As part of his fiscal year 2021 budget plan, Trump proposed ending an existing policy that protects state medical marijuana programs from Justice Department interference. This is the opposite of what he said during his first campaign.
Tag: states rights
President Donald Trump on Friday expressed verbal support for recently introduced, bi-partisan legislation that seeks to codify legal protections for state-sanctioned marijuana-related activities.
Republican Senator Cory Gardner (CO) says that he has received a verbal commitment from President Donald Trump specifying that the administration will not take action to disrupt marijuana markets in states that legally regulate the substance. In response to the administration’s pledge, NORML Director Erik Altieri stated: “[I]t is time for Congress to do its part and swiftly move forward bipartisan legislation that explicitly provides states with the authority and autonomy to set their own marijuana policies absent the fear of federal incursion.”
Despite last week’s move by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to rescind the Cole Memo, a 2013 DOJ memorandum that allowed state sanctioned marijuana business to thrive despite the quagmire between state and federal laws, lawmakers in several states are advancing marijuana reform legislation.
Record numbers of voters support regulating the marijuana market and oppose federal efforts to interfere or undermine state laws permitting the plant’s use or sale, according to nationwide polling data released by Quinnipiac University.
On Monday, NORML and our supporters will participate in a Day of Action to mobilize opposition to the appointment of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions as US Attorney General. Senate lawmakers will be deciding Tuesday whether Jeff Sessions is fit for the position of America’s top law enforcement officer. Unless he is willing to acknowledge that, as Attorney General, he will respect the rights of marijuana consumers in the majority of US states that have legalized the plant, we believe that he is the wrong man for the job.
With eight states now having legalized the adult use of marijuana and over half the country having medical marijuana programs, the American people deserve to know what President-Elect Trump’s policy towards these states will be.
South Carolina voters, including some two-thirds of Republicans, do not believe that the incoming administration ought to interfere with the enactment of state laws legalizing marijuana, according to polling data conducted by Public Policy Polling and published today by Marijuana-Majority.com.