[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S39-S42]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Rescinding the Cole Memo

  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I rise today because earlier on this day, 
the Trump administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded 
the Justice Department's policy known as the Cole memo.
  The Cole memo is a policy issued under the Obama administration 
instructing prosecutors to shift away

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from a focus on nonviolent marijuana crimes and toward more serious 
crimes that threaten our communities. This memo was a critical step and 
a move in the right direction, undoing some of the catastrophic damage 
that has been caused by the failed War on Drugs. It was a step forward 
for the Federal Government in mending our broken drug policies that 
have so hurt our Nation in so many ways. I believe it was a step 
forward that the vast majority of Americans who believe the War on 
Drugs failed agree with. It was a step forward that improved Americans' 
safety, saved money, and better aligned our laws with our most 
fundamental values of fairness, equality, and justice. Yet, today, 
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has instructed the Department of Justice 
to not just double down on failed policy but to turn back the clock and 
undermine the well-being of our country.
  The policy change actually goes against what Jeff Sessions promised 
elected officials in this body before his confirmation. We already 
heard from the other Cory in the Senate--Republican Senator Cory 
Gardner--that he had a commitment from the Attorney General before his 
confirmation that this is not what he would do.
  This is an attack on our most sacred ideals and the very purpose of 
the Department of Justice, which is to protect Americans, to elevate 
ideals of justice, and to do right by people. It is a failure of this 
administration, which said--our President said during his campaign that 
he would honor what States are doing. It is a betrayal by our Attorney 
General, who gave a commitment to at least one Republican Member of 
this body. But most significantly, it will hurt America. It ignores the 
fact that there is a growing bipartisan consensus that the War on Drugs 
has failed. It sacrifices our critical, urgently needed resources in 
our communities, violating our values and destroying families, and has 
failed to make us safer.
  Let me walk through those four points one by one--first, this massive 
waste of public resources that are urgently needed in other areas. In 
the last four decades in this country, we have spent so much on these 
policies at the same time that we are disinvesting from public 
education, from our public colleges, disinvesting from investments and 
innovation, investments in science and research. Yet we have spent 
trillions of dollars on this failed War on Drugs.
  We have created a nation that says we are the land of the free, but 
we are the incarceration nation on the planet Earth. One out of every 
four incarcerated people on this planet is imprisoned here in the 
United States of America. One out of every three incarcerated women on 
the planet is incarcerated right here in the United States of America.
  Between the time of 1990 and 2005, we have devoted so much of our 
resources to building new prisons. During that time, we were building a 
new prison in the United States every 10 days to keep up with the 
massive amount of people who were being driven into our prisons. One 
new prison was being built every 10 days as our infrastructure and our 
roads and bridges crumbled.
  We have sidelined the resources of our law enforcement officials. I 
know this, having been a former mayor. The precious time, resources, 
and energy of our law enforcement officials have been sidelined, 
redirecting them to marijuana enforcement, and for what?
  At a time when we have real issues to deal with in our country, such 
as a drug epidemic; at a time when people cannot afford treatment and 
when there are waiting lists for treatment because we don't have the 
resources to deal with this opioid epidemic, we are instead using our 
resources to enforce marijuana laws.
  The Centers for Disease Control, the CDC, reported last year that 91 
Americans die every single day from the opioid epidemic in this 
country. Meanwhile, according to FBI data from 2014, one American is 
arrested every single minute for marijuana possession--one American 
every minute for marijuana possession. That is about 1,700 Americans 
being arrested every day for marijuana possession, using police 
resources, resources to put people in jail, to hold them, to feed them, 
court resources. All that can be used better and invested in our 
society to deal with the ravages of the opioid epidemic. Police 
resources that could be used to chase after violent offenders are 
instead being used for marijuana possession. It is somehow crazy that 
we think we can arrest our way out of a problem.
  Doubling down on these failed efforts makes no sense. It is a massive 
waste of our precious resources as a society.
  No. 2, it is also perpetuating injustice in our country. We believe 
that everyone in this Nation should have equal justice under the law. 
Those are the words written on the Supreme Court. But we know this War 
on Drugs has not been a War on Drugs, it has been a war on people--and 
not all people but certain people, the most vulnerable people. It has 
been a war on people, a war on mentally ill people. It has been a war 
on people of color.
  The unequal application of marijuana laws has created a justice 
system where outcomes are often more dependent upon race and class than 
dependent upon guilt or innocence. In privileged communities and places 
all across this country, marijuana is being used with little fear of 
consequences and openly spoken about and joked about with little 
understanding of the painful fact that the War on Drugs in America has 
scarcely affected their lives but the War on Drugs, because of the 
unequal application of the laws, is affecting people in other 
communities.
  I have seen this personally. I went to Stanford and to Yale, and I 
watched drug use being done openly--marijuana use. There are no FBI 
investigations, no sting operations set up to go after the privileged 
in this country.
  There are people in this body who openly admit to using marijuana 
with no consequence. But if you are poor or vulnerable in the United 
States of America, they are coming after you, and there will be 
consequences. I have had countless conversations with elected officials 
about their own personal drug use because it is outrageous to me, this 
outrageous hypocrisy that they could flaunt drug rules while poor 
people and people of color suffer as a result of our marijuana laws.
  The facts are clear. The disproportionate enforcement of marijuana 
laws has helped to create a system of massive injustice in our country, 
and it is obvious. There is no difference in America between Blacks and 
Whites using marijuana, no difference between Blacks and Whites selling 
marijuana. Blacks are 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for 
marijuana possession than a White person is. This is a targeting of 
certain communities, a targeting of low-income people who are having 
their lives devastated by this unequal application of the law. Jeff 
Sessions' announcement today will make the problem worse.
  People don't understand what it means to have a felony conviction for 
marijuana possession. Most people have no understanding that this is a 
lifetime sentence in America. It not only affects the individual's 
ability to get a job, you can't get a Pell grant if you have a felony 
conviction for marijuana usage, which many people in this body have 
done. You can't get a business license with a felony conviction for 
marijuana. You can't get food stamps. You can't get public housing.
  It devastates individuals economically, but it devastates their 
families as well. It destroys the lives of children when suddenly the 
earner in their family, who is guilty of no more a serious crime than 
some of my colleagues--suddenly they have to pick up the pieces after 
one of their parents is sent away to prison. Missing 1 or 2 days of 
work often means losing your job, not being able to make your car 
payment or rental payment. We know that for children, where their 
father is in prison, they are more than five times more likely than 
their peers to be expelled or suspended from school.

  This marijuana enforcement is devastating families--the fundamental 
building blocks of communities--and it is devastating communities. 
These laws weaken our overall economic health. One study found that if 
it weren't for the mass incarceration explosion as a result of the War 
on Drugs, the poverty rate in this country would be 20 percent lower.
  We have a self-inflicted wound by wasting the resources--police 
resources and financial resources--of this country, and we have another 
self-inflicted wound by destroying families and communities 
economically.

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  It also has hurt our safety as a country. There are communities all 
across this Nation that worry about the safety of their children, the 
safety of their families, and the safety of their neighborhoods. By 
taking these critical resources away from law enforcement, this is a 
sacrifice of our efforts to make communities safe and strong.
  In 2016, more Americans were arrested for marijuana possession than 
for all violent crimes combined. How many unsolved murders are there? 
How many unsolved assaults? How much violence and crime should our 
police be investigating as opposed to dealing with marijuana 
prohibition? We have fewer police resources, fewer officers. We have 
occupied our prisons with more marijuana arrests than for rape, murder, 
aggravated assault, or even the unsolved robberies alone in our country 
because we are spending our precious police resources on marijuana 
prohibition. Our history shows this is true.
  Historians now attest to the complete and utter failure of another 
prohibition in this country, which is the prohibition of alcohol. It 
arguably made people less safe. It led to more drinking and was a blow 
to our economy and the ability of our officers to do their job. It was 
even a blow to officers' safety and security.
  If we are serious about making our communities safer or stronger, 
families more secure, we should be focusing on how to undo the 
catastrophic damage of marijuana prohibition, not double down on it.
  I say all of this as someone who ran a police department in Newark. 
It was under my authority as mayor. My officers would talk about the 
churn of people they arrested again and again on nonviolent charges--
which, by the way, many of our law enforcement officers may have 
engaged in and people in positions of authority, like Senators and 
Presidents, have done themselves, deepening the distrust between 
officers and the community.
  I saw firsthand how the disproportionate enforcement of our drug laws 
made communities of mine overcriminalized and underprotected--
overcriminalizing possession of marijuana and underprotecting them on 
serious crimes.
  This is an issue which I know too personally. I have seen this from 
walking privileged and elite communities like universities or here in 
Washington, and I know it because I may be the only Senator who, when I 
go home, I go home to an inner-city community. I go home to a community 
where my census track is about $14,000 per household. I love my 
neighborhood. I love my community. I love my neighbors, but it is 
outrageous to me that communities like mine and all over this country 
have seen the vicious impact of the War on Drugs, while other 
communities--elite communities--can brag and joke about their marijuana 
usage.
  I am proud that I spent most of my adult life working with the people 
of Newark, NJ--a city that is rich with culture, that is rich with art, 
that is rich with civic engagement--but I know, from Camden to 
Paterson, to Passaic, to Newark, there are communities like mine that, 
every single day, are getting the devastating blow of this 
prohibition--this war on marijuana.
  I see the anguish people feel about the unjustness and the unfairness 
of it all and having lives upended for getting caught with small 
amounts of marijuana. I have seen countless people who couldn't find a 
job or a decent place to live to support their families.
  I will never forget, as a city councilman in Newark, waiting in line 
at the DMV. A guy came over and told me the story that he was issued a 
uniform. He finally had a job that had a pension. He could support his 
family and move out of a bad neighborhood into a better one. He was so 
excited. They ran his record, and 18 years earlier he had a nonviolent, 
marijuana-related charge, and they took it all away from him. Think 
about that comparison to the highest office in the land, where 
marijuana users have occupied with no consequence--the hypocrisy of it 
all.
  These aren't just a few people. These are hundreds of thousands of 
Americans who are bearing the brunt of nonviolent charges for 
marijuana. They have had their lives destroyed. They have that lifetime 
sentence of, time and time again, having to check a box about a 
marijuana arrest, having their uniforms taken away, opportunities 
closed.
  I have seen how these laws make us less safe. When are we going to 
get back to this understanding that we--all of us as Americans--put our 
hand on our heart and we make a pledge; we swear an oath that we will 
be a nation of liberty and justice, not for the privileged, not for the 
elite, but we will be a nation of liberty and justice for all.
  Countless people have talked about equal justice under the law. They 
have talked about these ideals and principles from this floor. They 
talked about it in the suffrage movement. They talked about it in the 
civil rights movement. It goes all the way back to slavery. Frederick 
Douglass, on the 24th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, 
made a statement that was as true then as it is now. He said:

       Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where 
     ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel 
     that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob 
     and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be 
     safe.

  Well, this is the War on Drugs. This is the marijuana prohibition. It 
has been a systematic oppression of poor people in our country. It has 
destroyed and devastated individuals, families, communities, and 
cities. It has bled our national treasure. It has filled our jails to 
the point where we had to build more and more of them. It has taken 
away resources from investing in drug treatment or education, which we 
know not only drives down drug use but empowers people economically.
  This is the War on Drugs. This is the war on marijuana. Attorney 
General Sessions' policy rescission today will only make these problems 
worse, at a time that the majority of the American public agrees with 
me--agrees that this prohibition must end. The majority of the American 
people understand that this policy makes our communities less safe, 
wastes taxpayers' money, makes it more difficult for police officers to 
do their jobs, and ultimately hurts the struggling folks at the bottom 
of the economic ladder most. It disproportionately affects Black and 
Brown Americans. They are the ones who are bearing the brunt of our 
failure to get rid of this prohibition.
  Let's be clear about what this setback is. The American people know 
the War on Drugs has failed. They want change. Republicans and 
Democrats and Independents in States all across our country are making 
change at their legislature, at the ballot box--voting in a repeal of 
these awful, unfair, wasteful policies all across this country. In red 
States and blue States, Americans are marching, are standing up, and 
are fighting to change these laws.
  We know States that have legalized marijuana have seen a massive 
increase in revenue and decreased rates of serious crime. Crime is 
going down in those communities. They have been able to put more 
resources to use to address urgent public needs like education and 
infrastructure.
  In Colorado, arrest rates have decreased and State revenue has 
increased. Washington State has seen a 10-percent decrease in violent 
crime over the 3-year period following legalization.
  It is time for Congress to step up to the plate. It is time for us to 
once again live up to our oath. It is time for us once again to fight 
to make our country a place of liberty and justice for all.
  I know right now Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Trump 
are standing squarely on the wrong side of history. I know what our 
ancestors have taught us about the arc of the moral universe bending 
toward justice. I know this is not a matter of if but a matter of when 
we will have sane marijuana policies in this country and end the 
prohibition that is destroying neighborhoods. I know these things.
  How long will people suffer? How long will we waste resources? How 
long will we make ourselves less safe? How long? This fight is more 
than about a substance--a plant. It is more. It is about the soul of 
our Nation. It is about our ideals. It is about justice. It is about 
justice for veterans who rely on medical marijuana to treat their PTSD. 
They fought for us, they stood for us, and now, according to Jeff 
Sessions, with the use of medical marijuana to deal with their PTSD, 
they are criminals.
  That is not the America I believe in. It is about justice for the man 
who has

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a criminal record for doing something that three out of four Presidents 
have done--who now can't get a job, can't get a business license, and 
can't move his family to a better home.
  This is not justice. This is not the America I know we are. This is 
about the mother I stood next to with her child who had Dravet 
syndrome--who fell into seizure after seizure multiple times a day--who 
was a marijuana refugee, leaving a State that didn't end prohibition to 
go to a State that had medical marijuana laws. According to Jeff 
Sessions, she is a criminal.
  This is not our America. This is not the land of truth and justice to 
treat a parent like that--like a criminal. This is about families and 
communities that too long have been fractured by the inaction of this 
body to address the overcriminalization of our country. This is about 
the very values people fight for and stand for. This is about who we 
will be. We cannot fall into this Nation where the privileged and the 
elite have certain laws and the poor and the struggling have others.
  What Jeff Sessions did today is unconscionable, unacceptable, and I 
will fight against it because when I go home, I see the communities in 
struggle. I can't turn my head and not understand that there are 
millions of Americans who are hurting from this decades-long War on 
Drugs.
  This is a self-inflicted wound that goes deep to the bone of our 
country. It undermines our health and well-being, and too many suffer 
because of it. We have to fight. I feel this sense of hopefulness 
because around this country, Democrats and Republicans on the State 
level are making changes. They are marching forward. They are undoing 
past wrongs. I feel a sense of hope and promise, and even though today 
we were delivered a painful blow by our Federal Government to cast a 
shadow against every American citizen who is using medical marijuana--
every American citizen who is doing things Senators have done--I still 
know that truth will go marching on. I still know we are a nation of 
justice. I know we are better than this, and I know what our future 
holds.
  I ask my colleagues to reject this action by the Attorney General, to 
speak out against this devastating reality. There are Senators here who 
represent States where the people have spoken. It is now time we speak 
for the people. It is now time we speak for our country's ideals. It is 
now time we don't just speak the words of our pledge but we make this 
country, in truth, a nation of liberty and justice for all.
  Thank you.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.