The nation's AG has given U.S. attorneys the OK to bust legal pot operations

Maybe it was just a coincidence that the same week recreational marijuana became legal in the blue state of California, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions decided to spread some chaos and give U.S. attorneys the OK to sic their G-men on marijuana operations in states where the drug is legal under state law.

Pot is illegal under federal law, but states increasingly have been ignoring that fact and passing their own laws to legalize and tax pot. Smoking pot is a moral problem for Sessions, though. Drinking alcohol, which causes far, far more damage to society than pot, apparently is okey-dokey with him.

"Good people don’t smoke marijuana," Sessions said in late 2016.

This apparently ends the cease-fire put in place by President Barack Obama, who took a state’s rights position on the drug’s sale and use in states that had legalized it.

He instructed U.S. attorneys across the land to take a laissez-faire approach on marijuana in those states. Obama knew that public opinion about marijuana use was changing rapidly and that more and more people favored its legalization.

Today, 29 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana use in some form. Some states, like Illinois, allow marijuana use for certain medical conditions. Other states, like Washington, Oregon, Colorado, California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Maine, have legalized recreational use.

That’s a whole lot of bad people, Jeff!

Among the state-sanctioned pot-growing operations in Illinois is InGrown Farms. Stephenson County Board Chairman Bill Hadley, a lifelong Republican, worked hard in 2015 to bring the indoor-growing operation to the county’s Mill Race Industrial Park near Freeport. There has been no opposition to it.

In the statement he released Thursday, Sessions said: "It is the mission of the Department of Justice to enforce the laws of the United States, and the previous issuance of guidance (by Obama) undermines the rule of law and the ability of our local, state, tribal and federal enforcement partners to carry out the mission. … Therefore, today’s memo on federal marijuana enforcement simply directs all U.S. attorneys to use previously established prosecutorial principles that provide them all the necessary tools to disrupt criminal organizations, tackle the growing drug crisis, and thwart violent crime across our country."

Does this mean people like Hadley are soon to be accused of aiding and abetting the establishment of a criminal marijuana-growing operation? Will the owners and workers at InGrown Farms be keelhauled under a Mississippi River barge?

Will Coloradans be forced down from their Rocky Mountain High? Will California declare independence?

Will states, cities and counties that have decriminalized possession of small amounts of pot be forced to make it a criminal offense again?

Sessions is directly contradicting President Donald Trump's campaign position on pot. Candidate Trump told the Washington Post: "In terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state. … I think medical should happen — right? Don’t we agree? I think so. And then I really believe we should leave it to the states."

That’s just what Obama was already doing. Is anyone even going to remind Trump that Sessions is going against the president's stated position? Or has the president changed his mind? Who knows?

What Sessions is about to do is to repeat one of our nation’s worst mistakes — Prohibition. The circumstances are different but the outcome will be the same — utter confusion.

Prohibition of recreational alcohol took effect under the 18th Amendment in January 1920. Because a hugely popular social activity was now illegal, and because people still wanted to drink adult beverages, organized crime families quickly became liquor entrepreneurs and grew tremendously wealthy. They had plenty of money to buy police chiefs, mayors and state and local politicians.

Illegal bars called speakeasies sprang up in the cities; "supper clubs" were built in the countryside, far away from the local cops. In North Carolina, backwoods moonshiners souped up their cars to outrun the police, a practice that led to stock car races and to NASCAR. Shootouts were common as gangs vied for control of the liquor trade in city after city.

As the market for alcohol continued unabated, the big hand of government couldn’t control it. Some states just stopped enforcing Prohibition, frustrating the feds who were still trying to thwart liquor sales and use.

Finally, in 1933, Americans came to their senses and passed the 21st Amendment, repealing the 18th. The new amendment simply gave the states the right to legalize and regulate recreational alcohol. Most states did so immediately, but not all. Oklahoma held out until 1959.

Thanks, Jeff, for using Big Government to return us to those thrilling days of yesteryear. The gangsters say thanks, too.

Chuck Sweeny: 815-987-1366; csweeny@rrstar.com; @chucksweeny