as I read through the thread, no one is actually “pushing marijuana”. Many, including myself have shared personal experiences that conflict with your declarative statements regarding cannabis.
Perhaps you can point out a specific post where someone is “pushing marijuana”?
International cartels have very little to do with “medical marijuana”, which is almost exclusively domestic product.
Traceable to domestic sources.
If this report is true, Sessions is both a zealot and an idiot. Dangerously both.
If this is true, which I doubt,it will turn FL blue guaranteed. 39 states now have medical MJ. PDJT won because he attracted independents, moderated and blue collar democrats. This is a losing proposition.
The same is true for pharmaceuticals. They are used for recreation also. And they are a lot more dangerous than medical marijuana. Medical marijuana is normally in the form of oils, lozenges, etc., not someone sitting around smoking for fun.
“Sessions understands the damaging effects of marijuana on society.”
If he’s concerned about the damaging effects of drugs, he should reign in the opioid manufacturers/distributors and the ALCOHOL INDUSTRY, both of which do far more damage to society than pot.
I agree with you completely. But some posters apparently don’t believe in freedom of choice.
“The vast majority of medical marijuana use is in truth recreational.”
Why do you care? Have you appointed yourself as the protector of society?
Take care of yourself, and all that is yours.
Leave everyone else the eff alone. Otherwise they might see you as a personal threat.
Sessions is such a disappointing failure. Nothing like picking low hanging fruit and disrupting people’s lives over a weed — all while the country continues to descend into total political corruption.
Sessions needs to go.
You seem to have a very difficult time discerning your opinion from documented fact. Colorado's medical marijuana law was a joke, so they just went ahead and legalized it. New Mexico, in contrast, requires medical evaluation and specifies the diagnoses that qualify a patient for a medical marijuana permit. I think persons on this list would rather not have the underlying condition(s) in question:
Severe chronic pain
Painful peripheral neuropathy
Intractable nausea/vomiting
Severe anorexia/cachexia
Hepatitis C infection currently receiving antiviral treatment
Crohn's disease
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease)
Cancer
Glaucoma
HIV/AIDS
Multiple sclerosis
Damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with intractable spasticity
Epilepsy
Hospice patients
Inflammatory autoimmune-mediated arthritis
Why do you care what people do? Why do you believe you have the moral authority to control people? Why do you think your opinion and value system should be enforced through lethal means and imprisonment?
Marijuana laws are far more destructive to persons and family than the drug itself. You act like someone who has been victimised.
I was here long before you, and have made over 70,000 posts. You just don't like having your nose shoved into your logical fallacies.
And I am not 'pushing' marijuana. I am presenting logical reasons for legal medical marijuana. I don't use pot myself.
You just don't like pot. Fine. Don't smoke it. But quit trying to deny it to people with a diagnosed medical condition who benefit from it.
Lack of motivation and decreased concentration are both correct.
In that case, I guess we can all look forward to additional efforts by Sessions on alcohol, nicotine & unhealthy food.
Do you have a cite for that claim/statistic?
I'm not saying that pot is good for millenials or anybody else. Alcohol and tobacco use aren't good for you either (and alcohol, unlike pot, is physically rather than just psychologically addictive), but the cost of prohibiting them is a case of the cure being worse than the disease. The same is true for our "war on drugs."
It never ceased to amaze me how many people who claim to be against big government are all for a police state when it comes to drug enforcement.
Criminalize weed!
It’s the Mafia ties to recreational marijuana that will bring this to a head. Trust me.
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