cannabisnews.com: Congress Heading for Confrontation With Sessions
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Congress Heading for Confrontation With Sessions
Posted by CN Staff on August 03, 2017 at 10:02:31 PT
By Nathan Howard
Source: Bloomberg
Washington, D.C. -- -- Congress is heading for a confrontation with Attorney General Jeff Sessions over pot. Sessions is seeking to crack down on marijuana use while lawmakers from both parties are pushing legislation that would do the opposite.Measures have been attached to must-pass bills in the Senate that would allow Veterans Affairs doctors to counsel patients on the use of medical marijuana, and to continue blocking the Justice Department from pursuing cases against people who use medical marijuana in states that have legalized it.
Some lawmakers are pushing to go even further. Senator Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, this week unveiled legislation that would legalize marijuana at the federal level. In the House, Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida proposed legislation that would change the federal classification of marijuana to allow research and a range of medical uses.Booker said the law needs to be changed because minorities and the poor are disproportionately arrested for what amounts to a minor offense.“It disturbs me right now that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is not moving as the states are -- moving as public opinion is -- but actually saying that we should be doubling down and enforcing federal marijuana laws even in states that have made marijuana legal,” he said in a video posted Tuesday on Facebook.Eight states have fully legalized marijuana for adult use and 21 more have legalized it for medical use only. Federal law continues to ban the use and sale of cannabis. During the Obama administration, the Justice Department didn’t actively prosecute marijuana offenders, an approach Sessions has said needs to change.“I’m not sure we’re going to be a better, healthier nation," he said in February, "if we have marijuana being sold at every corner grocery store.” He later added, “My best view is that we don’t need to be legalizing marijuana.”In April, Sessions put out a memo to U.S. attorneys about his crime-reduction efforts and said one of his subcommittees will "undertake a review of existing policies in the areas of charging, sentencing, and marijuana to ensure consistency with the department’s overall strategy on reducing violent crime and with administration goals and priorities."Sarah Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman, declined to comment on the matter.The president has repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with Sessions, a former senator from Alabama, for recusing himself from a federal investigation into whether there was collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia. The new White House chief of staff, John Kelly, told Sessions in a phone call over the weekend that Trump doesn’t intend to fire him, according to a person familiar with the conversation.Spending LegislationThe Veterans Administration measure, sponsored by Republican Senator Steve Daines of Montana and Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, was added to a bill approved by the Appropriations Committee on July 13. The measure preventing funds from being used to crack down on medical marijuana was sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, and was approved by the Appropriations Committee on July 27.The Republican-controlled Congress is already on record supporting medical marijuana. Since 2014, the Justice Department spending bill has included language that blocks funds from being used to enforce federal law relating to medical marijuana in states where the drug is legal. Gaetz, the Florida lawmaker who introduced his marijuana legislation in April, said at the time that pot shouldn’t be classified by the federal government the same way as heroin or LSD.“We do not need to continue with a policy that turns thousands of young people into felons every year,” he said in a statement. “Nor do we need to punish the millions of people who are sick and seeking medical help -- from pain, from muscle wasting, from chemotherapy-induced nausea.”— With assistance by Erik Wasson, and Jennifer KaplanSource: Bloomberg.com (USA)Author: Nathan HowardPublished: August 3, 2017Copyright: 2017 Bloomberg L.P.Contact: cpalmeri1 bloomberg.netWebsite: http://www.bloomberg.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/Ms9pDAApCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on August 05, 2017 at 15:26:06 PT
BGreen
No I didn't see it. Thank you! It is posted now!
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Comment #5 posted by BGreen on August 05, 2017 at 09:57:42 PT
Did you see this story, FoM?
Huff, puff, pass? AG’s pot fury not echoed by task forcehttps://apnews.com/ad37624fcb8e485a8d57a013d48a227cWASHINGTON (AP) — The betting was that law-and-order Attorney General Jeff Sessions would come out against the legalized marijuana industry with guns blazing. But the task force Sessions assembled to find the best legal strategy is giving him no ammunition, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
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Comment #4 posted by The GCW on August 04, 2017 at 17:41:15 PT
Informative
Sessions raises “serious questions” about Colorado’s marijuana management in letter to gov"Please advise as to how Colorado plans to address the serious findings" writes Sessionshttp://www.thecannabist.co/2017/08/04/jeff-sessions-colorado-marijuana-letter-hickenlooper/85404/ -0-I believe this sheds a positive light on the issues.
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Comment #3 posted by afterburner on August 04, 2017 at 11:40:03 PT
Gary Minor #1
Interesting, but cocaine is schedule 2 federally.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by The GCW on August 03, 2017 at 17:05:10 PT
No, it's the other way around!
I'm not reading this; just the headline.They have it backwards; Sessions Heading for Confrontation With Congress.Cannabis is STRONG.Sesspool & Congress will never win any confrontation with the SUPERPLANT.
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Comment #1 posted by Garry Minor on August 03, 2017 at 14:39:07 PT:
Trumps closest adviser 
“A tidal wave is coming,” Stone said. “I predict the president will do the right thing.”We'll See!Stone says he was motivated to act after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that he wanted to go after states that had voted to legalize medical and recreational marijuana. That position directly contradicts comments made by then-candidate Trump in which he said the issue of marijuana should be left to the states.“I hope to convince the president of the United States to honor his pledge,” Stone said. “It’s time for the administration to speak with one voice and not break faith with the American voter.”So, how did a man best known for electing men like Nixon and Trump get here? “Everyone evolves in their views,” he said. “If not, there’s something wrong with you.The man in question was Roger Stone, who has been described as the “brains” behind Donald Trump’s unlikely rise to the White House. Stone, 64, has a notorious history in politics going back four decades to when he played a role in the re-election of Richard Nixon and currently finds himself embroiled in the Trump campaign’s Russia scandal.But on this day, Stone was taking part in the third annual “Politicon,” a gathering of an estimated 10,000 political junkies who came out to hear pundits, policymakers, and activists debate the issues of the day.To the surprise of many, Stone has become an outspoken advocate for the legalization of marijuana. And it’s something he says he thinks he can convince Trump to come around on.“Medical marijuana is now a consensus issue in the United States,” he said during the panel. “And recreational marijuana is headed that way.”Stone said he has filed a federal lawsuit with Florida attorney John Morgan that asks the government to remove cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug. That classification, first enacted under the Nixon administration, puts pot in the same category as drugs like heroin and cocaine. Morgan has invested millions of his own fortune fighting for the legalization of medical marijuana in Florida, the state where Stone now lives with his wife and family.The duo recently formed a group called the U.S. Cannabis Coalition, which allows them to officially lobby the government, including Trump, on the issue. Stone is widely considered to be one of the most successful lobbyists in modern American history, even by his biggest critics. 
Stone says he was motivated to act after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that he wanted to go after states that had voted to legalize medical and recreational marijuana. That position directly contradicts comments made by then-candidate Trump in which he said the issue of marijuana should be left to the states.“I hope to convince the president of the United States to honor his pledge,” Stone said. “It’s time for the administration to speak with one voice and not break faith with the American voter.”So, how did a man best known for electing men like Nixon and Trump get here? “Everyone evolves in their views,” he said. “If not, there’s something wrong with you.”In an unusually personal confession, Stone explained that his own views changed after seeing his father and grandfather battling terminal cancer. “They were going through chemotherapy and radiation,” a visibly emotional Stone said. “You could smell them burning alive. That’s when a cousin of mine suggested trying medical marijuana. And yes, I got ahold of marijuana and gave it to them. It made a tremendous difference.”Furthermore, Stone wasn’t shy about trash talking fellow Republicans who continue oppose marijuana.On former President George W. Bush, he quipped, “The guy snorted so much coke, he had a personal thank you note from Pablo Escobar,” while also knocking Ohio Gov. John Kasich, claiming that Stone fired him from a campaign job in 1976 when he allegedly found out a young Kasich was selling pot.Beyond his own personal connection to medical marijuana, Stone says it just makes sense for Trump to either fully support legalizing marijuana or at least get out of the way and allow the individual states to continue experimenting with their own laws. https://www.good.is/articles/roger-stone-trump-marijuanaKaneh Bosm 
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