Even President Trump is hopping on the 4/20 bandwagon
It’s not just because it’s 4/20 – though that contributed to at least one major senator’s announcement that he’s come around to the idea of decriminalizing marijuana.
Marijuana legalization advocates say they’ve had the best week in Washington since, well, ever. And it’s thanks to politicians on both sides, including the president, suddenly embracing efforts to help even more states legalize marijuana.
“I think we reached critical mass among the population years ago,” said Don Murphy, the director of conservative outreach for Marijuana Policy Project, “but I think we are finally reaching critical mass on Capitol Hill now.”
Consider:
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., announced Friday that he’s decided to support decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level and will advocate for bills to help marijuana businesses (no pun intended) grow. Schumer cited an “evolved thinking – both personally and by the nation” for his switch. As The Post’s David Weigel writes: “It’s the first time that a leader of either party in Congress has endorsed a rollback of one of the country’s oldest drug laws.”
Last Friday, President Donald Trump promised a top Senate Republican from Colorado that he’ll protect states that have legalized marijuana. That’s in stark contrast to what Trump’s attorney general did earlier this year by rolling back Obama-era protections allowing states to create their own marijuana laws without fear of prosecution from the federal government. (The federal government says marijuana is illegal.) Trump’s position on reconciling the different laws was vague before this.
This week, the House of Representatives held one of its first hearings ever on legislation to roll back medical marijuana regulations.
And last week, former Republican House Speaker John Boehner pulled a stunning 180 from his days in Congress and announced that he’d joined a board of directors for a cannabis company. Boehner had once said he was “unalterably opposed” to decriminalizing marijuana because it would lead to more people abusing it, alcohol and other drugs.
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