Marijuana activists are anxious over President-elect Donald Trump’s appointment of Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general, claiming he will orchestrate a federal crackdown on legal weed.
Sessions, who is having his confirmation hearing Tuesday, is a staunch opponent of marijuana reform and some activists worry his appointment may lead to further raids in states where marijuana is legal. Advocates of marijuana legalization at the state and federal level are concerned Trump will take a hands-off approach to the enforcement of current state laws and give Sessions permission to push a pro-marijuana prohibition agenda, reports Forbes.
Sessions is expected to secure the confirmation Tuesday and some activists allege there is already a plan in place to begin rebuking recent state decisions to legalize the substance.
“The rumor I’ve heard is that they will be cracking down with D. C. first,” Adam Eidinger, founder of the D. C. Cannabis Coalition, told Forbes. “That a large number of dispensaries are going to get shut down straight up, shut down by the DEA six months from now. Then all the states that legalized are going to get letters saying ‘No, don’t do it.’”
It remains unclear whether or not Trump will be adversarial against state marijuana laws, but he did promise to respect state law on the issue during the campaign. Sessions said in April lawmakers have failed to spread the message to the public, especially the youth, that “good people don’t smoke marijuana.”
“We need grown-ups in charge in Washington to say marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized, it ought not to be minimized, that it’s in fact a very real danger,” Sessions added.
Advocates for marijuana legalization in the District are planning a show of civil disobedience for Trump’s inauguration by protesting federal weed laws. The protesters will gather at Dupont Circle at 8 a.m. Jan. 20 and then march to the Capitol where they plan to give away 4,200 marijuana gifts. Selling weed in the District is illegal, but possession of up to two ounces of marijuana and gifting the substance is not a violation of local law.
The activists, led by Eidinger, also plan to smoke up four minutes and 20 seconds into Trump’s inaugural address, a number associated with weed and the date of the 420 marijuana holiday celebrated by smokers worldwide on April 2o. At this point, the protesters will be in violation of federal and local law and risk arrest from authorities.
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