Cannabis Questions

In the wake of this year’s elections, a great many questions were answered and even more proposed – such as, will President Donald Trump be good for the cannabis industry? Thus far, the answer appears to be… probably.

“A look at Trump’s first term in the White House does not exactly paint him as a friend of the industry,” noted forbes.com recently. “Within the first month of his presidency in 2017, the Trump administration put the recreational marijuana industry on notice, threatening ‘greater enforcement’ of federal law. Then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Obama-era policies that allowed the recreational pot industry to flourish, sparking fear and paranoia across the industry. But eventually, Trump — who, like Biden, does not drink alcohol — left the state-licensed marijuana trade alone.”

Indeed, Trump has proven to be an open-minded politician whose stance on more than one issue has evolved over the years. Pot is one of them.

“On the campaign trail, Trump voiced his support for rescheduling, passing banking reform and reiterated his belief in a states’ rights approach to legalization,” forbes.com pointed out. “As a Palm Beach resident, he also expressed his support for Florida’s Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational cannabis in the state — though the measure failed to reach the 60% threshold required for passage.”

Then there is Chad Chronister, the Sheriff of Hillsborough County, FL, whom Trump has chosen to head the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He has been vocal in his support of decriminalizing marijuana possession. Chronister also spoke favorably about a 2020 decision by the local board of county commissioners to treat possession of as much as 20 grams of marijuana as a civil offense rather than a misdemeanor.

More Questions

The question of where the majority of Americans stand when it comes to legalization of marijuana has also been answered -- once again.

Almost seven in 10 Americans say that “the use of marijuana should be legal,” according to new nationwide polling data released by Gallup. Sixty-eight percent of respondents endorse cannabis legalization -- the highest level of support ever reported by pollsters.

“In 1969, when Gallup first began surveying the question, only 12% of Americans backed marijuana legalization,” the pollsters were quoted as saying in a NORML release. “Since 2012, when Colorado and Washington became the first two states to legalize marijuana for adults, public support for legalization has risen nationally by some 20 percentage points. Legalization has enjoyed majority support among Americans since 2013, and has held steady around 68% since 2020.”

“An overwhelming majority of Americans oppose marijuana prohibition, and this has been the case for more than a decade. It borders on political malpractice that Congress has yet to take any meaningful action to comport federal cannabis laws with the will of the people,” NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano commented. In Nebraska, a district court judge recently rejected a legal challenge that sought to invalidate a pair of citizen-initiated measures regulating the possession, use and production of medical cannabis. Seventy one percent of voters decided in favor of Measure 437, which allows qualified patients to possess and use cannabis. Sixty-seven percent of voters backed Measure 438, which establishes a regulated system for the production and distribution of medical cannabis.

“Opponents of the initiative campaign argued that advocates had fraudulently gathered some of the signatures necessary to qualify the measures for the ballot,” the group said. The judge rejected their argument, finding that “To prevail in this action, the plaintiff and Secretary had to show that more than 3,463 signatures on the Legalization Petition and 3,357 signatures on the Regulatory Petition are invalid. The Plaintiff and Secretary are well short.” Fewer than 1,000 signatures for each petition were ruled invalid.

Enforcement

Still more questions regarding the future of enforcement have been answered by a report that agents affiliated with the DEA have been instructed to stop searching travelers at airports or other “mass transportation facilities” without a warrant, following a directive issued by Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General. The directive, issued in November, followed an investigation by the Inspector General’s (IG’s) office. That investigation determined that DEA personnel lacked adequate training, and often failed to properly document their search-related activities, according to NORML.

“The DEA’s failure to collect data for each consensual encounter, as required by its own policy, and its continued inability to provide us with any assessment of the success of these interdiction efforts, once again raise questions about whether these transportation interdiction activities are an effective use of law enforcement resources – and leaves the DEA once again unable to provide adequate answers to those questions,” said Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz.

“For too long, the DEA has imposed intimidatory tactics upon innocent travelers,” Armentano said. “Americans who purchase tickets to travel by plane, bus, or train should not be expected to forsake their civil liberties when they enter the terminal.”