Tag: Legality of cannabis

For the politics of pot, the times they are a-changing. For example, former House Speaker John Boehner, who was “unalterably opposed” to marijuana legalization as recently as 2015, announced in a tweet last week that he is joining the weed industry and the legalization cause. Boehner, who served as speaker from 2011 to 2015 — and voted against legalizing medicinal marijuana in the District of Columbia in 1999 — announced that he is joining the board of advisers for Acreage Holdings, a company that cultivates, processes and dispenses cannabis in 11 states. My reaction is two-fold: a.) what took you so long? But after his election, his very conservative attorney general, Jeff Sessions, announced that he was revoking a policy from President Barack Obama’s administration that discouraged prosecutors from enforcing federal marijuana laws in states that had legalized the drug. That reversal, an apparent part of President Trump’s ongoing campaign to undo everything President Obama did, outraged Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican from Colorado, which legalized cannabis for recreational use in 2014. During Sessions’ confirmation hearings, Gardner had asked him to promise that the feds wouldn’t interfere with pot businesses and users that complied with state laws. Federal law has irrationally classified marijuana as a “schedule 1” drug under a law passed in 1970 during President Richard Nixon’s “war on drugs.” By listing marijuana as having no acceptable medical use and a potential for abuse and dependency as high as heroin and ecstasy, that law actually prevents useful research into the actual effects of the drug. Removing federal interference from states that have decided to legalize pot would not be the same as a national legalization bill, but it would be an important step in the right direction at a time when common sense seems to have gone up in smoke.