Free Republic

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is being attacked on both sides of the aisle for rescinding the Obama policy that opened the floodgates to marijuana addiction. Funded by libertarian billionaires such as the Koch brothers, pro-pot senators like Cory Gardner are demanding that AG Sessions stand down and continue Obama’s misguided policy. Sessions rescinded Obama’s command that the Department of Justice ignore federal law against marijuana production and sales, and instead Sessions instructed U.S. Attorneys to begin enforcing well-established federal statutes against large-scale cultivation and distribution of marijuana. These federal laws preempt state law, particularly in Colorado and California where a...

If you live in a place where recreational pot use is legal, you’re probably wondering whether you need to start worrying about getting prosecuted for it. The answer is probably not, at least according to initial indications from the dozen or so U.S. attorneys general who get to make that call. [...] Of the 13 U.S. attorneys presiding in the eight states with laws making recreational use legal, several have indicated they’re interested only in going after marijuana distributors or users with ties to crime or violence. [...]

TOPEKA, Kan. -- A white Kansas state lawmaker arguing against the legalization of marijuana suggested that it and other drugs were originally outlawed in part because blacks were predisposed to abusing drugs because of their "character makeup - their genetics and that." State Rep. Steve Alford, a 75-year-old Republican from Ulysses in the state's southwestern corner, apologized Monday for remarks he made Saturday during a public meeting at a hospital in Garden City. One NAACP leader called Alford "an idiot" over the remarks.

Outlaw country legend Willie Nelson was forced to abort a concert after just a single song on Saturday night due to breathing difficulties, and now the 84-year-old has canceled upcoming dates for this week. According to reports in The San Diego Union-Tribune, Nelson was halfway through his opener, “Whiskey River,” while performing at Harrah’s Resort SoCal in San Diego when he abruptly stopped. Eyewitnesses say that he was coughing and wheezing as he left the stage.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions made a “cataclysmic mistake” by rescinding Obama-era federal marijuana policies, according to Roger Stone, President Trump’s former campaign adviser. Mr. Stone, 65, formed a bipartisan, pro-marijuana lobbying group earlier this year, the United States Cannabis Coalition, “dedicated to influencing federal level decision makers, including the president, so they honor state’s rights and state mandated marijuana laws as well as reform our antiquated and failed federal drug laws,” according to its website. Mr. Stone, the president’s campaign adviser through August 2015, criticized the attorney general’s recent decision to roll back marijuana protections during a luncheon Friday at...

The major problem is federal law, so change itHaving abandoned much of the Reagan way — the sunny disposition, free trade, the unshakeable commitment to America’s global leadership — the Trump administration has now embraced the worst of the Reagan legacy: deficits, for one thing, and the so-called war on drugs, which Attorney General Jeff Sessions means to fight with atavistic rigor. In the 22 years since the editors of this magazine declared “The War on Drugs Is Lost,” the United States has lurched, spasmodically, toward a new settlement on drugs, especially on marijuana. Republicans, ranging from libertarian-leaning figures such...

Conservatives never cease to fascinate me, given their professed devotion to “freedom, free enterprise, and limited government” and their ardent support of policies that violate that principle. One of the most prominent examples is the drug war. In fact, if you’re ever wondering whether a person is a conservative or a libertarian, a good litmus-test question is, How do you feel about the war on drugs? The conservative will respond, “Even though I believe in freedom, free enterprise, and limited government, we’ve got to continue waging the war on drugs.” The libertarian will respond, “End it. It is an immoral...