DHS Head John Kelly gave a clear signal that the Trump administration is heading for a marijuana

[applegrove]

crackdown

http://www.businessinsider.com/secretary-john-kelly-says-dhs-will-enforce-weed-calls-it-gateway-drug-2017-4

"SNIP.............


(Cannot cut and paste)


...............SNIP"

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. There was never any doubt. They hate people who get high

because they are children in adult bodies.

[enid602]

39. Profit

No. It's a practical thing for them. Opiates are just more profitable.

[applegrove]

2. The right wing wants youth either ambitiously working, or dead or in jail. You are either in

ceo world or you're gone. In canada some doctors of prescribing marijuana to help those with opioid addictions kick their habit.

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. Many who smoke pot also ambitiously work.

This is literally the kids in school who couldnt get laid, didnt get high, getting revenge.

They want a war with us. They want to kill us.

[BigDemVoter]

30. I do!

I smoke pot AND i am an industrious worker.

I cannot understand the hysteria. A heavy drinker will be impaired the morning after drinking, whereas I won't no matter how high I get.

Of course, I have tolerance from hell,, as I'm old, and I've been smoking a very, very long time.

Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions would be a waste of good pot, but somebody should figure out a way to get that little fucker high.

[Eliot Rosewater]

47. Agreed.

[applegrove]

36. Well they want the ceos to have all your creativity and that is helped

by anxiety. If you smoke pot you are less anxious about everything including work. I mean the ceos want even your dreams to be focused on them and making them more money. People who are high focus either on their hands or the universe. CEOS can't monetize either.

[Warren DeMontague]

43. I think those things also depend a lot on where you are and what industry you're in.

You think the West Coast, tech industry would be anywhere if they kicked out all the pot smokers? Fuck no. Silicon Valley was founded by pot smokers.

[applegrove]

44. True. I'm thinking of regular business model that seems to involve managers

'keeping employees on their toes' with their management style. I've had lots of jobs over the years, but the ones where a business is run by some recent MBA, they make sure they don't have a benevolent relationship with their employees at the lower level. High status employees were treated well so the manager was quite capable of affability. They did loss leader sales events, connected directly to all their customers via email, had half their
staff as temp workers, so they were on the ball regarding recent management practice.

So too someone I know worked in a family run retail business for years. Then the family hired managers that follow this same management style above and the relationship with staff has deteriorated so much so many long term employees have left. The people who left were men and women in their 50s, 60s and 70s. Far, far less willing to be forced into a cat and mouse anxiety situation for the purpose of increasing every last ounce of productivity out of the staff.

Can you imagine what Marijuana looks like to GOP CEOS whose bonuses only come from increases productivity in a world where productivity is slowing down? Women are almost fully in the workplace. Manufacturing has been pretty well outsourced. Hedge funds have consolidated almost every type of business into huge corporations that are lean and literally mean. The smart poor get pell grants. Where are the new increases in profits going to come from to result in a bonus of millions for the CEO if everyone can smoke up? They count on staff 'taking work home' and dwelling on it. Work- related anxiety increases creativity. Marijuana stops that cold. Or at least stops people caring about some job. People with ptsd sometimes get a prescription for weed pills so I know it calms people.

High tech is fast growing enough that managers don't have to squeeze everything out of their employees for the CEO. The issue facing most high tech corporations regarding growth is access to good employees. They try everything they can to keep good people. I worked in the CEOS office of a high tech corporation for a few months. They liked me and offered to buy me a car if I would become more than a temp. I was in the middle of something so could not put down roots. Working at a growing high tech corporation is like working in a booming economy. Everyone loves each other and nobody is squeezed or scapegoated. Very predictable. Especially when stock options are involved. So all sorts of extra curricular activity is accepted as their target employees are the very creative 18 to 40 year olds who want fun lives outside of work. They dictate what is acceptable.

[Warren DeMontague]

45. I think there's just a cultural difference that depends on geography, too.

As I said in another post, back east there's this dichotomy between the 'staights' and the people who at least look like they smoke pot.

Get out West it disappears, in my experience. It's ingrained in the culture. People grew up with it, their grandparents smoke pot.

And businesses understand
one) that weed doesn't drain anyone's creativity (rather, in many cases, the opposite)
two) that someone smoking a joint or two on the weekend is probably gonna be in much better shape Monday morning than the guy who had a date with a bottle of Tequila---
and
three) it's just so damn prevalent that even if its a huge sticking point for them, there's not a whole lot they can do, particularly if they want good people.

Even James Comey ran into this a few years ago, when he suggested the FBI had to relax its policy of not hiring people who had smoked marijuana in the past year or so- why? Because they simply couldn't get decent computer people with that restriction in place. They just weren't there, they weren't willing to work on those terms.

So the question is, does the FBI get left in the dust by hackers and criminals because it can't hire anyone decent to do their tech work, or does it get over its bad self vis a vis whether or not its hackers smoke a bowl on occasion?

[Eliot Rosewater]

48. AS we move forward companies like Google and Apple

have a mature, adult, non psychopath approach to employment and work environments.

I can tell you from firsthand experience, con business people want their work environments to be abusive, depressive and controlling because they actually believe they get more out of you that way.

[Shrike47]

7. Seems like every new business in town is a marijuana vendor 'round here.

Trump wants to put small businessmen out of business? Shame on him.

[fun n serious]

4. Good.

This is just one more reason the GOP will die.

[Dawson Leery]

5. This bastard fascist administration is a greater threat than

anything from the Middle East.

[teezy]

13. You got that right.

There is not much difference between the extremist agenda of Republicans and any other kind of extremist, in my opinion. They don't even realize how deadly these kinds of things are for the future of their party.

[Dawson Leery]

28. The Whitehouse also lost track of the USS Carl Vinson.

It was headed towards Australia for practice runs with the Aussie Navy.

This is a giant disaster.

[Laffy Kat]

6. Are they LOOKING for ways to waste resources and time?

With so many other things going to shit, they're going after pot? Un-effing-believable.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. This Will Blow Up On Them

The libertarians and state's rights folks will be freaking out! This is not what they stupidly voted for.

[jaysunb]

9. See you in court. n/t

[mnmoderatedem]

10. ironic

Last edited Tue Apr 18, 2017, 09:00 PM - Edit history (1)

if anyone on earth could use a good toke, it would be trump.

[SammyWinstonJack]

29. Chocolate cake edible.

[safeinOhio]

11. Their time would be better spent

on a crack down on big Pharma excs pushing all of the oxy drugs.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. Someone didn't like his previous "marijuana is not a factor in the drug war" statement

but "pot is bad" rhetoric doesn't necessarily imply a full on war against the 29 states that are in conflict with federal law on marijuana. We will have to wait and see on that, I think.



That DHS would use pot as an excuse for increased border and immigration enforcement isn't a huge shocker, though.

[Chakaconcarne]

14. Good luck with that.... betting this is more of a

Threat to these liberal leaning states to get behind this president or bad things will happen to their new tax revenue...taking something away that has been voter approved and has gained more acceptance will backfire.

[Mr. Ected]

15. With weed, and health care, and the military, and social security, and.......

This Trump administration is like some Scared Straight program for the USA at large.

"Hey America, you got complacent and you got played. Now you're going to go through bloody hell for 4 years. Let's see if you fuck it up again like you just did. Idiots."

[Mr. Ected]

16. Will Jeff Sessions administer this from his prison cell? -eom

[sharedvalues]

19. Cheers

[enough]

17. Stupid move for them. They should read a few local papers around the county.

Our local rag (SE PA) editorial and comments are idiotically right-wing, except for one subject. Everybody from all sides of the political globe, they all think marijuana laws are stupid, that the police are wasting their time enforcing them, that marijuana and the people who grow and use it should be left the fuck alone.

So good, let them keep on with that. It can only hurt them.

[sharedvalues]

18. Remember Nixon drug war was a way to hurt political enemies

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html

Aide says Nixon's war on drugs targeted blacks, hippies

[grantcart]

20. It included this point however

"The solution is not arresting a lot of users," Kelly added.

[Warren DeMontague]

21. That was the quasi-reasonable statement he made the other day.

Apparently someone in the messaging department didn't like it.

[grantcart]

23. The reality is that Fed Law Enforcement doesn't have resources to go after users

Especially if they are going to go after visa over stayers, etc.

[Warren DeMontague]

26. Dirty little secret is, they don't really have the resources to go after the businesses, either.

I mean, they could try, but it quite likely could have all sorts of unintended consequences, even if they try and do it on the "cheap"- sending letters, suing states to shut down their legal markets, etc.

States could- and given the approval ratings of the Trump administration and this particularly unpopular piece of theoretical public policy, likely would- decide to completely take marijuana out of their state law equations entirely, resulting in a cannabis free-for-all.

What is often overlooked in these debates is, I strongly suspect (and anectdotal news reports from people involved in the process corroborate) the Cole Memo wasn't a result of Obama pushing for pot legalization- rather, it came about from internal discussions at the DOJ seriously looking at what options they realistically had once CO and WA legalized- and those options, from the perspective of "we must crack down on legal weed" people, were pretty slim and unappealing.

Another thing to remember is that ANY criminal actions they bring in a marijuana legal state, will eventually likely have to go before a jury comprised of 12 voters who statistically probably voted for legalization.

But yes, the idea that somehow the Feds are going to start arresting 60 million pot smokers is beyond ridiculous fantasy. That is not to say they won't use it as an excuse in increased immigration enforcement, I suspect they will.

[grantcart]

25. Also it appears that the Trump administration will only be able to track drug shipments that

are significantly larger than an aircraft carrier.

[MissB]

38. .

well played

[applegrove]

32. Nelson, British Columbia has one of the lowest crime rates in

BC as cities go. Why? Everyone smokes pot. Smoking pot reduces other crimes.

[grantcart]

33. I meet a lot of law enforcement officers and all of them want it legalized for the simple reason

that domestic conflict calls are the most dangerous calls they make and they all are afraid what might happen if the couple has been drinking alcohol but never worry about a couple that has been smoking MJ.

[applegrove]

34. Yes.

[Warren DeMontague]

22. The Domestic Cannabis industry is poised to create tens of thousands of new American Jobs.

It's possible he's protecting us from crappy mex weed. Ours is way better, anyway.

[TeamPooka]

24. Prohibition is a failed public policy, again.

[vi5]

27. Democrats would be wise...

...to firmly plant (no pun intended) themselves on the side of decriminalization at least, but ideally legalization. This is a huuuuge issue for young voters and right now this is one of many issues where Republicans stake a ridiculous and hardline position that is unpopular and most Democrats try and play it safe and pull a "Not as bad as those other guys" approach. Not only is a big and easy issue passing us by, it's another issue that plays into the "Democrats play everything too safe" perception that continues to dog us.

[Warren DeMontague]

42. Absolutely. Most Americans support legalization and something like 71% support letting states decide

[vi5]

46. This issue exemplifies....

..our party's tone deafness (on other issues too, but this one in a major way). This is another example of them allowing outdated Republican beliefs to dictate the narrative and the scope of "acceptable" positions, even though legalization would not only be acceptable but PREFERABLE.

Our elected representatives need to get their heads out of Morning Joe's ass and start selling themselves as the ones with the popular opinions that have a majority of approval.

[samnsara]

31. so why don't they criminalize prostitution in Nevada?

[marlakay]

41. Most of them would end up in jail

I seem to remember when they talked about where republican convention was going to be they talked a lot about hookers.

[lunasun]

35. But if it was legal , criminal orgs would not be involved or be a border issue

Big pharma shill really makes no sense
Kelly referred to the "vast tonnages" of marijuana and hard drugs that 'TCOs' — transnational criminal organizations — move across the border from Mexico.

Though Kelly has come out in favor of prosecuting marijuana, he told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that marijuana "isn't a factor" in the drug war, and is scarcely the biggest issue on the US-Mexico border.

[librechik]

37. They'd better prepare for an avalanche of opposition

no matter what they think, this isn't the thirties, and Reefer Madness is fiction, and everybody knows that now--except the crack pots in the Dumb administration.

[L. Coyote]

40. Oregon Governor just signed law to protect privacy of marijuana purchasers!

Sorry Sessions

[Calculating]

49. I'll wait and see

After the last 10 'scares' regarding this issue, I'm now in the "wait and see" camp. The Republicans would need to be EXCEPTIONALLY stupid to actually make a move against legal cannabis. I suspect this is just more saber rattling meant to intimidate blue states.

[Warren DeMontague]

50. I think Sessions is going to make a lot of "reefer madness" noise

But I think he knows that he's taking on an extremely unpopular fight with little upside if he really tries to "do something" about the legal states.

There are a number of pieces of important legislation we all should be encouraging our reps to support, however.

If the Polis-McClintock Amendment passes- having failed by just 9 votes in the house in 2015- it would arguably take the matter out of Sessions' hands entirely.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/polis-introduces-to-protect-marijuana-from-session