Marijuana arrest attorney

December 9, 2017

Sessions Spars With U.S. Justice Department Interns Over Legal Marijuana

An internal U.S. Justice Department video of a private event forum that included agency interns and the U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed a terse exchange between Sessions and interns who dared to question his stance on federal marijuana policy. marijuana lawyer

ABC News reports that while Sessions has insisted on numerous occasions that the federal justice system must be based on law and facts – casting politics aside – he apparently made his political views on legal marijuana crystal clear during this event – even going so far as to mock an intern who pressed him on it.

During the forum, Sessions was asked by one intern for his reasons to support “pretty harsh policies” when it comes to legal marijuana, while simultaneously backing relatively lax gun control measures, given that possession and use of firearms has been proven to result in far more deaths than marijuana. Sessions responded by saying that more fatal accidents are caused by drugs than alcohol (though this is an oversimplification on the research on this front) and that marijuana is undoubtedly unhealthy substance, per the findings of the American Medical Association. Continue reading

September 1, 2016

Federal Prosecutors Dropping Charges Against Teen for 1 Gram of Marijuana

By Cannabis Law Group

Federal authorities have decided they will drop the charges pending against a teen who was charged with possession of about one gram of marijuana, after the case gained national attention in Oregon. bud1

The Native American teenager had faced a federal misdemeanor – which carries a possible one-year prison term and a $1,000 fine – after another student was caught with the drug in his backpack and pointed to defendant as the person from whom he had purchased it. The amount of the drug found – 1 gram – is approximately enough to roll one joint, maybe two if you stretch it. In addition to the possible prison sentence and out-sized fine, the teen would have faced denial of federal student loans, public housing and government aid – for life.

Possession of marijuana has been decriminalized in Oregon. In fact, the drug has even been legal for adult recreational use in that state since 2014. But federal authorities became involved because the incident occurred at a boarding school for Native American students that is operated by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education. That meant this 19-year-old kid, who was preparing for college in this fall, had this possible one-year federal prison term hanging over his head. Continue reading

August 10, 2016

Consultants on First U.S. Marijuana Resort Arrested on Drug Charges

By Cannabis Law Group

Two consultants working with a Native American tribe with plans to open the country’s first “marijuana resort” have been arrested and charged with drug offenses by the South Dakota Attorney General’s office. nightclub

Authorities have charged the two men with illegally and covertly shipping marijuana seeds from the Netherlands via compact disc cases and sewn into clothing inseams.

These charges were filed some eight months after tribe, the Flandreau Santee Sioux, decimated the existing marijuana crop, fearing federal authorities were preparing a raid on the operation. That marked the abandonment of an elaborate plan to found what was described as an “adult playground,” which it was believed could help rake in as much as $2 million every month in profits. Continue reading

June 27, 2016

Supreme Court May Have Just Expanded Unlawful Police Searches

By Cannabis Law Group

The U.S. Supreme Court has just handed down two rulings that may have widened the ability of law enforcement to conduct illegal searches – something our Los Angeles marijuana arrest lawyers find deeply troubling. handcuffs6

In one case, there was an expansion of the exception to a long-standing rule that unlawfully-gathered evidence had to be discarded. In the second ruling, the court held that those who deal drugs – even those who only selling locally to their neighbors – were in effect a part of some larger interstate commerce.

As Phillip Smith of StopTheDrugWar.org pointed out, these two decisions:

Widen local police’s ability to sidestep the law without accountability;
Give prosecutors the muscle of the federal government to crush small-time, low-level drug dealers and other criminals.

The high court has long deferred to the position of law enforcement officers. But this is often done to the detriment of the public at-large. Continue reading