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Sessions ending federal policy that let legal pot flourish

TheWombat

Go Kart Champion
Location
Vermont
One interesting thing will be how prosecutors actually interpret stuff. I mean, if you're a federal prosecutor in, say, California, are you really going to want to take on the state, it's 60 million residents, and all the press to enforce laws you know yourself are dumb, and which will siphon away energy you need to pursue real criminals? Especially if, as do a lot of federal prosecutors, you might have political ambitions?

I suspect what we're seeing is the last dying gasp of the old order desperately trying to hold onto one of its shibboleths. Big Pharma hates weed because it pretty much negates the need for a whole slew of expensive prescription narcotics. Social conservatives hate it because it reminds them of hippies, blacks, young people, and everything that isn't white, patriarchal, and northern European Protestant. The GOP hates it because it can use the two things above to mobilize its base, which is super ironic because its base is busy smoking ganja out there in the boonies of those red states just as much as anyone else.
 

Firstboost

Go Kart Champion
Location
East Bay Area
Regardless, unless you are in the legal(state) pot trading business, I see nothing changing and even then it is a stretch. If the FBI wants to come throw me in federal prison for the 5 plants I have at a given time, then come and do it...I dare ya. *spooky hands waving*

Also, I've been doing this since 2003, legally(state level), and the feds could've come in and done something after the local Sheriff raided our house and subsequently had to leave all 32 plants and over 1lb dried flowers untouched when they found out we were running a patient's collective comprised of me and 3 others.
 
Our Senator Murkowski has made individual state's rights an issue in so many campaigns may have something to say about this soon. Alaska, being physically separated from the other 49 states, is a legal state for marijuana sales and the businesses are going well. I'm looking forward to seeing her replies.
 

SRoads

Ready to race!
Location
WV
All "he" did was give the states (state prosecutors) the "discretion" on whether to prosecute or not. He did not mandate they prosecute or not.
 

The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
One interesting thing will be how prosecutors actually interpret stuff. I mean, if you're a federal prosecutor in, say, California, are you really going to want to take on the state, it's 60 million residents, and all the press to enforce laws you know yourself are dumb, and which will siphon away energy you need to pursue real criminals? Especially if, as do a lot of federal prosecutors, you might have political ambitions?

I suspect what we're seeing is the last dying gasp of the old order desperately trying to hold onto one of its shibboleths. Big Pharma hates weed because it pretty much negates the need for a whole slew of expensive prescription narcotics. Social conservatives hate it because it reminds them of hippies, blacks, young people, and everything that isn't white, patriarchal, and northern European Protestant. The GOP hates it because it can use the two things above to mobilize its base, which is super ironic because its base is busy smoking ganja out there in the boonies of those red states just as much as anyone else.

Nah, just making illegal hooch.
 

The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
All this drama, and not one company has built a breathalyzer for the police that detects MJ. Wait until pro-MJ-ers get rear-ended by a pothead driver that gets off because the police can't identify the intoxicant. The offender can just claim they're sleep deprived.

Although come to think of it, then their insurance will probably need to pay. Good short term, bad long term, since auto insurance premiums will skyrocket.
 

XM_Rocks

Autocross Newbie
Location
Austin, TX
All this drama, and not one company has built a breathalyzer for the police that detects MJ. Wait until pro-MJ-ers get rear-ended by a pothead driver that gets off because the police can't identify the intoxicant. The offender can just claim they're sleep deprived.

Although come to think of it, then their insurance will probably need to pay. Good short term, bad long term, since auto insurance premiums will skyrocket.

A simple roadside sobriety check can test for impairment.

Your argument for prohibition based on people driving while impaired isn’t something stopping alcohol and prescription drugs from being sold.
 

DoctorCat

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Rochester, NY
All this drama, and not one company has built a breathalyzer for the police that detects MJ. Wait until pro-MJ-ers get rear-ended by a pothead driver that gets off because the police can't identify the intoxicant. The offender can just claim they're sleep deprived.

Although come to think of it, then their insurance will probably need to pay. Good short term, bad long term, since auto insurance premiums will skyrocket.

incorrect. stanford university has a test that detects for cannabis levels. cannabis levels can also be blood tested. a breathalyzer is a very poorly accurate system of measuring BAC. The gold standard is blood levels. You can debate in court rather successfully the margin of error of a breathalyzer, especially if you have acid reflux.

You'd also have to prove that levels of cannabinoids in the body directly correlate to impairment (they don't). Alcohol has zero order kinetics because the enzyme that digests it is saturated rapidly. Very few substances exhibit these kinetics.

so no, your assessment isn't correct, or consistent with the current medical and scientific knowledge.
 

The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
A simple roadside sobriety check can test for impairment.

Your argument for prohibition based on people driving while impaired isn’t something stopping alcohol and prescription drugs from being sold.

I'm not arguing it's effectiveness or legality, just that there is no quantifiable test for it yet in the hands of the police.
 

The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
incorrect. stanford university has a test that detects for cannabis levels. cannabis levels can also be blood tested. a breathalyzer is a very poorly accurate system of measuring BAC. The gold standard is blood levels. You can debate in court rather successfully the margin of error of a breathalyzer, especially if you have acid reflux.

You'd also have to prove that levels of cannabinoids in the body directly correlate to impairment (they don't). Alcohol has zero order kinetics because the enzyme that digests it is saturated rapidly. Very few substances exhibit these kinetics.

so no, your assessment isn't correct, or consistent with the current medical and scientific knowledge.

I understand, but they still need a test other than the field sobriety test. You won't be able to "walk the line" or stand on one foot if you have peripheral neuropathy or are just old.

A portable blood test that measures without needles would be nice. If they can detect glucose you would think they can make a device that measures THC. Do the companies that can create these devices think MJ will become legal nationally and don't want to chance wasting funds?

I didn't know about the effect of acid reflux on breathalyzer tests. Complain to a doctor once a year, get a script, fill it, and you're good.
 
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DoctorCat

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Rochester, NY
I understand, but they still need a test other than the field sobriety test. You won't be able to "walk the line" or stand on one foot if you have peripheral neuropathy or are just old.

A portable blood test that measures without needles would be nice. If they can detect glucose you would think they can make a device that measures THC. Do the companies that can create these devices think MJ will become legal nationally and don't want to chance wasting funds?

I didn't know about the effect of acid reflux on breathalyzer tests. Complain to a doctor once a year, get a script, fill it, and you're good.


My point was that Stanford already has the device.

Even if it is legal, the problem is you have to correlate a given level of cannabinoid in the blood with being sufficiently impaired to drive. The neurological effects of cannabis sufficient to impair driving are not established in scientific literature.

Alcohol has a very predictable effect on coordination. Marijuana does not. This is the reason that a field sobriety test is the only way to check it. Your point about peripheral neuropathy is spot on: There is no reliable way to determine level of impairment, even with a breathalyzer for ethanol, much less one for a substance like THC which does not really correlate very well with reaction time and impairment. The law establishes a blood alcohol content consistent with impairment, but cannabis does not exhibit similar pharmacokinetics to ethanol because of the amount of psychoactive ingredients in it (it's not just THC and CBD) each with different effects: some of them may even enhance reaction time and performance.


The wonderful and horrible part about medicine is once you learn enough of it, you realize how absolutely nothing in the universe is simple. I'm also no fun at parties or medical drama viewing on television.


Doctors: ruining everything since forever.


also: the real problem is we use police officer to administer field sobriety tests, but they have absolutely no understanding of how to validate them or what the findings even mean. You can't expect someone with that low of a scientific education level to administer the test, and interpret it. People with movement disorders (huntington's chorea for example), epilepsy, or neuropathies like you mentioned often get confused for being drug intoxicated. You wouldn't believe the stories I've heard of their interactions with cops.


I'll just give you the punchline of one:
"...I'm deaf you asshole!"
 
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odessa.filez

Autocross Newbie
Location
Roswell, GA
Car(s)
2016 GSW 1.8tsi auto
odd that some of the same states who:

a. did their very best to run tobacco companies out of business

b. continue to shame those who try using other alternatives such as e-cigarettes

c. whine about how the feds need to provide huge sums of money to solve "the opioid crisis"

are so eager to allow pot for rec uses, overturn convictions, etc.
 

The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
How to win the war on drugs: Legalize them and tax the crap out of them. That will stop people from getting addicted!
 
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