The administration of President Donald trump may be moving away from the war on marijuana.
In January, attorney General Jeff sessions cancelled Obama-era reminder about what protected States that have legalized marijuana from Federal interference. Because marijuana remains illegal at the Federal level for any purpose, memo Obama signaled to States that they could carry out reforms without the constant threat of the feds raiding state-legal businesses. The sessions, however, revived the possibility of Federal intervention, told the prosecutors that they could deal with marijuana, even if permitted in accordance with the laws of the state.
On Friday, however, trump said that he is not interested in a new war on pot. According to Seung min Kim in the Washington post, Senator Cory Gardner (R-co), whose state will allow recreational marijuana sales, said that trump told him to move the sessions will not affect Colorado’s marijuana industry — and in fact stated that he would support a law allowing state legalization experiments to continue.
“Late Wednesday evening, I received assurances from the President that the Department of justice of the termination of the Cole memo will not affect the legal Colorado marijuana industry,” said Gardner. “In addition, the President trump assured me that he will support federalism on the basis of Legislative solutions to fix the problems with the rights of this state once and for all.”
White house officials confirmed Gardner’s comments are accurate, the post reported.
Gardner had previously threatened to block the Ministry of justice candidates have not yet received such assurances from the administration trump. With the Shift of the White house, he is now dropping threat.
No one knows if trump can be trusted
Big open question: it is unclear how the Ministry of justice and the Federal Prosecutor’s office oversees react to the deal. Because marijuana remains completely illegal under Federal law, prosecutors and other Federal law enforcement agencies continue to operate against marijuana stores and cultivators, at least they now have to do this, despite opposition from the White house.
Until now, officials of the Ministry of justice refused to comment — raises real questions about whether trump-Gardner the transaction will take place actually.
It is not uncommon for trump to make promises that he cannot or will not keep up. For example, he said during the election campaign that he would leave marijuana legalization in the States — but once he was in office, the session was canceled Obama-era memos, although he did exactly what trump promised.
This led to some skeptical responses to trump-Gardner online.
After the announcement of the transaction, for example, the attorney General of the state of Washington Bob Ferguson issued a cautious statement: “I understand the President trump offered his support for the state have the right to regulate marijuana and the laws enshrining this right in law. I’m cautiously optimistic that the President seems to have heard the will of the people on this issue. But this President has demonstrated a willingness to back down. While there is no official agreement on the protection of the debugged Washington the marijuana industry, I will remain ready to protect her.”
Senator Cory Booker (d-NJ) shared the view, tweeting, “commitments mean little President of the trump. The only way to truly protect States that legalized marijuana for Congress to act.”
The war on marijuana has always risked political movement
If trump Administration did not ultimately back, the biggest reason may be that his anti-marijuana efforts has always been politically risky.
For example, policy sessions allowed Federal law enforcement to go against the will of the voters. Eight of the nine States that have legalized marijuana are still doing it within the framework of election initiatives with the support of the voters. The Federal government is effectively denying these voices by going after legal pot in those States and votes would be offended.
In a broader sense, the legalization of marijuana is quite popular at the national level. The last Gallup poll in 2017, found that 64 percent of US adults back legalization, up from 36% more than a decade earlier. Gallup even found that a majority of Republicans now support legalization. (One caveat: Anti-legalization advocates argue that if the examination of the variants between the decriminalization and legalization of medical and recreational legalization votes would be much less likely to say that they support full legalization.)
So the crackdown on legal marijuana stands in contrast to public opinion, including a majority of Republicans.
This kind of survey authorized political rollback to the termination of the Obama-era memo. So democratic lawmakers, as Booker and the minority leader in the House of representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) pushed against the move, but lawmakers-Republicans like Gardner and Senator Dean Heller (R-n) too.
That backlash seems to have been enough to get trump to commit at least in words, to the possibility of legalizing marijuana to continue at the state level. The question is what happens next.
Read more about marijuana legalization, explaining to read VOX.
Sourse: vox.com
