Good riddance to the Cole Memo

There’s been a lot of talk about how Attorney General Jeff Sessions has eliminated the Cole Memo – an advisory document intended to reduce the focus on federal prosecutions of state-legal cannabis operations as long as a list of guidelines were followed.

In reality, the Cole Memo was limited, vague, and had no force of law – any Attorney General could overturn it at will (as Sessions has done). It was the appearance of the federal government respecting state law without having to actually, you know, do it.

The good thing about Sessions’ tone-deaf action is that it’s woken a lot of people up to the absurdity of still having a federal prohibition that could allow prosecutors to arrest citizens for openly following state law. Sessions has managed to anger liberals, conservatives and libertarians through his action.

Perhaps the absence of the Cole Memo, and the outrage following its repeal, will finally get Congress to act and do something meaningful.

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217 Responses to Good riddance to the Cole Memo

  1. kaptinemo says:

    I’ve always said that for cannabis prohibition to die, the history of that prohibition and the lies that currently sustain it must be exposed and dissected in the courts. Looks like some of that just might happen: Trial begins for advocates suing Sessions and the DEA over marijuana’s Schedule I status: https://www.thecannabist.co/2018/02/14/marijuana-schedule-i-lawsuit-trial/98979/

    You can tell from the judge’s comments that he wishes that this legal hand grenade hadn’t been dropped into his lap.

    Hellerstein, who reserved judgment on the motion to dismiss the case, evinced sympathy for the plaintiffs’ claims that medical marijuana has helped them.

    “How could anyone say that your clients’ lives have not been saved by marijuana?” Hellerstein asked Michael Hiller, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs.

    But Hellerstein appeared to take the government’s argument that the plaintiffs should petition the DEA seriously.

    “When agencies are set up to do the very thing that you want me to do, the right thing to do is defer to the agency,” he said.

    I hope the plaintiff’s attorneys also expose the bureaucratic circle-jerk the DEA, NIDA, et al have been engaging in for over thirty years with regards to these petitions. This judge needs to have his ignorance of the blatant, smirking injustice of the process he demonstrates so little knowledge of rubbed in his face until it bleeds.

  2. BluishSquidCage says:

    Antigua and Barbuda Set to Decriminalise Cannabis, as PM Says It is “Part of the Culture of the Country”

    The bill is awaiting approval from the country’s upper house, the Senate, before passing in to law – but PM Browne has already made a direct plea to police officers to stop prosecuting people for cannabis use.

    “I want to signal to the members of the police force, in the interim, that they desist from incriminating individuals,” he said in an interview with Pointe FM. “The government has made its policy very clear. Even though the law has not been changed, at least they must respect the intent and give those who use marijuana a break”.

    Antigua and Barbuda’s cannabis bill goes further than similar legislation abroad in undoing the consequences of criminalisation, as it would work retrospectively. According to Clause 6 of the bill, any person convicted for an offence involving 10 grams of cannabis or less – regardless of the offence – would have their conviction “spent and expunged”.

    https://tinyurl.com/OnwardGreenWave

  3. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    From time to time I ponder the prohibitionist obsession with our urine. I can accept that it is reality but I can’t even begin to fathom the phenomenon.

    StatsCan is having sewage water tested for THC to gauge how much marijuana we’re using

  4. DdC says:

    Fracking Chems, Heavy Metals in the Water! Yawn.
    THC! Stop bathing immediately!
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1112

    https://youtu.be/Udijxk21mzQ
    WATCH OUT WHERE THE HUSKIES GO
    AN’ DON’T YOU EAT THAT YELLOW SNOW

    Increases crash odds:
    https://t.co/WAN8vTU22o
    THC: 5%, penicillin: 25%, Legal Alcohol levels: 293%

    A Wisconsin representative plans to introduce a bill barring employers from urine testing for THC or disqualifying people for jobs based on testing positive for marijuana.
    https://t.co/3lfDjgf5vK

  5. GalleriesOfShame says:

    The Sacklers have made a fortune from OxyContin, the painkiller blamed for sparking the deadly opioid crisis. They cloak their shame with philanthropy

    There is no Pablo Escobar Wing at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and no El Chapo Guzman Museum at the Smithsonian. Columbia University doesn’t host a Sinaloa Drug Cartel Center of Developmental Psychobiology. Oxford would no longer be Oxford if its library were named in honor of the Cali drug cartel.

    Our most revered institutions hold themselves to an ethical standard that does not allow accepting money from wealthy drug dealers – however tempting the prospect or worthwhile the project. They refuse to become philanthropic money launderers, cleansing dirty reputations by selling prestigious naming rights.

    https://tinyurl.com/SacklerShame

    Comment thread is still open.

    • jean valjean says:

      Shame the fuckers… I mean the Sacklers….. There’s no other way for these social-climbing whores:

      “Having the Sackler name everywhere intruding on public consciousness was once a glowing mark of their family’s achievement, but it has become a constant reminder of their family’s shame. And asking for refunds would display a pettiness that would only add to their increasing disgrace.”

  6. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    Are we there yet?

    Sun Life’s move to cover medical cannabis a “very positive” development: Canaccord Genuity
    February 15, 2018

    The decision by one of the world’s largest insurance companies to add medical marijuana to it group benefits plans could drive patient numbers, Canaccord Genuity analyst Neil Maruoka says.

    On Thursday, the Canadian Press reported that beginning March 1, Sun Life plan sponsors will have the ability to add medical cannabis to health plans. Coverage levels will range from $1500 to $6000 per person per year.

    “Medical marijuana has become a very important part of their treatment program and pain management program,” CEO Dean Connor, speaking of patients who have multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, or cancer, told the Canadian Press.
    /snip/

  7. New Research Finds No Link Between Cannabis Use and Increased Risk of Traffic Accidents
    https://tinyurl.com/yd4hs7wz

    Researchers at the University of Bucharest Department of Medicine and Pharmacy conducted a meta-analysis on 24 different studies examining links between driving under the influence of cannabis (DUIC) and unfavorable traffic events (UTEs), including collision, injury, or death. After analyzing the data from all 24 studies with two different meta-analytical methods, the research team found no statistically significant link between cannabis intoxication and an increase in traffic accident risk.

    The researchers also identified a number of limitations in the original research studies, most notably the fact that some studies relied on inaccurate blood tests for THC levels. “A positive test for cannabis (i.e. blood) does not necessarily imply that drivers were impaired, as THC/metabolites might be detected in blood a long time after impairment, especially in chronic cannabis users, which could also induce an important bias in the analysis of the results,” the researchers wrote.

    “Simply identifying cannabis use in a driver is not enough to justify the assumption of an increased risk for UTEs,” the study concluded. “When such a result is obtained, it should be corroborated with either quantitative data regarding cannabis use, or a clinical assessment of the driver, before establishing his (or her) fitness to drive.”

  8. Servetus says:

    Germany takes credit for some of its pharmaceutical innovations: cocaine, MDMA, meth, and lately something called ‘Wizard’ (25I-NBOMe) that can be fatal, according to reports:

    https://www.thelocal.de/20160315/the-dark-drug-secrets-of-oh-so-propper-germans

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