MMJ: The Show That Never Ends

Just last week you said you thought the Trump administration would be too busy suppressing voters’ rights to spend any time going after cannabis users. I just saw Sean Spicer on TV saying they were gonna go after the recreational market. What gives? - Khan Phused

Welcome to the Trump administration! No one knows what is going to happen. They’ll probably say something completely different next week. This administration seems to be allergic to facts. Spicer tried to tie legal cannabis use to the rise in deaths from opiate use, stating “When you see something like the opioid addiction crisis blossoming around so many states… the last thing we should be doing is encouraging people.”

Spicer has apparently chosen to disregard the studies showing that states that allow either medical or recreational cannabis use have seen a 25-percent decrease in opiate-related overdoses. The old “cannabis is a gateway drug to heroin” line has been debunked time and time again; just last week, under pressure from Americans for Safe Access, the DEA’s website removed a document filled with myths, from the gateway theory to claims that cannabis use causes lung damage.

If the Trump regime is interested in going after the recreational market, they face an extremely difficult battle. California, Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, Nevada, Colorado, Maine and Alaska all allow for recreational adult use of cannabis. Is the DEA really ready to go after legitimate business owners in eight different states?

Also, if the plan is to go after recreational use while leaving medical cannabis alone, California is good to go. We’ve had medical marijuana laws since 1996. The MMRSA is well on its way to creating robust and comprehensive regulations. And the state Legislature may even help us out: One of the 44 cannabis-related bills (a list is at www.canorml.org) introduced this session is AB 1578, which would “prohibit a state or local agency from using resources to assist a federal agency to investigate, detain, detect, report, or arrest a person for commercial or noncommercial marijuana or medical cannabis activity that is authorized by law in the state.” You are reading that correctly. Some California lawmakers want to keep local law enforcement from snitching to the feds. Call your representatives and tell them to support AB 1578.