Jeff sessions and Steve Alford (R, Kansas) show their cards.
Attorney General, Jeff Sessions hates weed. He has made that abundantly clear throughout his checkered career. The question looms: “why?”. Logic never prevails with drug policy but Sessions attitude and behavior regarding cannabis has no logicial train of thought or maybe it does? Sessions is a conservative lawyer and former senator from Alabama. He has said, “Good people don’t smoke marijuana” he has also said “marijuana to help the opiate crisis, give me a break!’ He is wrong on both statements. Good people do use cannabis, so do bad people, indifferent people, mediocre people, or as I like to call them, “people”. Millions of people use cannabis, it’s logical to surmise that in those millions is the entire bouquet of humanity. Sessions is an attorney requiring a high level of education and as an educated man, I would guess he could read simple research. The AG would do well to read, even skim, this study (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1898878). It gives compelling and substantial evidence that states with legal and accessible cannabis have 25% fewer overdose deaths. Again, Jeff Sessions is categorically wrong is his public statements about Cannabis. As a conservative, it would be logical that Sessions would respect the states rights drums which conservatives beat. Apparently, that value doesn’t extend to things to which one has an individual moral objection. Similar to the familiar conservative refrain of “small government and fiscal responsibility” the conservative position on Cannabis is at the minimum, head scratching. There isn’t larger or more wasteful government than the drug war. So what is it about Cannabis that Sessions hates so much? Likely it’s not cannabis but the people who use cannabis that he finds so abhorrent. While legalization would align with Sessions stated conservative values, it would make it more difficult to round up black and brown people and put them in a cage. Dogged by accusations of racism his entire career, I have to believe that at the least, Sessions opposition to cannabis comes from that place. Additionally, Sessions seems to view legalization as a potential political weapon. January, 1 saw California become the worlds largest legal market, creating industry and commerce. Deeply opposed to Trump and Sessions, what better way to flick the earlobes of the state than to flex federal muscle and mandate continued criminalization of the will of the people? Running neck and neck with the avocado as the favorite flora of California, cannabis will not go gentle into the good night of The Trump and Session racism show.
Sessions policy regarding Cannabis has a ripple effect. It resurrects antiquated and debunked theories about the plant. The original criminalization of the stuff was never based in science, it was always social control. It would be like having an objection to English people and a desire to control them by making tea illegal. Kansas State senator Steve Alford, perhaps emboldened by Sessions, went full Archie Bunker in a room full of white people. The lawmaker claimed that due to the character and genetics of black folks, they simply can not tolerate marijuana and thereby arguing against legalization. Oh, where to start? Let’s say this weak character idea were true, would criminalizing stop use? Don’t people of weak character break laws? It’s hard to imagine people like this guy were called “deplorable”. In a way, we owe a debt of gratitude to the senator because he overtly said what Sessions implies and lacks the courage to state. Why not just say what you mean, Mr. Sessions? For America to look like what it does in your head, you need license to disrupt and control black people. As a side note, Sessions heralds from Alabama. The good people there deliberate if sending a credibly accused pedophile to the US senate is a good idea. They have the capacity to dismiss the most egregious form of child abuse as “Courtin’”. Alabama is welfare dependent, poorly educated, obese and for a small fee and minimal paperwork, one can legally distill grain alcohol, a flammable poison with the capacity to explode. Yes, Mr. Sessions is right, we should all be “good” people like the fine folks of Alabama waddling to Walmart for supplies to distill alcohol.
Best of luck Mr. Sessions with your ill conceived crusade. Cannabis, like guacamole and surfing are here to stay and the political clout and money of California, say so. As for Alford, well, I kind of like people like him. He’s one of those offensive idiots that incites eye rolling by the younger generation at Thanksgiving dinner. I can easily imagine a chess game to see what exactly I could get him to say, apparently, that’s not hard. Stick with wheat senator, leave Cannabis to us.