Jeff Sessions' Letters to Legal Weed States Are So Wrong It's Embarrassing

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, longtime opponent of marijuana, just revealed how little he knows about the drug in a public display of ignorance.

jeff sessionsIn late July, Sessions sent threatening letters to states that have legal marijuana laws in place to expand his crusade against cannabis.

According to The Huffington Post, the letters questioned the efficacy of their marijuana legalization and regulatory programs.

However, it seems Jeff Sessions didn’t bother to fact-check his arguments.

And now, the states he has tried to intimidate are revealing all of the inconsistencies and errors in his letters.

Some of them are just downright embarrassing...

State-Level Regulation Is Working, Contrary to Sessions’ Claims

One of Sessions’ criticisms was that state-level regulation of marijuana is insufficient.

“I recently read the 2016 report by the Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), entitled ‘Washington State Marijuana Impact Report’,” said Sessions in his July 24 letter to Washington state officials. “This report raises serious questions about the efficacy of marijuana ‘regulatory structures’ in your state,” Sessions added.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson quickly fired back.

“We disagree with a number of conclusions in your letter,” they said in an Aug. 15 letter to Sessions.

Inslee and Ferguson went on to explain that Washington state has met all the requirements set by Jeff Sessions’ Department of Justice (DOJ). In other words, “you’ve got nothing on us.”

“We would like to offer you another source of information and data as to how our regulatory system is working,” said the letter. “We invite you to review the enclosed publication, ‘Marijuana Legalization in Washington State.’ It describes how our state’s regulatory system is designed specifically to meet the DOJ’s Cole Memorandum guidance and promote the enforcement priorities that we share with DOJ.”

Indeed, since adult possession of marijuana became legal in Washington, the state has benefited from a dramatic decrease in marijuana arrests and convictions, as well as increased tax revenue. What’s more, the state has also experienced a decrease in violent crime rates, according to “Marijuana Legalization in Washington State.”

Inslee and Ferguson also reiterated the fact that Washington is committed to keeping legal marijuana safe – no matter what Sessions claims.

“As issues become apparent, Washington continues to refine and improve our laws,” said the letter. “Just a few days ago, a new statute took effect that further restricts marijuana advertising, prohibiting advertisement targeting youth or persons outside of the state.”

Washington is clearly in this for the long haul; Islee and Ferguson aren’t going to roll over on legalization just because Sessions read a report. As we at Money Morning already know, the end of marijuana’s prohibition is a foregone conclusion – there is no stopping it.

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Whatever “serious questions” Sessions had about marijuana regulation in Washington, the state’s leadership has answered them. And that’s not even the most embarrassing part...

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Sessions’ Data Proved to Be Outdated and Inaccurate

The problem isn’t with state regulations, but with Sessions’ irresponsible use of bad data.

That letter “makes a number of allegations that are outdated, incorrect, or based on incomplete information,” said Inslee and Ferguson.

“Your letter repeatedly fails to distinguish between marijuana activity that is legal and illegal under state law,” they added. “Instead, it conflates the two in a manner that implies that state-legal marijuana activity is responsible for harms actually caused by illegal marijuana activity.”

For example, Sessions blamed the state’s regulatory marijuana practices for more than one dozen explosions at THC extraction labs in the state. But here’s the problem...

The explosions labs Sessions cited were not at any of the state’s legal locations. The attorney general’s letter “fails to clearly acknowledge that none of these explosions were at labs operating legally under state license. ... In the history of our licensing system, no legal extraction lab has ever had an explosion,” wrote Inslee and Ferguson.

In Sessions’ letter to Alaska, he made a similar error.

Sessions wrote in his letter to Alaskan officials that the “2015 Annual Drug Report” released by Alaska State Troopers “raises serious questions about whether marijuana ‘regulatory structures’ will be effective in your state.”

But in a response sent Monday, Alaskan Gov. Bill Walker and Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth say the 2015 report was not relevant to the legal marijuana industry in the state because sales from licensed businesses did not begin until 2016.

“The report simply does not speak to the success or failure of the new regulatory framework,” said Walker and Lindemuth.

Whoops.

Why Sessions Is Wasting His Time

Jeff Sessions can threaten the states and state his authority all he wants, but he won’t get anywhere – he’s officially in the minority.

In fact, national support for marijuana legalization keeps climbing, reaching historic highs. Over 94% of Americans support allowing adults to use marijuana for medical purposes if their doctor prescribes it, according to a Quinnipiac poll from earlier this year.

So far, 28 states plus the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. And eight of those states have legalized marijuana for recreational use.

And as more states legalize, the marijuana industry is set to receive a huge boost.

By 2020, experts predict the marijuana industry will hit an estimated $35 billion.

And many analysts now believe the industry could eventually reach $150 billion to $200 billion each and every year.

That’s not only good news for the marijuana companies, but also those who invest in them.

Here's how you can get in on the action...

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