Jeff Sessions Sucks (I Hope He Reads This)
Chirali Patel mentioned that while in Colorado, one of the shops she visited and toured had been raided by the DEA (I think) and they seized over $400,000 in product. Though I’m not sure when exactly she spent time in Colorado, this raid likely took place because Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole Memo, which protected states that had existing marijuana legislation in place from the Justice Department’s enforcement of marijuana prohibition.
For some reason, Jeff Sessions hates marijuana. According to a New York Times article, in 1986, he “joked” that he thought the Ku Klux Klan “was OK until [he] found out they smoked pot” and he has also said that “good people don’t smoke marijuana.” One of my favorite Onion articles (published in May 2018) is titled “Inconsolable Jeff Sessions Tries To Commit Suicide By Smoking Joint” and contains the lines “This is it. I’ve taken four puffs to make sure there’s no chance of survival. It should only be a matter of minutes now.” I get that he’s old and is used to the propaganda surrounding marijuana use and how people say only criminals smoke it, but there’s been so much research done around its benefits that at this point it’s stupid to say marijuana in any form should be illegal. When Trump appointed Sessions as his Attorney General, Sessions was probably thrilled at the fact that he had the power to undo the legislation passed under the Obama Administration and roll back protections in the 29 states in which marijuana was legalized to some degree.
By rescinding The Cole Memo, Sessions removed a “promise” that the Justice Department would not devote its limited resources to penalizing and prosecuting states who had their own rules and regulations surrounding marijuana. The recission did not mean that states that legalized marijuana in some form would be automatically targeted, but it allows US Attorneys to prosecute them if they wish. However, there still remains some level of protection for states who have legalized medicinal marijuana. The Rohrabacher-Farr amendment has been in place since 2014 and has passed the vote to remain in effect every year since. The amendment prohibits the Justice Department from interfering in states that have medicinal marijuana laws, so the continued support for the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment might entice more states to pass medicinal cannabis laws while the Cole Memo remains rescinded under a Trump presidency.
Ideally, in order to fix what Trump and Sessions have done, Biden needs to win the election and the Democrats need to regain control of the Senate in order to pass comprehensive marijuana legislation throughout the country.
Patel also talked about being part of New Jersey’s efforts to pass marijuana legislation and spoke about how its taxes will be reinvested into the community if and when New Jersey’s ballot initiative is successful.
But first: If Cuomo is so in favor of passing marijuana legislation, why won’t he put it on the ballot instead of trying to pass it in the budget, where it has failed the last couple of years? I feel like it would have a much better chance at passing if the people were allowed to vote on the issue, especially because nearly half of the state’s population lives in the city (where it’s basically legal unless you light something in an officer’s face).
Anyway! Patel spoke a lot about taxes, saying that it was the main point of conversation in almost all of her meetings because it’s a central point in creating this legislation. She mentioned her time in Bergen County and how instead of taking up contracts (I don’t think she said what kind of contracts), their local government deemed the cost of one to be too small when compared to their overall revenue. They instead chose to focus that portion of the budget on re-carpeting the building, wasting taxpayer money on something they would likely never utilize, while the rejected contract might have benefitted the community in some way. Yikes!!
She also mentioned that New Jersey does not yet have a concrete plan for spending the taxes raised on cannabis sales. Patel said that her committee proposed a taxation amount ranging from 15 to 25 percent, which would bring in a lot of money (especially the latter :/) They’ve also discussed ideas as to where to devote said money, such as education, local law enforcement, and infrastructure. Since Colorado legalized marijuana in 2014, it has raised over $1 billion in tax revenue and splits the revenue among several different factions. I think the tax rate is 15% on recreational and 3% on medicinal. From this revenue, almost a fifth goes towards education, another fifth to public health and the environment, and a third to human services, but the graph I found didn’t really explain what those “human services” are, but one can assume the money goes back to the public in some form. Speaking of giving back to the public, Patel also spoke about community reinvestment and how she wants the city she works in specifically to commit to hiring recently freed incarcerated people, and to give licenses to women and minorities. By giving historically disadvantaged people an advantage in this new market, New Jersey will be giving back and promoting equity.
If New Jersey wants to make this piece of legislation a success, it should follow Colorado’s model and not only set a low tax percentage, but also distribute the tax revenue among several different factions to promote equity in disadvantaged towns and to raise the standard of living throughout the state. Patel mentioned that the government obviously wants a higher tax rate because that’s where they’re going to get their money from, but setting a high tax on an already expensive product isn’t beneficial to the public they’re trying to serve. The only way that would be fair is if they distribute the funds in a way that really helps the citizens.
