The Washington Post

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Sessions’ plan to make street drugs less potent and more expensive is deeply flawed

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Standard supply-side anti-drug mantra is make drugs illegal, drive up their price, make them harder to manufacture and harder to get. But it’s never worked.

D.C. public weed use arrests nearly tripled last year

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Arrests for the public use of marijuana in the District of Columbia nearly tripled in 2016 and are on track to remain high in 2017, public records show.

Inside story on Uruguay, where the government is your weed dealer

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Citizens in Uruguay soon will be able to walk buy government-approved marijuana at a pharmacy for the set price of $1.30 per gram, no doctor’s note or prescription required.

Maryland gov revamps embattled agency that regulates medical marijuana

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“Time to move in a new direction”: The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission has been under fire for delays in getting the state’s medical marijuana program off the ground.

Did you just smell that too? In our nation’s capital, weed is seemingly everywhere

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(Illustration by Alex Fine for The Washington Post) WASHINGTON — Arash Shirazi is a pretty cosmopolitan guy. A music agent and filmmaker, he hangs out with creative types and bohemians. He’s lived in L.A., and spent time in cities such as, yes, Amsterdam, so it’s fair to say that he’s…

Sessions isn’t making America safer. He might be making it more dangerous

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Op-ed: Jeff Sessions’s mandatory minimum sentencing directive risks reigniting the “war on drugs” that has jeopardized the nation’s criminal justice system.

Former acting AG Sally Yates: Sessions’ drug policy unjust, dangerous

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Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates says Sessions is out of touch with broad bipartisan consensus regarding the harm of mandatory minimum drug sentences.

Legal marijuana states see dramatic decreases in car searches at traffic stops for all races

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New data on traffic stops in Colorado and Washington show that after the states legalized marijuana, car searches for all races declined sharply.

Jeff Sessions’ new war on drugs won’t be any more effective than the old one

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ revival of the failed “war on drugs” and imposing mandatory minimums on nonviolent drug offenders will not solve the problems he is concerned about.

Jeff Sessions’ drug policies will expand black market, not reduce crime

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In Jeff Sessions’ explanation for instructing federal prosecutors to avoid seeking mandatory minimums in some drug cases, he got a lot of things wrong.

Marijuana Policy Project’s bank closing account amid fears of DOJ crackdown

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Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy group, says PNC Bank has notified it that it will close the organization’s 22-year-old accounts, a sign of growing concerns in the financial industry that the Trump administration will crack down on the marijuana industry in states that have legalized it.

Sessions: Softened approach to drug enforcement led to surge in drug abuse and violent crime

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U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions says Obama-era softening on drug enforcement led directly to increased drug trafficking, drug abuse and violent crime.

Jeff Sessions could have power to unilaterally write federal drug policy, say critics of new bill

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Congress is considering a bill that would expand the federal government’s ability to pursue the war on drugs, granting new power to the Attorney General to set federal drug policy.

Jeff Sessions has asked Congress to allow him to prosecute medical marijuana providers

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions is asking congress to undo federal medical marijuana protections that have been in place since 2014.

Battling the racial roadblocks to joining the legalized cannabis industry

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Some in the cannabis industry are trying to work toward racially diversity, as analysts say operations across the country are dominated by white men.

Georgia students file civil rights suit after physically invasive drug search

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Students at Worth County High School in Sylvester, Ga., have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against their country sheriff after he ordered what the complaint describes as a schoolwide drug sweep involving pat-down searches of hundreds of teenagers.

Can Veterans Affairs chief be voice of reason on medical marijuana in Trump administration?

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After Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin delivered his “State of VA” speech last week, his department was, unexpectedly, connected to medical marijuana.

Maryland high court steps in but medical cannabis licensing still on hold

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Maryland’s appeals court intervened in a lawsuit that threatened another delay to the state’s medical marijuana program, but it is unclear if the state can move forward.

It took the Trump Administration just a month to turn Obama-era drug policy on its head

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In May, the Trump Administration steadily ratcheted up its tough-on-crime rhetoric and put in place policies that give that rhetoric some real-world bite.

Why it’s so hard to test for driving high, and why that’s a problem

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While several states have legalized using marijuana, nobody is in favor of driving under its influence. But as states crack down on high driving, they’re struggling to figure out what counts as driving high, and how they can reliably test for it. Currently, if police determine they have reason to…

Maryland faces yet another delay in medical marijuana licensing with judge’s order

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Maryland’s medical marijuana program faces a potential new delay after a judge Thursday ordered a temporary halt to the program pending a hearing as part of a lawsuit that alleges regulators failed to consider racial diversity in licensing businesses. Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams granted a temporary restraining order…

Prosecutors say Sessions’ severe penalities order “unnecessary and unfortunate”

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A bipartisan group of prosecutors at the state and local level is expressing concern over U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ order told federal prosecutors to “charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense” and follow mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines.

Bipartisan legislation seeks to undermine Sessions’ sentencing memo

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A bipartisan group of Senators are introducing legislation to give federal judges more discretion to impose lower sentences, pushing back on Jeff Sessions’ order.

Job applicants failing drug tests for marijuana and other drugs at highest rate in 12 years

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Job applicants are testing positive for marijuana, cocaine, amphetamine and heroin at the highest rate in 12 years, according to a new report from Quest Diagnostics.

This judge and prosecutor warn of “great suffering” with Sessions’ return to mandatory minimum sentences

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A federal prosecutor and judge say mandatory minimums swelled the federal prison population, led to racial disparity, caused untold misery at great expense, and have not made us safer.

Sessions’ war on drugs causing uncertainty in medical marijuana industry, concern in advocates

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A document issued by President Donald Trump has put advocates of medical marijuana on edge, raising questions about the long-term security of medical cannabis programs.

Sessions overturns Holder memo, returns to harshest drug sentencing policy

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions overturned the sweeping criminal charging policy of former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. and directed federal prosecutors to charge defendants with the most serious, provable crimes carrying the most severe penalties.

Report: White House plans to slash funding for fed Drug Control Policy office

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Plans to gut federal funding for the Office of National Drug Control Policy could affect local drug addiction treatment efforts, according to a Politico report.