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Trump signals support for legislation ending federal marijuana ban

Trump signals support for legislation ending federal marijuana ban

” If this gets done he’s looking at an absolute landslide re-election in 2020″

President Donald Trump may have thrown a bone to the horde of progressives stressed by his administration and clamoring for his impeachment.

He has signaled that his is open to supporting the end of the federal ban on marijuana.

President Trump said he likely will support a congressional effort to end the federal ban on marijuana, a major step that would reshape the pot industry and end the threat of a Justice Department crackdown.

Trump’s remarks put him sharply at odds with Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions on the issue. The bill in question, pushed by a bipartisan coalition, would allow states to go forward with legalization unencumbered by threats of federal prosecution. Sessions, by contrast, has ramped up those threats and has also lobbied Congress to reduce current protections for medical marijuana.

Trump made his comments to a gaggle of reporters Friday morning just before he boarded a helicopter on his way to the G-7 summit in Canada. His remarks came the day after the bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed their measure.

The measure has bipartisan support.

The proposal introduced Thursday has support from members of Congress from both parties, including Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado.

“I support Senator Gardner. I know exactly what he’s doing,” Trump told reporters in Washington, when asked about the legislation. “We’re looking at it. But I probably will end up supporting that, yes.”

Interestingly, California has the world’s largest legal recreational marijuana economy, which is projected to grow to $7 billion in revenues. If the Trump administration makes this move, there are some lessons-learned that might be valuable.

First, California had to cut taxes on legal pot to compete with the illegal variety.

Marijuana taxes in California would drop substantially for three years under an Assembly bill introduced Thursday.

The legislation would cut the marijuana sales tax rate from 15 percent to 11 percent, and suspend all cultivation taxes, until June 2021.

Assemblymen Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, and Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, said they authored the bill as a way to reduce the price gap between licensed cannabis businesses and black market sources while giving the regulated market a chance to take hold.

“We need to give legal businesses some temporary tax relief so they do not continue to be undercut by the black market,” Lackey said in a statement.

If only they would apply such strategic thinking to the rest of our economy!

Next, there has been a substantial uptick in the number of drug-related DUI arrests.

The California Highway Patrol tells KRON4 compared to last year, marijuana arrests in the Bay Area will be up 70 percent by the end of this year.

“We know the law is over 21 to use recreational marijuana but driving under the influence is not. Never has been. Never will be,” CHP Officer Brandon Correia said.

KRON4 got new numbers from the CHP on the number of people arrested driving while high.

This year, during January, February, and March across the nine Bay Area counties, there have been 87 marijuana-related DUI arrests. That is compared to 190 for all of last year.

Finally, some state hospitals have reported a dramatic increase in emergency room visits related to marijuana.

“There has been a huge surge since the beginning of this year in patients coming to the emergency room with acute cannabis intoxication,” said Dr. Ashraf Ismail, medical director of the psychiatry department at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange.

…The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development is keeping tabs on marijuana-related hospital visits. And during the first year after the passage of Prop. 64 — which allowed adults 21 and older to legally possess up to an ounce of marijuana and grow up to six plants per home as of Nov. 9, 2016 — the agency reports the number of hospital visits for “cannabis poisoning” rose 28 percent to 6,887 visits in 2017.

However, for now, many people are excited about the possibility of legalizing pot at the national level.

Perhaps as they mellow out with marijuana, the incidents of Trump Derangement Syndrome among progressives will decrease? It will be interesting to observe the long-term reaction.

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Comments

I see no reason whatsoever for marijuana to be illegal. This is the right thing to do.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to Exiliado. | June 9, 2018 at 3:23 pm

    Author of Rainbow Pie explains how hemp was a widespread crop and a Green competitor of the then developing plastics industry in the 1930s. So the chemical industrial complex got Congress to outlaw it.

When we’re stuck with federal and state laws regulating the same damn thing, it should be apparent to even the most dedicated control freak that America just has too damn many laws.

YellowGrifterInChief | June 9, 2018 at 3:18 pm

Just the way he threw a bone to the so called ‘right to life’ crowd. Personally I doubt that progressives will lick his a$$ with the same gusto. I won’t and I doubt anyone I know is going to be fooled.

You people sold your souls to him and we all know who he sold his to.

Maybe this is just a way to get Sessions to quit? Being a hard-on on drugs was just about Sessions last shot at joy.

    LOL…

    you and everyone you know has ALREADY been fooled.

    first by the #FakeNewsMedia, and then by your Trump Derangement Syndrome.

    have a few moar bong hits: you’ll feel better. 😎

    Ragspierre in reply to YellowGrifterInChief. | June 9, 2018 at 9:19 pm

    You CANNOT respect the mods and NOT work to start a fight, no matter how you have to lie.

    It’s disgusting.

      Tell ya what, you make a better effort to keep your logins straight this time, and the rest of us will pretend you’re being victimized and oppressed.

      Because there’s nothing more pathetic than listening to a failed troll whine. Have some self-respect.

Although I’m not a supporter, if it gets legalized I suppose I can live with it.

Well they do call the stuff ‘dope’ for a reason. As to many ‘progressive’ types finding their way to the polls as a result and actually managing to find the correct name on a ballot…the stuff is called dope for a reason.

“There has been a huge surge since the beginning of this year in patients coming to the emergency room with acute cannabis intoxication,” said Dr. Ashraf Ismail,…”

Acute cannabis intoxication? I grew up in the Seventies in the Burbs, so me and my buds might have crossed paths with Mary Jane, once or twice, and maybe even visited a hardware store, or three, to buy Mary Jane some bong & torpedo jewelry – being the dandy’s that we were – but I nevah, evah heard of acute cannabis intoxication.

But now that it’s twice upon a time, I guess this is a thing, along with pot DUIs.

Rumor has it that big tobacco lobbied mightily back in the early part of the previous century to demonize (Reefer Madness!), then criminalize the little ol’ marijuana weed at the state & federal level. As with many cheap natural alternatives, the big tobacco boys didn’t like competition.

The feds have no business criminalizing this stuff, and in fact, until snoozey McSessions came to town, those federal pot laws were all but ignored. Leave to the states to decide because there’s bigger federal fish to fry.

    Did you ever drive high? Because a high driver just killed a girl I watched grow up. Seems really funny and nostalgic to me. Killed two of her children too.

    Boy getting high is so much fun.

      Close The Fed in reply to forksdad. | June 9, 2018 at 7:26 pm

      Dear Forks Dad:

      When I smoked mj I never drove high. NEVER.

      I’ve also refrained from doing such when I drink alcohol.

      I’m very sorry to hear about the young lady and her children.

      CTF

    Potency has increased unbelievably since you encountered it. Yay technology.

    Close The Fed in reply to locomotivebreath1901. | June 9, 2018 at 7:24 pm

    Re: Locomotive Breath:

    I agree; grew up in the 70s and a lot of people my age smoked and I too, nevah evah heard of “acute cannibis intoxication.”

How will CA deal with the new water use limitations with the water-intense growing of marijuana?

Dope was mixed with PCP and other drugs to enhance the high in the Seventies. That might be their source of intoxication.

Paul In Sweden | June 9, 2018 at 4:17 pm

There should be no reason why Philip Morris will not be allowed to sell marijuana filtered 100s under new marijuana legislation. If it is legal, it is legal. Let it be sold just like any other product.

DUI traffic stops and roadside sobriety tests will increase and new laws & regulations will of course need to be enacted. These are interesting times.

    forksdad in reply to Paul In Sweden. | June 9, 2018 at 4:26 pm

    Howin the hell do you test for pot in the system and make it stick in court? What’s the legal limit and when is impaired?

      harleycowboy in reply to forksdad. | June 9, 2018 at 6:01 pm

      Urine tests. The legal limit is ZERO. The impaired part is implied by testing positive.

        I don’t think you’re in test are accurate enough to determine if the subject smoked 4 hours ago or 12?

        redc1c4 in reply to harleycowboy. | June 9, 2018 at 8:22 pm

        THC is fat soluble, and therefore will appear in the urine weeks after someone last ingested any.

        tests like that just show a history of use. they do NOT prove current intoxication.

        #HTH

      Paul In Sweden in reply to forksdad. | June 9, 2018 at 6:16 pm

      forksdad, There are a lot of problems. I imagine roadside field sobriety tests to show impairment just as with alcohol and other substances just as today. How do we deal with the equivalent open container regulations for pot? I have a lot of questions too.

      What are the cancer and other health risks of smoking pot? Is pot smoke magic the same way CO2 from burning woodchips and bio-mass is magic(carbon neutral)? Second hand smoke? Smoking/drinking while pregnant?

      My thoughts are that marijuana could be regulated just like alcohol and cigarettes with the same liabilities for the manufacturers and distributors.

      Mac45 in reply to forksdad. | June 9, 2018 at 10:32 pm

      You only have to have a positive test for TCP if you charge the person with unlawful blood-TCP levels. And, all legal blood limits are arbitrarily set by legislation, not science.

      DUI arrests are two tiered. A person is first arrested for impaired performance. And, if there is any reasonable suspicion that the impairment is caused by a foreign chemical substance, this usually suffices for the DUI arrest and often for conviction. Except in the case of motor vehicle accidents involving great bodily injury or death, breath, urine or blood samples can only be obtained voluntarily. And they are not necessary to successfully prosecute a DUI case.

      Blood samples result in the most accurate measure of TCP in the blood. Urine samples also can be used to make a determination of the amount of TCP in the blood. But, it is not as accurate. Breath testing is possible, a test study was done in Sweden in 2013, but the equipment is so new that it has not been used sufficiently to produce an accurate correlation between TCP levels in the breath and in the blood. Such tests are necessary to satisfy statutes regarding unlawful levels of alcohol and other drugs in the bloodstream.

        forksdad in reply to Mac45. | June 10, 2018 at 12:58 am

        Sorry I did not mean to down vote you I have big thumbs.

        The real problem is making it stick in court. There are better less intrusive tests than a breathalyzer even but they cannot be used the testing both legal and scientific and challenges from the legal side simply are prohibitive. I cannot imagine courts in a state that legalized pot working very hard to now look like shortsighted fools and approve some kind of test to make it easier to prosecute people they just legalized.

        It’s going to be long, difficult, and probably with plenty of challenges. I have no doubt lives will be lost. Is it worth it. To a libertarian maybe.

          Mac45 in reply to forksdad. | June 10, 2018 at 12:27 pm

          Thousands of people are successfully prosecuted for DUI every year without any chemical testing being done.

What could possibly go wrong? IQ and mental health are overrated.

The Friendly Grizzly | June 9, 2018 at 4:39 pm

Jeff Sessions must be in shock.

He’s going to put the Libertarians out of business, and that’s a good thing. The 1-3% they consistently rack up costs the Republican party far more seats that most people realize.

Plus, hello. This just makes sense.

    Fen in reply to Same Same. | June 9, 2018 at 6:43 pm

    The libertarian party needs to go. I am so disappointed in them this last election was their moment. 4th quarter, down by 7, our quarterback knocked out of the game. In come the Libertarian and… Fumbles away the ball on the first snap.

    Are you freaking kidding me.

    Didn’t rain in the offseason. Didn’t put any work in at training camp. Never hit the gym. Think she’ll just walk in without doing any prep work and take it to the end zone?

    Nominates a candidate that doesn’t believe in religious liberty? Gee, libertarian and liberty. Those words have something in common I just can’t sleuth it out…

    What a disappointment. I’ll never take the libertarian party seriously again, and I’m moving more and more to little L as I get older. What a waste of opportunity.

Has everyone forgotten he had to come to a deal with Sen. Gardner not to block legislation like this so that Gardner graciously allows hundreds of nominations to proceed…? As one small example of the reports at the time:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/13/trump-strikes-deal-colorado-senator-legalized-marijuana.html

Why has this fallen down the memory hole of the entire media?

“Perhaps as they mellow out with marijuana, the incidents of Trump Derangement Syndrome among progressives will decrease?”

Not with chronic use. They seesaw between mellow nonsense and hysterical rage. For the Left it might as well already be legal, so MJ wouldn’t prevent more TDS, its prevalent use likely explains the TDS we’ve encountered.

Not that I’m against it. But the Feds will tax it to death anyways. So don’t ditch any contacts you have networked. Not speaking from experienche of course. Nope.

    Close The Fed in reply to Fen. | June 9, 2018 at 7:33 pm

    Re: Fen:

    Well, I’m 60 and when I was in high school and in the Army, a lot of people I was around used it, mostly of course I was around people my age.

    None of them had hysterical rage. Never saw it.

    I myself was a very, very light user, in fact my friends would laugh at me, because I’d have the same tiny box of mj for 6 months, but it was expensive and I wasn’t going to use it all at once! Frugality ought to be my middle name.

    CTF

      I hear ya. First time I tried it was in 1981. Three times. And each time it simply put me to sleep. Which is probably why I never became a user.

      I’m just saying the current crops are much different.

If someone wants to go through life stoned and stupid, I have no problem with it. Just make sure employers are protected so we don’t have to hire the dead weight of society.

Personally, never smoked nuthin but some salmon and it was hard to keep alight…

Never should have been a Schedule A drug.

As some of you may know from my other posts reference legalizing recreational marijuana, I am not in favor of it. The reasons are simple. It is not necessary and we already have legal recreational chemicals, alcohol.

All drugs have upsides and downsides. This includes marijuana and alcohol, as well as other drugs. The problems associated with the widespread use of alcohol are legendary. Society puts up with them because alcohol is a traditional mind altering chemical used by societies throughout history. The problems caused by irresponsible use of alcohol are well known and cost society hundreds of billion dollars a year in damages and illness as well as leading both directly and indirectly to a large number of deaths. And, all of the problems commonly associated with long-term and irresponsible alcohol use apply equally to marijuana use. Additionally, there is another problem with smoking marijuana. That is second hand smoke.

As I said, we already have alcohol for those people who wish to alter their perceptions of reality. So, marijuana is not really needed. The biggest problem with the legalization of marijuana is the door that it opens. The only reason to legalize marijuana is because people want to use it. The same argument can be applied to cocaine, psilocybin and a couple of other drugs. Once one opens that door, then it is impossible to close again; until the negative societal effects become so great that restrictions become necessary again.

    Fen in reply to Mac45. | June 9, 2018 at 11:33 pm

    I agree with you mostly. In fact, in a college debate I argued against the “well alcohol is legal” crowd that they were making my point – alcohol abuse is bad enough, we don’t need to open the door to yet another addiction.

    Only weak spot I see in your argument is alcohol should suffice for those wanting to play. But it makes me sick and hungover next day (except vodka). It’s kinda like asking people who don’t enjoying smoking to drop alcohol for MJ.

    Just some constructive criticism before you run that horse on the track. 😉

      Mac45 in reply to Fen. | June 10, 2018 at 12:37 pm

      The ONLY argument for legalizing recreational marijuana use is because people want to use it. There is no necessity for it. And, as you are going to have many of the same negative effects on the public from marijuana use as you already have from alcohol use, all that you are going to do is increase problems in society. The rational of “because I want to do it, I should be allowed to do it” is very Libertarian, but simply does not work in a society. People have to weigh the detriments against the benefits of any action in society.

      Medical marijuana is a different story. As long as the active ingredient in marijuana, which is used to treat specific medical complaints, is identified and dosages quantified and the drug is regulated just like any other medication, this is fine. But, when people are smoking or self medicating with plant materials, they have no idea how much of the active ingredients they are receiving. People OD on all kinds of seemingly innocuous substances. so, ODing on a DRUG is very likely, if effects, dosages and interactions are not known.

    MajorWood in reply to Mac45. | June 10, 2018 at 5:54 pm

    Legal MJ is a sea of turmoil in Oregon. Still lots of illegal sales to avoid tax, plus there has been a huge glut which has caused prices to plummet. I am certain that the alcohol market has been adversely affected, although cookie sales might be up. I have witnessed people smoking pipes at intersections during rush hour as well as just walking down the street. So much for in the privacy of your home. But the worst is yet to come, because at some point they will start showing up at AA meetings with their booooooring stories. 😉

    Back when they were getting signatures for the state-wide legalization referendum, I used to comment to the petitioners that they were a strong argument against it. They weren’t amused, and I didn’t intend for them to be.

If people have easy access to cannabis for pain relief, then it could cut down on the use and availability of prescription opioids such as oxycontin. I would gladly trade an uptick in hospital visits for cannabis overdoses for a reduction of emergency services used for opioid overdoses, it would save a lot of money and lives.

    forksdad in reply to Elkolbster. | June 10, 2018 at 1:09 am

    I never once met a medical marijuana guy who dis not also use recreationally. Not a single one.

    When I was a cop unless a guy was a dealer or insisted on smoking in public or a vehicle I just didn’t care about pot. You had to work at it for me to arrest you for it. For one thing we had a judge that literally would scream at you in open court for arresting people for pot and for another she grew it in a garage and her ex would sell it for her. Nobody would touch her now she’s a judge on the top state court.

    So it’s not like I’m a huge opponent. If the mush headed idiots want to smoke their brains out at home I just don’t care. It’s when they can’t keep it to themselves that gets me.

      mrzee in reply to forksdad. | June 10, 2018 at 7:50 am

      My 85 year old mother uses medical marijuana and I can assure you she’s never used it recreationally.

Nothing ,absolutely nothing ,brings out the commenters like pot .Not saying for or against ,just always amazes me.

    Mac45 in reply to dmi60ex. | June 10, 2018 at 1:51 pm

    Guns, abortion and race do the same thing.

    This is largely because you have parties on one side who argue based upon nothing more than desire and feelings while the other side argues based upon facts and logic. There will never be a compromise.

Back in 2009 while hanging out with my in-laws Leftist friends, I had one gentleman walk up to me and say … “If Obama gets a second term, he will legalize marijuana”

I’m sure as 2016 came around, they were disappointed.

For those wondering about the intoxication from cannibals, you have to take into consideration the products that are now made from the extracts.

Cookies, candies and drinks now sold are nothing like the brownies of the 70’s.

Do a search for things like “Bong Island High Tea” and “CBD Gummies”

Some are produced with a THC level far above that necessary for just pain relief