Dem senator: Administration crackdown on marijuana is ‘backward and inhumane’

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) on Sunday slammed the Trump administration’s crackdown on marijuana users, calling it “backward and inhumane.” 

“This is backward and inhumane,” Schatz tweeted. “I hope every third-party voting progressive remembers this. There’s a real difference between R’s and D’s.”

Sessions: “Good people don’t smoke marijuana.” He’s reversing 8 yrs of progress towards a more humane, less expensive, more just system. https://t.co/w71D56p5U5

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) July 23, 2017

Schatz said Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reversing eight years of progress toward a “more humane, less expensive, more just system” by focusing on punishing marijuana users with tougher sentences.

{mosads}President Trump’s Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety, led by Sessions, is expected to release a report next week that criminal justice reform advocates fear will link marijuana to violent crime and recommend tougher sentences for those caught growing, selling and smoking the plant.  

This is backward and inhumane. I hope every third-party voting progressive remembers this. There’s a real difference between R’s and D’s. https://t.co/ZdO1OiDxUn

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) July 23, 2017

Sessions sent a memo in April updating the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and Department of Justice component heads on the work of the task force, which he said would be accomplished through various subcommittees. In the memo, Sessions said he has asked for initial recommendations no later than July 27. 

Criminal justice reform advocates fear Sessions’s memo signals stricter enforcement is ahead.

Eight states and the District of Columbia have legalized the recreational use of marijuana, and another 21 states allow the use of medical marijuana, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, but marijuana use is still illegal under federal law.