White House shows signs of easing marijuana restrictions

Back when it was not only illegal but targeted by politicians as a threat to society, marijuana wasn’t hard to find on campuses and elsewhere.

In fact, if you stop by parties or even small gatherings, he will often find you.

While in college, there was a fear of being arrested by the police, expelled from school, or fired from a job. It caused otherwise law-abiding kids to see cops as their enemies.

But that was light years ago.

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Now the Trump administration is strongly considering loosening restrictions on marijuana.

It still amazes me when I drive up Connecticut Avenue here in Washington and see pot shops openly selling pot with names like MrGreen and Blunt and Taste Budz a few blocks from the Capitol. And it’s branded under highly marketable names like Violet Sky and Hash Burger.

A story well told by Free Press He said President Trump is considering reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I drug to Schedule III. This puts it in the same category as anabolic steroids, ketamine, and Tylenol with codeine.

The move “will ease restrictions on pot but will fall short of making pot fully legal.”

Of course, medical marijuana is currently legal in 40 states and the District of Columbia, and recreational use is allowed in D.C. and 24 states from New York to Colorado.

So where is the opposition?

Well, there aren’t that many.

And the White House is being open about it.

Marijuana advocate Alex Bruesewitz told the Free Press that moving to Schedule III “keeps hemp a controlled substance but allows for greater testing for medical purposes” and is a “politically savvy move” with strong public support.

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If this is true, it’s because generations have at least tried weed since the 1960s and ’70s and ignored the dark warnings about how dangerous it was and how it could lead to harder things. They mocked the famous 1936 movie “Reefer Madness”.

In his war on drugs half a century ago, Richard Nixon tried to associate hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin.

As top aide John Ehrlichman, who went to prison for Watergate, said in a 1994 interview: “Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

Ronald Reagan, who as a candidate called marijuana “probably the most dangerous drug in the United States,” wrote in his diary that he became angry while watching Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton perform in the movie “9 to 5.” His wife Nancy then started the “Just Say No” campaign.

As Bill Clinton was running for office, his brief experiment with marijuana (in which he tried but “didn’t inhale”) became the punchline.

A person prepares a marijuana mixture during the 420 celebration in Washington Square Park in New York City on April 20, 2024. (Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images)

Certainly some criticism has arisen. Pete Sessions, a GOP congressman from Texas, recently wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi along with eight other lawmakers, saying the rescheduling would “send the message to children that marijuana is not harmful.”

Donald Trump does not smoke, drink or do drugs in response to his brother’s death from alcoholism. However, the White House also seems to share this view.

Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio took a poll in March that found 66 percent of those questioned supported legalized marijuana and 70 percent supported rescheduling the drug.

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A senior White House official is quoted as saying: “For much of the base, this is just like gay marriage, which people have gotten used to. It’s good policy.” A decision is expected by the end of the year.

But as with almost every Beltway issue, lobbyists in good standing are part of the process. Smoking marijuana, once an underground pastime, has now become a big-money business.

Bruesewitz’s consulting firm, X Strategies, is being paid $300,000 for “media” services by American Rights and Reform, a pro-marijuana group. Mercury Public Affairs, another major public relations firm, represents the U.S. Cannabis Council.

Marijuana activists hold a demonstration in front of the White House on Independence Day, July 4, 2021, in Washington, DC. Members of the July 4th Hemp Coalition group gathered for the annual protest over marijuana prohibition, which the group says dates back more than 50 years during the Nixon administration. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The size of this emerging industry was estimated at $38 billion last year; That’s real money, even by jaded Washington standards.

I confess some mixed feelings. First of all, today’s marijuana is many times more powerful than the nickel and dime bags that were in circulation in the past.

I’ve always thought the milder effects of marijuana were preferable to alcohol, especially when it came to driving. It still gives you the munchies. And as a parent, I say: What about homework?

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While the drinking age has already been raised to 21, that doesn’t seem to stop those a few years younger from getting their hands on beer, wine and liquor.

But since there have been millions of people who have at least tasted marijuana for decades, it was probably inevitable that they wouldn’t want it to remain in the same federal category as heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl—a truly lethal drug.