Donald Trump’s Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety, led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is expected to recommend the crackdown, which is supposedly taking place “in an effort to reduce the number of violent crimes.”
The expected crackdown is one that “criminal justice reform advocates fear will link marijuana to violent crime and recommend tougher sentences for those caught growing, selling, and smoking the plant, reports The Hill.
Sessions sent a memo to U.S. Attorneys and others on the work of the Department of Justice task force, requesting review of “existing policies in the areas of charging, sentencing, and marijuana to ensure consistency with the Department’s overall strategy in reducing violent crime with the Administration goals and priorities.”
A February poll found that 71 percent of Americans oppose a federal marijuana crackdown.
‘We’re Worried’
“The task force revolves around reducing violent crime and Sessions and other DOJ officials have been out there over the last month and explicitly the last couple of weeks talking about how immigration and marijuana increases violent crime,” said Inimai Chettiar, director of the Bennan Center’s Justice Program.
“We’re worried there’s going to be something in the recommendations that is either saying that’s true or recommending action be taken based on that being true,” Chettiar said.
“Our attorney general is giving everyone whiplash by trying to take us back to the 1960s,” California Democratic Representative Jared Huffman said.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions:
“Good people don’t smoke marijuana”
Sessions: Marijuana Only Slightly Less Awful Than Heroin
Sessions in March called marijuana a “life-wrecking crisis,” saying it was “only slightly less awful” than using heroin.
“I reject the idea that America will be a better place if marijuana is sold in every corner store,” the Attorney General said. “And I am astonished to hear people suggest that we can solve our heroin crisis by legalizing marijuana – so people can trade one life-wrecking dependency for another that’s only slightly less awful.”“And I’m not in favor of legalization of marijuana. I think it’s a more dangerous drug than a lot of people realize. I don’t think we’re going to be a better community if marijuana is sold in every corner grocery store.”
License To Steal
Sessions has just laid the groundwork for his War On Marijuana. Last week, the Attorney General made it easier for law enforcement to “seize” cash, property and other assets from “drug suspects” through “civil asset forfeiture.” You’ll notice I said “suspects,” not “criminals.”
Under Sessions’ new rules, a return to the bad old pre-reform days, “suspects” don’t have to be convicted before their property is permanently taken. In fact, they don’t even have to be charged.
Trump, for his part, has called Colorado’s legalization of marijuana a “real problem.” But who knows what he really thinks about any given subject, since the story changes so often?
