Our new Attorney General is not 420-friendly.
A lot of people are waking up and realizing exactly what has happened over the last few weeks. Well, most people hit the "snooze" bar and said, "We'll give President-Elect Trump six months before passing judgement." Meanwhile, mister Obama tries to warn us about the coming debacle.
More than a few po-theads voted for Donald Trump. Some even thought he was the "best choice" for legalizing Marijuana. Why? Well, for one reason, they were high. For another, they believed all this Libertarian bullshit. They also were taken in by Trump's incredible vagueness on the campaign trail - he said everything to everyone, so like a Rorschach test, you could read into him whatever you wanted to.
Trump is like the Bible - he says almost everything from every viewpoint, often contradicting himself. You take from him what you already believe in, and disregard the rest, to your own peril.
Over the years, Trump has said he favored legalizing marijuana to put drug dealers out of business. Later on, he said he favored medical marijuana, but that Colorado's legalization was "troubling". Today, he says very little, other than it "should be left to the States" whatever that means.
But then he appoints Sessions as Attorney General - a man who believes that sodomy laws should be put back on the books. And no, rednecks from the woods of Alabama are not keen on the idea of legalized pot. You want to know what Trump really thinks? This appointment says more than all the tweets or sound-bites of the past. And as it turns out, Trump is a pretty standard conservative Republican, based on his appointments. Surprise, surprise! You vote for a Republican, you get one.
So what could happen? Well, marijuana is still illegal on the Federal level, so the DEA could enforce existing marijuana laws if it chose to do so. Under Obama, it chooses not to do so because he ordered them not to do so. That can change in a heartbeat, when a new President is sworn in.
So far, everyone is in denial. One article from the same website that said Trump was a "good pick" for legalization is now starting to shit its pants. But even then, they are putting a positive spin on it. Marijuana distributors and retail outlets may be "shut down" but people will still be able to grow their own weed in States where it is legal, and the Feds won't bother them. That's what they keep telling themselves, anyway. It's not so bad. Just load up the bong and pretend this all isn't happening.
What they don't realize is that the folks running marijuana dispensaries and the people working there have always been subject to Federal Laws - and the Federal Laws for selling massive quantities of pot are very, very severe. We're talking life sentences and million-dollar fines for people selling 1000kg or more of pot - something a Denver dispensary does in a good weekend. Even for a few Kilos, you could be in jail for a very, very long time and run up legal bills and fines that could bankrupt you.
And speaking of fines, all that undeposited cash the dispensaries have laying about can be legally seized under forfeiture acts - not that you'll care too much while serving 20-to-life in Federal Prison. So fine or no fine, you basically lose every penny you ever made.
So no, it's all good. We just have to trust that President Trump won't enforce these existing laws that his A.G. said he will enforce. We just have to hope that the DEA doesn't have an axe to grind against legalized marijuana and the dispensaries that sell it and that they have not been quietly accumulating evidence over the last eight years, waiting for the day when they get the "green light" to enforce these laws. No, no, the DEA is all good with legalized pot. Trust me on this!
And hey, it's no big deal if you want to grow-your-own in a backyard plot or your closet grow-room, right? They will never catch you. The man who wants to build a "deportation Police" isn't going to fund a "Pot Police" - right? And that nice girl with the piercings and tattoos who worked behind the counter at the Marijuana-R-Us, well, a life sentence for her isn't such a big deal, right? I mean, too bad for her, but everyone else will be OK, right?
All I can say is this: If you own, operate, or even work for a "legal" marijuana dispensary anywhere in the United States, you need to think about moving all of your assets overseas and then moving to a country that does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. And you need to do this before January 20th, 2017.
Because your ass is grass - and by that I don't mean an ounce of high quality "purple diesel funk" or whatever.
It saddens me, but does not surprise me, that po-theads are that stupid. To actually endorse Trump and then not expect that he will not be Republican.
I suppose there is some small chance that Trump can rein in an ultra-right-wing Attorney General with an axe to grind. I suppose.
But then again, suppose not. Seems like a huge risk to take, to me.
The shit is going to hit the fan. Big time.
