A top investigator into the January 6 insurrection on Congress told lawmakers at a recent hearing that Capitol Police shouldn\u2019t be wasting resources busting people for smoking marijuana when they have more serious responsibilities to carry out. And a GOP congressman said he agrees.<\/p>\n
Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, who served as the deputy leader of the Capitol Attack Review Task Force, made the remarks during a hearing before the House Administration Committee on Wednesday. In discussing the law enforcement shortcomings that enabled people to storm the building, he said police would be better prepared if they weren\u2019t pursuing low-level cannabis offenses.<\/p>\n
To resolve the \u201cmanpower problems\u201d of the police force, Buchanan said a reevaluation of enforcement priorities is in order.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, if our officers are busting teenagers for smoking marijuana over at the train station\u2014I know that\u2019s against the law, but if that doesn\u2019t have anything to do with protecting the Capitol or its members\u2014it\u2019s probably wasted time and energy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt requires a cultural change. It has to start at the top, but more importantly it has to be driven by our actions every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nRep. Rodney Davis (R-IL), who recently sponsored a bill to protect the 2nd Amendment rights<\/a> of people using marijuana in legal states, responded<\/a> that Buchanan is \u201c100 percent correct.\u201d<\/p>\n The notion that enforcing laws against cannabis is an unwise use of government resources has been a common theme in the current Congress\u2014and it\u2019s a sentiment shared by the nation\u2019s top prosecutor.<\/p>\n Attorney General Merrick Garland had repeatedly said that he does not feel the Department of Justice should be using its limited resources to\u00a0go after people using marijuana in compliance with state law.<\/p>\n Most recently, he said during a hearing before a House Appropriations subcommittee<\/a> that the \u201cdepartment\u2019s view on marijuana use is that enforcement against use is not a good use of our resources.\u201d<\/p>\n That view aligns with policies put into place under President Barack Obama\u2019s administration\u2014known as the Cole memorandum\u2014and then\u00a0rescinded by President Donald Trump\u2019s first attorney general<\/a>, Jeff Sessions.<\/p>\n \u201cCriminalizing the use of marijuana has contributed to mass incarceration and racial disparities in our criminal justice system,\u201d\u00a0Garland said in written testimony<\/a>, \u201cand has made it difficult for millions of Americans to find employment due to criminal records for nonviolent offenses.\u201d<\/p>\n Marijuana Decriminalization Qualifies For Local Ohio Ballot, With Activists Working To Secure More Measures<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Busting People For Marijuana Is A Waste Of Capitol Police Resources, Insurrection Investigator Tells Congress<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A top investigator into the January 6 insurrection on Congress told lawmakers at a recent hearing that Capitol Police shouldn\u2019t be wasting resources busting people for smoking marijuana when they have more serious responsibilities to carry out. And a GOP congressman said he agrees. Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, who servedContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47851,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47850\/revisions\/47851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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