Another step backwards

I usually refrain from political posts on this blog, as the intent is to keep readers aware of how novel writing is progressing.  Today is not that day! Yesterday saw the US take a big backwards step when US Attorney General Jeff Sessions released a memo that rescinded the Cole Memo under the Obama Administration.

To set the record straight, I did not vote for Obama, Clinton (either of them), or Trump (and, yes, I did vote in every election). I also served as a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition in an attempt to reverse the War on Drugs that has torn this country apart, eroded our civil rights, and left millions of minorities with felony convictions.

Let’s face it, drugs are generally not good. None of them. I include alcohol. I drink alcohol and coffee, so, yes, I’m a drug user. I don’t use marijuana, despite living in a state where it’s legal. Never have, never will. Can’t stand the smell, and don’t like hanging around stoned people. Seen enough of them.

Having said that, when I was a cop, I never saw a stoned person start a fight, beat his spouse, or do anything violent, unlike drunk people who do.

So, what does this new “Sessions Memo” do? Well, first off, it’s another attack on state’s rights (wait, didn’t Session’s state secede from the union under those same words?). It’s an attack on the majority of Americans who support legalization. It’s an attack on our sensibilities.

My attitude is pretty simple – legalize and regulate drugs like we do alcohol. Let the states decide how to do so. Perhaps some direct action is necessary to ensure that the commerce clause (which is what the USAG is using to defend his immoral actions) should be amended through a constitutional amendment to clearly state that it is designed to prevent states from enacting tariffs against other states and restricting trade between the states, and that individual actions (e.g., growing agricultural products for personal consumption, sale in the community, or sale in the state) are not covered under the commerce clause (thank you SCOTUS for such a bad decision in the 1930s).

For those that don’t recall, alcohol was prohibited ONLY through an amendment to the constitution because there was no other mechanism to prohibit something by the federal government (regulation, btw, is not prohibition). It was also repealed through the amendment process, but only after years of violence and corruption (sound familiar?). It wasn’t until the SCOTUS ruled on the commerce clause that the US was able to prohibit drugs (thank Nixon for that little multi-trillion dollar waste of resources).

People have already declared they want to use pot. State governments are reaping the rewards through sin taxes (here in Washington State it’s 37%!).

I don’t like pot, but I don’t like Session’s actions even more. Jeff Sessions – revoke your memo and resign.  You’re a dinosaur in a modern world and you need to go the way of dinosaurs.

Congress, it’s time to do your job and remove marijuana from the Schedule 1 list. Put it in the same category as alcohol (which is probably the biggest gateway drug of all, far ahead of marijuana).

Rant off.