Just like me after Thanksgiving, the latest roundup of cannabis quotes is super-sized due to last week’s short holiday break. We’ve got the usual pursed-lipped comments from Jeff Sessions, reactions to Sessions’ ongoing attack on legal cannabis, Chris Christie hating on legalization (yet again), a failed drug bust over…hibiscus?, Anthony Bourdain educating the masses on proper joint rolling, and more.
Here’s a roundup of quotes from the past week.
“We’re working on that very hard right now. We had meetings yesterday and talked about it at some length. It’s my view that the use of marijuana is detrimental and we should not give encouragement in any way to it.”
– Attorney General Jeff Sessions responding to a question about whether the federal government is planning to crack down on legal recreational cannabis
“With respect to everything else going on in the U.S., this is pretty low priority. To prosecute an act that is otherwise lawful under state law, one could make the argument [that] as a matter of policy, we’ve got other priorities we ought to be spending our resources on.”
– Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who led the Justice Department under President George W. Bush, criticizing Jeff Sessions’ potential crackdown on legal medical marijuana markets
Dear @TheJusticeDept Sessions: If you have agents & prosecutors with nothing to do, here are crimes more important than the stupid federal law against marijuana:
Child pornography
Kidnapping
Bank Robbery
Identity TheftAnd are you ready for this … here it comes
PERJURY https://t.co/TInvB9q4EX
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 1, 2017
– Rep Ted Lieu (D-CA) delightfully throwing shade at Jeff Sessions’ focus on legal cannabis markets. In another tweet, he said, “S. T. U. P. I. D. waste of federal resources. So we are going to have highly trained federal agents and federal prosecutors spend time on marijuana? That’s beyond dumb. Oh, it will also hurt patients who use marijuana for medicinal purposes.”
“I think what we’re doing, it’s the same, virtually the same as putting fentanyl on a shelf within reach of kids. Having plants in the home, it’s just as wacky, it’s just as unacceptable, it’s just as dangerous for Canadian society.”
– Conservative MP Peter Kent speaking in Canada’s House of Commons on November 21st. When VICE reached out asking him to ‘splain himself, he doubled down on the anti-cannabis rhetoric, saying, “I’m quite aware that cannabis is not the equivalent in terms of its deadly opioid content. THC, if kids consumed one way or the other, deliberately or accidentally or as a joke, and became intoxicated, they’re just as at risk at home or on the street as they would be—the outcome could be just as deadly.”
“Why couldn’t the police see what it was? Being arrested, for people like this who have no history with crime and no experience with law enforcement, this is an incredibly traumatic experience.”
– Al Lindsay, attorney for Edward and Audrey Cramer, a Pennsylvania couple who are suing Buffalo Township police and Nationwide Insurance Co. after an insurance agent visited their property to document an insurance claim and snapped photos of what he thought were cannabis plants but turned out to be hibiscus flowers. Because of those photos, Buffalo Township police obtained a search warrant for the Cramers’ property and handcuffed the couple while they ransacked their home for hours searching for cannabis.
“It’s blood money. It’s disgraceful and it’s disgusting.”
– Disgraced governor of New Jersey Chris Christie responding to the idea of New Jersey legalizing cannabis and collecting tax revenue to help offset the state’s budget problems
“While this language from an old case might be seen as somewhat arcane today, the principle remains: A party may seek injunctive relief not just to halt an ongoing harm, but also to head off that harm if the harm can reasonably be predicted to occur in the reasonably near future.”
– Yamill County Circuit Court Judge John Collins denying a motion to dismiss a complaint filed against Steven, Mary, and Richard Wagner, who are planning to start a legal cannabis grow operation in Oregon but are facing an injunction filed by a nearby vineyard alleging that the future grow’s cannabis odors would damage their wine grapes with “foul-smelling particles.” The Wagners asked for the lawsuit to be thrown out because there’s no evidence that “marijuana odors would cross property lines and because the planned marijuana operation wasn’t yet definite.”
“I don’t take performance-enhancing drugs, I mean, but I come from Nevada. So it’s legal now and I have a puff every now and then. I plead guilty to that. Other than that, I keep my body in pretty good shape.”
– Hall of Fame boxing promoter Bob Arum, sharing his pro-cannabis views. He added, “I started [using marijuana] in 1966. Kids, young kids shouldn’t do it because your brain is being formulated. But in 1966, I was in my 30s and I started. I don’t do it at work, I do it for recreation. It’s good for you, it’s good for you. Cannabis is good for you! It’s these damn people during the Nixon administration that really put cannabis into the position where it was a drug like heroin and cocaine and that was wrong. Now I think people in states like Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and soon California, people will be able to go into places and buy it legally like I do in Nevada.”
“Next to making a proper omelet or, like, wiping your own ass, knowing how to roll a joint is an essential life skill for any self-respecting member of society in my view. Pay attention, people.”
– Anthony Bourdain during his recent visit to Seattle for CNN’s Parts Unknown
Despicable that i live in a country where marijuana‘s illegal but sparkly Uggs aren’t
— Zach Svobodny (@ZachSvobodny) November 22, 2017
– Twitter user Zach Svobodny
Correction 12/5/17: I initially referred to Chris Christie as “disgraced former governor” when he actually still holds office until January 16, 2018, at which point Phil Murphy (D) will be sworn in. (He’s still a disgrace, though.)
