While many held out hope for President Trump to alleviate the excesses of the drug war and legalize marijuana, that hope is looking pretty grim as he campaigns for re-election if his campaign officials can be believed.
Even though marijuana legalization is overwhelmingly popular, the Trump administration is still standing against it firmly even though it may hurt him at the polls in November.
“I think what the president is looking at is looking at this from a standpoint of a parent of a young person to make sure that we keep our kids away from drugs,” said Marc Lotter, director of strategic communications for the Trump 2020 effort, while being interviewed by Las Vegas CBS affiliate KLAS-TV.
“They need to be kept illegal,” he added. “That is the federal policy.”
While the Trump administration opposes the legalization of marijuana, they claim that they are allowing the states to liberalize their policies against federal prohibition.
“I think the president has been pretty clear on his views on marijuana at the federal level,” Lotter said. “I know many states have taken a different path.”
The President has acted like it is the benevolence of his rule that is allowing the states to legalize marijuana, despite facts stating otherwise.
“We’re going to see what’s going on. It’s a very big subject and right now we are allowing states to make that decision,” President Trump said last year regarding the issue. “A lot of states are making that decision, but we’re allowing states to make that decision.”
In all actuality, President Trump isn’t allowing states to nullify marijuana laws. States are thumbing their noses at federal control, and there is little the feds can do to enforce their own laws without state-level support.
The Tenth Amendment Center points out that Colorado, Washington state, Oregon, Alaska, California, Nevada, Maine, Michigan and Massachusetts have flouted federal law and decided to legalize marijuana against the will of the Washington D.C. swamp. Due to the widespread non-compliance with federal law from these states, there is little if nothing they can do to enforce those burdensome regulations.
“The lesson here is pretty straightforward. When enough people say, ‘No!’ to the federal government, and enough states pass laws backing those people up, there’s not much the feds can do to shove their so-called laws, regulations or mandates down our throats,” Tenth Amendment Center founder and executive director Michael Boldin said.
The Trump administration would be wise to bail on federal marijuana prohibition heading into the 2020 general election.
