Campaign Action
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who wants to jail everyone who ever lit up a joint or pipe or bit into an edible, is poised to go after states that have legalized marijuana:
Sessions is rescinding a policy that had let legalized marijuana flourish without federal intervention across the country. [...]
The move will leave it to U.S. attorneys where pot is legal to decide whether to aggressively enforce federal marijuana law.
Sessions appointed 17 interim U.S. attorneys on Wednesday, by the way.
This move could have a big impact on state economies. Colorado collected more than $226 million in taxes, fees, and licensing revenue from legal cannabis in 2017. In October, Oregon distributed $85 million in marijuana revenue to schools, police departments, and local governments. California cities were looking forward to major revenue boosts from the state’s new recreational marijuana law.
And, of course, any return to criminalizing even the smallest amounts is a renewed commitment to mass incarceration with all its vicious racial disparities. Which is no doubt just one more bonus for Jefferson “too racist to be a federal judge in 1986” Sessions.