Attorney General Message
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Sessions Letter to US Attorneys
Friends, we have all been waiting and praying for something to happen in terms of federal enforcement of federal laws regarding drugs. Today, I am forwarding the best news I could possibly share regarding this issue.
On May 10, 2017, Attorney General Sessions sent a memo to United States Attorneys directing them to follow all federal laws regarding charging and sentencing in federal investigations. This is a dramatic reversal from the position of former AG Eric Holder, and a return to rules and policies that reflect the law (including federal statutes and numerous Supreme Court decisions).
The attached letter from AG Sessions, is more valuable than I can possibly explain right now, but when you combine this letter with Session’s statement to a law enforcement group in New York this morning, you get the following:
In 2015, more than 52,000 Americans died from a drug overdose. According to a report by the New England Journal of Medicine, the price of heroin is down, the availability is up and the purity is up. We intend to reverse that trend. So we are returning to the enforcement of the law as passed by Congress – plain and simple. If you are a drug trafficker, we will not look the other way. We will not be willfully blind to your conduct. We are talking about a kilogram of heroin – that is 10,000 doses, five kilograms of cocaine and 1,000 kilograms of marijuana. These are not low-level offenders. These are drug dealers. And you’re going to prison.
Quite simply, the Attorney General is telling federal prosecutors to follow the laws of the land, both in terms of charging decisions and sentencing. Consistent with long-standing Department of Justice Policy before Holder, federal resources will be directed towards the most serious of violators, and there are no exceptions granted to states that have surrendered to the drug culture.
Because virtually all of the pot manufacturing operations in the United States, and many dispensaries, fit into a mandatory minimum sentencing framework of 5-10 years in prison, large marijuana operations should be prepared to shut down or go to prison and have their property seized and forfeited.
Goodbye tax revenues. Goodbye flagrant violations of law. A new sheriff is in town.
This doesn’t mean that massive raids will happen immediately, or that smaller pot operations will be targeted by federal resources at the beginning, but it does mean that we now have a clear idea of how this administration is going to deal with the commercial pot industry. Every part of that industry is illegal — from advertising, to distribution, to manufacturing, and all revenue collected through drug sales (even revenue that is conveniently rebranded as “taxes”) is considered “drug proceeds” under federal law and is subject to forfeiture.
There is much more to this story, and how it all plays out in the next few weeks and months will tell us a lot about specific DOJ plans, but this is awesome news to me.
I hope that you will widely distribute this information to people in your circle of influence, including governments officials who currently support legalization in their states, or who are considering joining this ridiculous social, medical, economic, and legal experiment in the near future. More later. Monte