After a 4-month standoff, President Donald Trump promised Senator Cory Gardner that he would support congressional efforts to protect all 29 states that have legalized marijuana in the U.S. Back in January, Colorado Republican Senator Gardner announced he would block all the Department of Justice nominees due to Gen. Sessions’ announcement, creating a standoff between the senator and Trump’s Administration.
As you may already know, early this year Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a crackdown on legalized cannabis. In his statement, Sessions said he would enforce the drug-related laws and revoked the “Cole Memo” created by the former government of Barack Obama to ease federal regulation of marijuana to all states. Sessions rescinded the laws three days after a new legalization law in California came into effect. The General’s announcement, fortunately, hasn’t stopped Washington, New York, Virginia and other U.S. medical marijuana programs from expanding.
On April 13, Senator Gardner made a statement saying he received a phone call in which Trump said the marijuana industry in Colorado would not be targeted. “Since the campaign, President Trump has consistently supported states’ rights to decide for themselves how to best approach marijuana,” said Sen. Gardner in a statement last month.
Pleased with President Trump’s promise, he added, “Furthermore, President Trump has assured me that he will support a federalism-based legislative solution to fix this states’ rights issue once and for all. Because of these commitments, I have informed the Administration that I will be lifting my remaining holds on Department of Justice nominees.”
Not only was Senator Gardner unsatisfied with General Sessions revoking the Cole Memo, but also many friendly marijuana states in the U.S. The most infuriating thing to Gardner was that General Sessions had promised to leave the states that have already legalized marijuana alone.
Right after Gen. Sessions reneged to leave marijuana states alone, Senator Gardner held up about 20 DOJ nominations, according to The Washington Post. Gardner had promised to block all the DOJ nominations, a significant number if you consider that the White House and Republicans have accused of a long time the Democrats of slowing down consideration of Trump’s choices to the U.S.
Differing from Sessions, who said that prosecutors should use their discretion in weighing if the charges were warranted or not, Trump said during his presidential campaign to KUSA-TV in Colorado that the marijuana issues are “up to the states.”
Marc Short from the White House legislative affairs said in an interview, the same Friday Gardner made his statement, that Trump “does respect Colorado’s right to decide for themselves how to best approach this issue.” Short also stated that “Clearly, we’ve expressed our frustration with the delay with a lot of our nominees and feel that too often, senators hijack a nominee for a policy solution, so we’re reluctant to reward that sort of behavior. But at the same time, we’re anxious to get our team at the Department of Justice,” he concluded.
Gardner is currently working on a legislative fix with other senators and recently stated, “My colleagues and I are continuing to work diligently on a bipartisan legislative solution that can pass Congress and head to the President’s desk to deliver on his campaign position.”
Cannabis and professional sports are a hot topic. Recently the United States federal government discussed the MORE Act which passed the House but is expected to stall in the Republican-dominated Senate. This has set the battlegrounds for the removal of cannabis from the Controlled Substance Act in 2021. Professional sports organizations have started to adopt…
The pharmaceutical that is known as Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid pain reliever that has long been associated with misuse, addiction as well as overdose. However, research has found that the fentanyl overdoses and deaths are largely due to the synthetic versions available on the illicit market. Finding measures to reduce addiction and assist with…
If you find yourself to be one of those individuals that like to make investments for the future, you may have thought about investing in cannabis stocks. This investment is considered risky by many analysts. This is because cannabis is still currently a federally illegal substance. Under federal law, cannabis is a scheduled one controlled…
As new states have legalized medical cannabis, there is a mad dash for both local and major out-of-state businesses to secure licenses. As of Nov. 4, 2020, 36 states have legalized medical cannabis, though the newest two states to legalize do not have licensing application systems working yet. Still, with well over half the country…
New Jersey legalized retail cannabis during the November elections. Laws were supposed to change on January 1st, 2020, but that is not what happened. Between the Senate, the Assembly, and Democratic Governor Phil Murphy, a stick was just tossed in the wheels of cannabis legalization in New Jersey. Those on the bike ride to recreational…
There are more than a hundred different cannabinoids that can be found in the cannabis plant. Some of those cannabinoids have gotten…
The CBD cannabinoid is a natural non-intoxicating compound found in the cannabis plant, and as studies have revealed, an increasing number of…
One of the most strenuously argued points of the War on Drugs was that allowing any drugs to gain a toehold in…