Even my non-weed-smoking perspective was left foggy by US Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to rescind the Cole memo, enabling states to restore a high priority to law enforcement actions against marijuana sales and use.
And then it only took a few seconds to dehaze his strategy. I spent way more time gathering artifacts to support this piece than actually writing it.
The US government’s study of Behavioral Health Trends in the United States [pdf] has a chart that tells me half of I need to infer from Sessions’ weed intrigue: it’s the most popular “illicit” drug in America. Chart is below.
The other half came from reading the government’s more detailed 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, [huge pdf] where it became clear that the “past-month” drug use category with the greatest Black-and-White racial gap is marijuana — respectively 11.1 and 9 percent of the US population 12 years and older.
You see the game by now, right?
Relatively speaking, there’s no law-and-order opportunity in the Trixon style (my post for this reference mysteriously disappeared, but I found this video tonight) for meth, opioids, hallucinogens, stimulants, tranquilizers and sedatives since the race gap then swings in the opposite direction.
Okay, crack also has a notable gap — 0.5 vs. 1 percent, but no official is even remotely thinking about legalizing a drug like that.
Assuming Prison, Inc. is still on the lookout for raw material inventory acquisitions — i.e., people to fill prison cells — the marijuana channel is the most lucrative bet.
And in true neo-Confederate style, Sessions will allow the states to figure out how to enforce the federal government’s renewed directive to pursue weed possession as a crime.
The rest of this story is predictable …
song currently stuck in my head: “the hebrews 425 a.d.” – gail laughton
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