President Trump “understands the pain and suffering that many people go through who are facing especially terminal diseases and the comfort that some of these drugs, including medical marijuana, can bring to them,” Spicer said.
“So I think there’s a big difference between medical marijuana, which states have a -- the states where it’s allowed, in accordance with the appropriations rider, have set forth a process to administer and regulate that usage, versus recreational marijuana,” Spicer continued. “That’s a very, very different subject.”
Asked what this would mean in terms of policy, he said “Well, I think that’s a question for the Department of Justice. I do believe that you’ll see greater enforcement of it. Because again, there’s a big difference between the medical use which Congress has, through an appropriations rider in 2014, made very clear what their intent was in terms of how the Department of Justice would handle that issue. That’s very different than the recreational use, which is something the Department of Justice I think will be further looking into.”
Spicer also
compared legalization to the opioid epidemic. See Spicer’s full comments
here.
Later in the press conference Spicer invoked state’s rights in referring to the administration’s decision to drop an Obama directive that transgender students can use restrooms corresponding to their gender identity. He did not refer to states' rights in the context of marijuana.
The same day Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed President Obama’s policy
not to incarcerate federal prisoners in private prisons. Private prisons are more dangerous than public ones
[Editorial: And morally indefensible] but Sessions said they are necessary to “meet the future needs of the federal correctional system.”
The Obama administration said it would stop using private prisons for federal prisoners last year after Mother Jones published a
blockbuster story by Shane Bauer, who spent four months undercover as a private prison guard. It needs to be read, Mother Jones later noted, “by anyone who has ever wondered what hell might actually look like.” The story won this year’s National Magazine Award for reporting.
Drug Policy alliance urges those who want to end “the federal war on marijuana” to
write to their Congressperson. There’s a White House petition to
respect state marijuana laws.
A bill co-authored by northern California Assemblyman Jim Wood (D) would
forbid local authorities from co-operating with the feds to prosecute state-legal activity.
The White House
may ax its Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is led by the “drug czar.” The Fraternal Order of Police
urged the administration to maintain the office.
So far this year,
lawmakers in 17 states have introduced more than 20 bills to legalize REC.
U.S. Congressman Trent Franks (R) said a nuclear weapon could
enter the U.S. smuggled in a bale of weed from Mexico.
Conservative Congressman Mark Sanford (R.-S.C.)
supports states’ rights on marijuana. Sanford is also one of the few House Republicans openly opposed to Trumpism.
The Philippine foreign minister will tell the U.N.’s human rights organization that the thousands of killing attributed to President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war are
not state sponsored. Duterte critic and senator Leila de Lima was
arrested on charges that she accepted bribes from drug smugglers. She called the charges “lies.”
Veterans
descended on Austin to demand MED access. Legalizing has
never been more popular in Texas.
A pro-legal hemp petition reached
100,000 signatures on WhiteHouse.gov, which under a policy established by President Obama would guarantee a response from the administration. The petition is
here.
The British Columbia Supreme Court ruled that
cities can regulate dispensaries.
Australia
harvested it’s first MED in a secret location. It will be reserved for children with epilepsy.
By a slight majority, Dutch Parliamentarians
voted to regulate cannabis grows. (The country’s famous coffee shops have operated in the grey market for decades.)
Home delivery could be coming to Colorado. Colorado Springs’ city government remains
opposed to cannabis businesses.
A bill to provide work protections for legal cannabis use “
received an icy reception” in Oregon. NORML is creating a national “
Workplace Drug Testing Coalition” to focus on this issue.
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) is in “
no rush” to legalize REC. State attorney general Peter F. Kilmartin (D), a former cop,
actively opposes legalization.
Montana’s top election official, a Republican,
opposes mail-in voting on grounds that “they do all-mail-in ballots and they're all-marijuana all-the-time states too. Is that what you want? Because that's what you're going to get."
