People can often be ignorant if no one ever explained the facts.  Then there are those who seem to want to stay ignorant and choose to ignore anything that goes against their personal beliefs.  That is what I like to call conscious ignorance.

Let’s meet the ultimate triad of conscious ignorance…….

When I heard Donald Trump was considering a man from Alabama named Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III for the position of Attorney General – I immediately went to google to find out who this man was.  I can still feel the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I read the words of Jeff Sessions declaring “good people don’t smoke marijuana.” (Washington Post November 18, 2016).

You can’t convey your position on cannabis any clearer than that.  Those who smoke marijuana are bad people.  Nice, like my self esteem wasn’t suffering enough.  I’m now a bad person.

Okay let’s just go with his line of rationale.  So in Mr. Session’s eyes, all you have to do to pass the litmus test of being a “good person” is don’t smoke cannabis.  Okay that’s simple enough.

So let’s see who is bad.  Anyone who smokes cannabis.  Easy enough. Does that include the AIDS patients?  The children with epilepsy?  The vet with PTSD?

In the eyes of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III these are all bad people.  They smoke the evil reefer.

And that isn’t just for recreational.  Oh come on.  You didn’t really think medical marijuana was safe from Mr. Sessions and his cannabis militia!

“I think medical marijuana has been hyped, maybe too much,” Sessions told reporters in Richmond after an event about violent crime. (Washington Post March 2017).

“I’ve heard people say we could solve our heroin problem with marijuana,” Sessions said. “How stupid is that? Give me a break” (Washington Post February 2017).

Sessions is the epitome of conscious ignorance regarding cannabis.  He declared that marijuana—a drug no person has ever overdosed on—“was nearly as dangerous as heroin, a drug that killed 12,989 Americans in a single year” (Newsweek March 2017).

And this is from his Deputy AG Rosenstein in a recent 2017 interview regarding medical marijuana stated “Scientists have found that there’s no accepted medical use for it.”

But wait there’s more – because not only do they want to take your medicine – they want to put your bad person self in jail.

Jeff Sessions “hired as his assistant attorney general Steven H. Cook, a champion of mass incarceration who prepared the Department of Justice directive that all federal prosecutors seek the harshest penalties for drug offenses” according to The American Spector 2017.

Remember they are saying medical marijuana is overhyped with NO accepted medical use.  That would mean in their eyes – you use you lose no matter what the reason may be.

I think we have now established who the bad people are – anyone who smokes marijuana regardless of the reason and their conscious ignorance of the facts.

Now back to the good people and bad people comparison.

So we have to ask – who would Jeff Sessions consider to be GOOD people?

I can only imagine the fine upstanding citizens and organizations that put us horrific pot heads to shame……..because again – we are bad………..

The Ku Klux Klan – “Session’s had joked that he thought the Ku Klux Klan “was okay until I found out they smoked pot,” according to the New York Times.  A hate group that has terrorized and killed for over a hundred years is ok with Mr. Sessions?  That isn’t a joke.  That is a telling moment of his character. I think he might want to reconsider his judgement scale regarding cannabis as I don’t think that Hitler, Stalin, or Mussolini smoked marijuana so maybe – just maybe – some people who didn’t smoke weed could possibly be considered bad but I digress.

To even try to understand his draconian views you have to go back in time.  Sessions takes pride in the Reagan “just say no” years and wants to bring them back.  Bottom line end of story. “We have too much of a tolerance for drug use,” Sessions said. “We need to say, as Nancy Reagan said, ‘Just say no.’ There’s no excuse for this, it’s not recreational. Lives are at stake, and we’re not going to worry about being fashionable.”

As one who lived through the Reagan years I will say – Reagan was great on foreign policy –  the wall coming down historic – but not so much on social issues. The misinformation, the near brainwashing culture, and the judgment of others who were viewed as “not the norm” – were a part of the 80’s culture we don’t like to remember.

In the end, I think we all need to stand up and “just say no” to Mr. Sessions. –

The time is NOW to write, email, call, post on twitter, facebook, anyway you can get the word out because:

Sessions has asked for recommendations for new drug laws by July 27, 2017.  He wants his team to “undertake a review of existing policies in the areas of charging, sentencing and marijuana to ensure consistency with the department’s overall strategy on reducing violent crime.” If we wait until this happens – then we all lose.  Every state, every grown adult recreational smoker, cancer patient, aids patient, you get the idea – will all be at risk of the Feds coming in and violating our God given right to use a plant for relief.  They may not come to your home – but they will go after those who run the shops – those people who help us get the medicine we need do NOT deserve to lose everything without a fight.  Stand up and let your voice be heard before it’s too late.

We must stop the Conscious Ignorance.  I have brought my friends and neighbors out of ignorance.  It’s time we had a conversation with those we love. Educate your friends and family so they too can support the cause.  We can’t wait for someone else to save the day anymore.  We have just over a month.  If you can hit “like” on a cute kitten video – you can sure do the same for the cannabis movement.