A recent article published by the Associated Press highlights the Justice Department's intention to roll back Eric Holder’s Justice Department era policies of reduced sentences for first time offenders, non-violent offenders, and people detained with smaller amounts of narcotics.

This could spell big trouble for marijuana enthusiasts should the DOJ decide to start pursuing recreational marijuana states and those who consume in them.

The absurdity of bud tenders, dispensary owners, and the customers who frequent them being arrested and possibly facing maximum sentencing is almost unbelievable – until you take a closer look at the cohort of old-fashion and obtuse gang in the DOJ.

Steve Cook is a prime example of a mid-twentieth century mindset trapped in an era of evolving understanding of human nature and criminal justice. The AP continues by reporting that, at the behest of Cook, the “DOJ’s new policy encouraging harsher punishments for criminals is now turning his attention to hate crimes, marijuana and the ways law enforcement seizes suspects’ cash and property”.

Great.

Cook’s hard-nosed (and stale) views on criminal justice began as a cop in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the 70’s and 80’s. The AP continues that “Now armed with a broad mandate to review departmental policies, and observers already worried about Attorney General Jess Sessions’ agenda are wringing their hands at Cook’s ascension.”

Cook assisted in drafting Sessions' memo earlier this month urging the nation's federal prosecutors to seek the harshest penalties, a direction that will see more people in prison for longer. It was immediately was assailed by critics as a revival of failed drug war policies that ravaged minority communities.

“Former Attorney General Eric Holder, whose more lenient policies contributed to a decline in the federal prison population for the first time in decades, slammed the reversal of his work as ‘driven by voices who have not only been discredited but until now have been relegated to the fringes of this debate’”, according to the Associated Press.

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