Cannabis Is Not Heroin Bernie Sanders Tells Jeff Sessions
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has slammed Attorney General Jeff Sessions over his decision to “re-criminalized” cannabis nationwide, regardless of state-based legalization for its medical and recreational use.
Sessions, a longtime opponent of marijuana will allow the nation’s top federal prosecutors to decide how to handle marijuana cases in states where the drug has already been legalized.
In a statement Sanders forcefully opposed Sessions’ move to revert to a regressive drug policy that has led to America now having the largest incarceration rate of any country in the world.
Common Dreams reports:
In a terse response to news Thursday that President Donald Trump’s Justice Department would rescind its hands-off policy regarding states that have legalized medical and recreational marijuana, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) scolded Attorney General Jeff Sessions for equating the dangers of pot with heroin.
During his time in the U.S. Senate and as AG, Sessions has repeatedly assailed marijuana as comparable to much harder drugs like heroin, though scientific experts have called that nonsense.
“No, Attorney General Sessions,” Sanders said in his Thursday statement. “Marijuana is not the same as heroin.”
He continued, “No one who has seriously studied the issue believes that marijuana should be classified as a Schedule 1 drug beside killer drugs like heroin. Quite the contrary. We should allow states the right to move toward the decriminalization of marijuana, not reverse the progress that has been made in recent years.”
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Fiveinchtaint11: Meanwhile how many people will die tonight due to drunk drivers? But as long as alcohol companies tell us to “drink responsibly” it should all be ok. I’m not anti-alcohol, I’m just tired of marijuana being treated as a gateway drug to satanism. And for the record I’ve never smoked weed in my life. Just legalize the shit already and let’s stop acting like it’s gonna kill us all.
Habanero_Eyeball: AND – no one can seriously study the issue because the pot provided to the few approved pot studies was shit quality.
Let real scientists study the effects of pot using real pot from a knowledgable grower and lets get those studies out there.
Hurry up before Sessions ruins everything.
mconeone: https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000160-c219-dcd4-a96b-f739f1ee0000
Notice how this clearly put the onus on Congress.
Averagepunpun: I get that “Dr. Dina” services a lot of celebrities and politicians. I just hope she would reveal who the hypocrites are, if her goal is still to help as much people as possible.
hinzmo: Jeff Sessions knows that marijuana isn’t dangerous or at the very least as harmful as alcohol or tobacco. This is the result of big pharma lobbying and him having investments with CCA. Not only that, but the drug war has been a huge part of his career. If the drug war fails ultimately his career is a monumental failure as well
fatpass12: Send Sanders should maybe try passing some legislation. He is in a position to do so. But if it gets passed then they won’t be able to make campaign promises to legalize.
emperorisnaked7: lol, as if Sessions believes that bullshit. He knows what the deal is. Probably smokes on holiday or weekends.
1hobo: Sessions is a longtime opponent of cannabis — he once joked in 1986 that the Klu Klux Klan was “O.K. until I found out they smoked pot”. The Attorney General has dropped hints that he would order the Justice Department to uphold federal law — which considers cannabis an illegal, Schedule I substance
GnosisRex: Devil’s advocate: chronic marijuana usage has a negative effect on willpower, similar to heroin though not as severe. It is positioned as a social control when in a recreational context, and getting us to fight for the right to burn a plant leads to irrational cherishing.
This whole marijuana obsession in America is a form of counterintelligence. Yes, it is stupid and evil to lock people up for personal consumption, but it is delusional to imagine marijuana is automatically beneficial for humanity. It’s one more powerful substance, and like all of them it has its uses and abuses. It can serve as spiritual medicine as much as it can serve as an oppressive medication.
jerkedit: The DEA’s position on pot is they have no intention of actively pursuing issues that don’t involve them, so don’t buy weed from gangs, or stockpile it amounts that make for an impressive sounding ‘street value’ in the alarmist media. The police generally don’t want to lay charges that won’t go anywhere – Colorado hasn’t been raided. Also, the cannabis CEOs don’t seem to be bothered by this restatement of an existing memorandum, nor do the stock markets seem to care about this non-event, so why are the liberals trying to make it one?
jerkedit: Its a memorandum that Jeff Sessions did not create, he simply restated it and its not a law, nothing has changed. Liberals like Bernie Sanders deliberately mislead their cult-like followers with this ‘I’m your hero against evil’ bullshit all the while they are inventing the problems or are causing the problems themselves. They are con artists who have made a fortune off shaping policy for their own benefit.
Whaddaya Say?