Jeff Sessions is the definition of an anti-marijuana “advocate” and has been throughout his entire career. His time as the Attorney General has been no different. Sessions announced on Thursday the role back of an Obama-era policy that called for states where recreational marijuana was legal, to have attorneys focus on cases other than marijuana prosecution.
And it makes no sense, on multiple levels, highlighting Sessions personal agenda to combat marijuana legalization. For starters, this policy safeguarded a state’s right to vote on issues and recognize them differently than the federal government. By ending this policy, Sessions single-handedly allowed attorneys to push marijuana prosecution in states where the substance is LEGAL, with almost no repercussions.
This policy was sensible for a lot of reasons. It prevented attorneys from pushing their own agendas on marijuana, like Sessions, and allow people to legally use the drug without worry. And now, it’s gone.
But Sessions isn’t alone. Many Americans have a taboo against marijuana and are reluctant to accept the substance for its benefits. And that becomes increasingly dangerous in a time where the opioid crisis takes more and more lives each and every year.
Marijuana helps people with epilepsy, lupus, and so many other painful diseases. It helps people with anxiety and stress. Yet still, so many oppose it. And it is because of the decades of propaganda that has been implemented to make us believe weed is bad. And this country needs to break that chain.
And maybe we’re beginning to and Sessions is an anomaly, just like a lot of things in the Trump administration. Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton have all admitted to smoking weed. States are beginning to vote for recreational and medical marijuana as it reaches the ballot more and more. The tides are surely turning.
But there still is so much more work to do. Black people are more likely to be imprisoned on drug charges than white people, despite using it less. So as marijuana begins to prosper in the national economy, our African American peers are left behind. That is an extremely concerning problem that needs proactive attention. That is something Sessions should have focused on, but again, personal agendas.
What Sessions is doing is inexcusable. He is putting himself and his own beliefs before the American people and states that voted for legal marijuana consumption.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t even matter if you don’t use weed or believe in it. I don’t use it. But it helps people, and this issue so much bigger than any one individual person. And it is time for the American people in states where marijuana is not legal yet, unlike Sessions, to go advocate for it and make a difference.
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