A topic of growing contention is the increase in the number of states with legal and medical marijuana. Voters in California, Nevada and Massachusetts approved the recreational use of marijuana Tuesday. Thus far, eight states have legalized weed.
President Obama has frequently punted the ball on this issue. He has not condemned states that oppose federal drug statutes but also refused to take marijuana off federal drug scheduling, which means they still viewmarijuana to be as dangerous as heroin.
A Constitutional crisis between state and federal drug laws has been in the works for years, but with cavalier law-and-order president-elect Donald Trump, legalization may now face its greatest challenge yet. Without a doubt, only two scenarios are in the realm of possibility under Trump.
First, Trump could order the states with legal weed to suspend and terminate marijuana businesses. This alone would be deeply unpopular with the public, which has done a complete 180 in its view on marijuana in the past 10 years.
If states told Trump to go fly a kite, it is entirely possible that our thin-skinned president could gear up for a massive intervention against legal pot. With drug-war hardliners like Rudy Giuliani and Mike Pence as close advisors, Trump could direct the government to retaliate.
Another similar possibility is Trump will leave the decision up to the states and keep in mind a Supreme Court stacked with Trump appointees could find a way to strike down legal weed. In his recent 60 Minutes interview, Trump implied a similar approach regarding abortion rights.
Furthermore, if the Pacific states of California, Oregon and Washington unite against Trump’s overreach, the absurd calls for Californian succession, a Calexit so to speak, could deepen ongoing national polarization. Though this is a nightmare scenario for the battle over legal weed, we should not underestimate Trump’s inherit unorthodoxy. Trump has a Jekyll and Hyde approach to countless issues, so why should weed be any different?
Trump should certainly realize the advantages of marijuana legalization, such as increased tax revenue and the diversifying of the weed industry. He is simply too much of a businessman to deny these facts.
It also goes without saying Republicans typically disapprove of government interference in economic matters.
Trump may face Congressional resistance if he sends the DEA and FBI into California to arrest marijuana executives.
However, never doubt the power the alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceutical industries have on Capitol Hill. Such special interests have a public antagonism to legalized pot — probably because areas with legalized weed have seen obvious drops in alcohol and prescription drug addiction.
In short, the Editorial Board believes the booming marijuana industry has nothing to worry about for the immediate future. The Trump administration will have its hands full with kicking poor people off government insurance, privatizing Social Security and deporting defenseless immigrants in its beginning months.
We can’t imagine that pot-smokers on the West Coast and in Boston are that high on Trump’s priority list. Instead, we want to warn of another, much more impending scenario, which is the corporatization of the marijuana industry.
As legal marijuana becomes more popular, fancy executives will try to turn the industry into another greedy entity.
We must keep the excitement of this new industry in the hands of local distributors and growers. We don’t know about you, but Monsanto spraying pesticides on acres of weed crops isn’t a pretty picture.
