Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to go after medical marijuana suppliers:
I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund particular prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime. The Department must be in a position to use all laws available to combat the transnational drug organizations and dangerous drug traffickers who threaten American lives.
Uh huh. Let’s check out this “potentially long-term” uptick in violent crime. I’m using numbers from the National Crime Victimization Survey for 1994-2015 (see here for background). The projection for 2016 is based on an increase of 5.3 percent reported by the FBI for the first half of 2016:
If you think that this plus an opioid epidemic justifies cracking down on medical marijuana, I don’t have anything more for you. This is my best shot. But I’d sure suggest cracking down on drug gangs and opioid manufacturers first.
