As of today 29 states have legalized marijuana for medical use (that’s over half the country) and eight states plus the District of Columbia have given adults over the age of 21 the freedom to enjoy cannabis recreationally, similar to alcohol. Much of this new-found freedom can be traced to the work of Eric Holder, our previous Attorney General, who laid the groundwork for allowing states to tackle marijuana the way they see fit. But the freedom to medicate and recreate in well over half the country may soon come under attack, taking us back to the days of legal dispensaries being raided by the DEA, and the rights of citizens being tossed about and pilfered as state and federal governments shut down safe access and seize assets.

“You can’t have the President of the United States of America talking about marijuana. You are sending a message to young people that there is no danger in this process. It is false that marijuana use doesn’t lead people to more drug use. It is already causing a disturbance in the States that have made it legal.” -Sen Jeff Sessions (R) AL

Despite the fact that Trump SORT-OF IMPLIED that marijuana should be a state issue while campaigning for votes, Senator Sessions, whom the President-Elect has named as his pick for the top law enforcement job in the country, sounds like a walking, talking 1970’s propaganda machine.

Recently Sessions, whom NORML has graded an “F” on the subject of cannabis reform, hosted a Senate hearing on marijuana that the Drug Policy Alliance dubbed a prohibitionist party. At the hearing, Sessions presented prohibition as a moral crusade, not just a matter of public health and criminal justice.

He called on his colleagues to spread the message “that this drug is dangerous, you cannot play with it, it is not funny, it’s not something to laugh about… and to send that message with clarity that good people don’t smoke marijuana”.

Well crap. So now what?

Who knows at this point? Sessions has never wavered, even an iota, from his hard-line anti-cannabis message, even going so far to say that he is a big fan of the DEA. Jeff Sessions has solidly established himself as an anti-pot crusader, and he has plainly stated that he will seek to undo much of the progress activists and patients have made across the country over the last half-dozen years when given the chance…and now he has that chance. The man who once said that “GOOD PEOPLE DON’T SMOKE MARIJUANA” will soon be the top law enforcement officer in our country.