John Hickenlooper, who is “getting close” to concluding that legalization is better than prohibition, says he has a duty to resist federal interference.
Two years ago today, during his appearance at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference, Donald Trump said states should be free to legalize marijuana, but he also said, “I think it’s bad, and I feel strongly about it.” He added, “They’ve got a lot of problems going on right now in Colorado, some big problems.” Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who opposed legalization in 2012, disagrees with Trump’s impression of the consequences. The president, whose press secretary last week predicted “greater enforcement” of the federal ban on marijuana in the eight states that have legalized the drug for recreational use, may be interested in what Hickenlooper had to say in an interview with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press yesterday:
Todd: If this were put on a ballot today, I know you opposed it before, but if it were put on a ballot today, would you now support it?
Hickenlooper: Well, I’m getting close. I mean, I don’t think I’m quite there yet, but we have made a lot of progress. We didn’t see a spike in teenage use. If anything, it’s come down in the last year. And we’re getting anecdotal reports of less drug dealers. I mean, if you get rid of that black market, you’ve got tax revenues to deal with, the addictions, and some of the unintended consequences of legalized marijuana, maybe this system is better than what was admittedly a pretty bad system to begin with.
Hickenlooper’s views on legalization have been evolving since 2014 based on what has actually happened in Colorado, which suggests the “big problems” that Trump perceived in 2015 may have been exaggerated by the prohibitionists who were feeding him information. Even if legalization were a disaster in Colorado, of course, that would not mean the federal government should try to stop it.
The federalist approach Trump has said he favors allows a process of trial and error from which other states can learn.
According to Hickenlooper, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, prior to his confirmation, told Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) that marijuana enforcement “wasn’t worth rising to the top and becoming a priority.” That assurance is consistent with Sessions’ vague comments on the subject during a confirmation hearing last month but seems to be at odds with White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s statement last week.
If Sessions does try to shut down state-licensed marijuana businesses in Colorado, it sounds like Hickenlooper is ready for a fight. “Our voters passed [legalization] 55-45,” he told Todd. “It’s in our constitution. I took a solemn oath to support our constitution….The states have a sovereignty just like the Indian tribes have a sovereignty, and just like the federal government does.”
Asked if he questions whether “it’s clear that the federal government could stop you,” Hickenlooper replied, “Exactly. I don’t think it is.”
Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine and a nationally syndicated columnist.
One of the most popular arguments against the legalization of marijuana is that pot is a “gateway” drug with the potential to turn the great American populous into a nation of dope fiends. But today the country’s leading law enforcement official denounced this common misconception by admitting that the consumption of marijuana does not lead to the use of harder drugs.
As part of what President Obama has declared National Prescription Opioid and Heroin Epidemic Awareness Week, U.S Attorney General Loretta Lynch appeared at town hall meeting this morning in Richmond, Kentucky to discuss the dangers of opioid abuse with a group of teens.
In her opening statement, Lynch was adamant that the leading culprit behind Kentucky’s heroin epidemic was the use of prescription drugs.
“When you look at someone that, for example, has a heroin problem, it very often started with a prescription drug problem. Something totally legal. Something in every medicine cabinet. Something you can have prescribed to you in good faith by a doctor,” Lynch said before taking questions from the audience.
It did not take long before the discussion turned to the issue of marijuana.
Tyler Crafton, a student at Madison Central High School, took the opportunity to ask Lynch whether she thought the recreational use of marijuana among high school kids would lead to opioid abuse.
Shockingly, Lynch, the top dog at the U.S. Department of Justice, did provide the young man with a response straight out of the federal government’s propaganda handbook.
“There a lot of discussion about marijuana these days. Some states are making it legal, people are looking into medical uses for it, and I understand that it still is as common as almost anything,” Lynch replied. “When we talk about heroin addiction, we unusually, as we have mentioned, are talking about individuals that started out with a prescription drug problem, and then because they need more and more, they turn to heroin. It isn’t so much that marijuana is the step right before using prescription drugs or opioids.”
For a moment, it sounded as though the Attorney General was preparing to backtrack on her statement to some degree, adding that, “if you tend to experiment with a lot of things if life you may be more inclined to experiment with drugs.”
But then Lynch followed up with what should be considered one of the most important statements a federal official has made in 2016.
“It’s not as though we are seeing that marijuana is a specific gateway,” she said.
The attorney general’s admission that marijuana is not a gateway drug is fairly consistent with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which finds “the majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, “harder” substances. Yet many of marijuana’s opposing forces are going up against ballot measure in several states this election season by trying to convince the general public that legal weed will cause the opioid epidemic to spin further out of control.
Interestingly, an investigational report published earlier this week by the Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity found that lobbyists for the drug makers responsible for the same prescription drugs that Attorney General Lynch says is responsible for the opioid epidemic have spent $880 million legally bribing state representatives and senators to vote against legislation concerning the restricting of opioid use. It stands to reason that these lobbyists are also responsible for getting federal lawmakers to turn a blind eye to marijuana.
Attorney General Lynch will be speaking at more than 250 events this week in support of Prescription Opioid and Heroin Epidemic Awareness Week. It will be interesting to see if she offers additional comments about the safety of marijuana.
The nation’s longest-running marijuana legalization rally runs from noon to 2 p.m. on the University of Michigan Diag, followed by the Monroe Street Fair.
Watch the video
Below is the full lineup for the rally:
Matthew Abel, Detroit attorney and executive director of Michigan NORML
Laith Al-Saadi, Ann Arbor musician
Virg Bernero, Lansing mayor
Statement by U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer read by Mark Passerini
Sabra Briere, Ann Arbor City Council member
Adam Brook, former Hash Bash organizer
State Rep. Mike Callton, R-Nashville
Tommy Chong, comedian and activist
Scott Cecil, Students for Sensible Drug Policy outreach coordinator
Stacia Cosner, Students for Sensible Drug Policy deputy director
Alyssa Erwin, brain cancer survivor and medical marijuana patient
Dori Edwards, Women Grow
William Federspiel, Saginaw County sheriff
Charmie Gholson, Michigan Moms United
Jeffrey Hank, Michigan Comprehensive Cannabis Law Reform Initiative Committee
State Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor
Brian Kardell, Students for Sensible Drug Policy at U-M
Michael Komorn, Southfield attorney
Jamie Lowell, co-founder of the 3rd Coast Compassion Center in Ypsilanti
Reid Murdoch, Law Students for Sensible Drug Policy at U-M
Mark Passerini, Ann Arbor Medical Cannabis Guild
Dave Peters, Wayne State School of Medicine doctor
Jim and Erin Powers, parents of pediatric medical cannabis patient Ryan Powers
Chuck Ream, Safer Michigan director
Robin Schneider, National Patients Rights Association legislative liaison
Steve Sharpe, MI HEMP
Dakota Serna, advocate for veterans equality
DJ Short, known as the Willy Wonka of cannabis
John Sinclair, poet and activist
Marvin Surowitz- former professor and founder of the Partie Party
2015 was a pretty amazing year for progress in the legalization of marijuana.
Four states and the District of Columbia legalized recreational marijuana, many states decriminalized it and several more states approved medical marijuana. But for all the advances made in 2015, the year was just a run up to 2016, when the presidential election is expected to be accompanied by a ramp up in legalization.
In Congress, there are expectations for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the CARERS Act (S. 683 or H.R. 1538). This bill, sponsored by Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Dean Heller and presidential candidate Rand Paul, is a comprehensive piece of legislation on medical marijuana. It would allow states to legalize medical marijuana without federal interference and reschedule marijuana to a schedule II drug. It would eliminate barriers to research and allow banks to work with marijuana companies. Chuck Grassley is the head of the committee and until he schedules a hearing, it is dead in the water. Many hope this year he will buckle under pressure and set up a hearing.
The Respect State Marijuana Laws or HR 140 is also on the hoped for hearings list. Mason Tvert, Director of Communications for the Marijuana Policy Project said, “We expect support will continue to grow for both of those bills as well as for legislation regarding veterans’ access to medical marijuana and banking for medical marijuana businesses.”
Alan Amsterdam, second from L, and Cesar Maxit, third from L, volunteers with the DC Cannabis Campaign, talk to a voter about the ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in front of a polling location in the Adams Morgan neighborhood on November 4, 2014 in Washington D.C. (Photo by Allison Shelley/Getty Images).
Other pieces of marijuana legislation include Bernie Sanders’ bills, S. 2237, the “Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2015,” and S. 2237, the “Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2015;” H.R. 667, the Veterans Equal Access Act; H.R. 262 the States Medical Marijuana Act Property Right Protection; H.R. 1013 & 1014 the Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol Act and Marijuana Tax Revenue Act of 2015; H.R. 1855 and S. 987, the Small Business Tax Equity Act; and H.R. 2076 and S. 1726, the Marijuana Business Access to Banking Act. There’s also H.R. 3124, Clean Slate for Marijuana Offenses Act of 2015; and H.R. 3518, the Stop Civil Asset Forfeiture Funding for Marijuana Suppression Act.
Many states have initiatives for November that focus on legalizing or regulating marijuana for adult use. These include Nevada, Massachusetts, Arizona, Maine and California. States trying to pull together legislation for the November ballots include Florida, Arkansas and Missouri.
Vermont’s state attorney general thinks that legalization of recreational marijuana could pass in 2016 and the house speaker is supportive. Rhode Island is also a possibility for recreational legalization next year.
When it comes to medical marijuana, Pennsylvania is likely. The Senate passed a law, but the House is slow to come around, even though the governor supports it. Nebraska and Utah could potentially pass medical marijuana laws in 2016.
Illinois and New Hampshire are likely to pass decriminalization of possession laws in the new year.
Dec 28, 2015
Debra Borchardt , Contributor (Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own).
Marijuana grower’s 20-year prison sentence prompts judge to question drug laws’ mandatory minimums.
An article in the Buffalo News may have triggered some humanity in a Judge’s mind. It goes on to read.
Joseph Tigano III is going to prison for growing marijuana – and he’s going for a long time. Too long in the eyes of the federal judge who sentenced him.
The Cattaraugus County man, convicted of operating a marijuana farm with more than 1,000 plants, found himself Monday in the middle of the national drug sentencing debate.
Sentenced to a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison, Tigano is one of those defendants whom reform advocates point to when making the case for more lenient drug penalties.
“I feel it is much greater than necessary,” U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford said of the mandatory 20-year sentence, “but I do not have a choice.”
Speaking from the bench, Wolford made it clear that she would have preferred sentencing Tigano to less time in prison and suggested at one point that his single firearms conviction was more worrisome than any of his four drug convictions.
The judge’s comments came at a time when members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, are weighing recommended reforms to mandatory minimum drug penalties.
Years in the making, the push for reform is coming from lawyers and judges who think that too many nonviolent drug offenders are going to prison, and for far too long. They also contend that half of the federal prison population is serving time for drug crimes.
Now 51, Tigano was found guilty by a jury in May of manufacturing and distributing marijuana, maintaining a premise for the manufacture of marijuana, conspiracy to manufacture and possess marijuana and being a previously convicted felon in possession of firearms.
Under the law, he could have faced up to life in prison.
“There’s clearly a need for you to be punished,” Wolford told Tigano. “But I do not believe you present a danger to the community, by any means.”
Arrested in 2008 at his home in the Village of Cattaraugus, Tigano and his father, Joseph Sr., now 77, were accused of running a multimillion-dollar marijuana business.
Despite the size and scope of his business, Tigano was portrayed Monday as a defendant facing an excessive amount of time behind bars.
Cheryl Meyers Buth, Tigano’s defense lawyer, praised Wolford for challenging the mandatory minimum sentences that exist in so many drug laws and suggested that her client is simply the latest defendant to face an unfair punishment.
“I think Judge Wolford quite bravely went on the record to give her opinion that although she does not have the discretion to impose a sentence under the mandatory minimum, she thought a sentence about half as severe would have been more reasonable,” Meyers Buth said.
