Many Republican Presidential Candidates Are Secretly OK With Legal Pot

[Jacob Redmond]

I'm not sure who decided to stage a Republican presidential debate in the liberal bastion of Boulder, Colorado, and whether it's an amusing coincidence or subtle trolling. Many local residents are, as the New York Times recently noticed, slightly puzzled and none too pleased about the influx of national Republicans. As a former Boulderite, I can report that a big reason for their discontent is the traditional Republican attitude toward marijuana: This is the party, after all, that christened "Just Say No" and launched the War on Drugs.

Few subjects occupy more space in the local psyche than pot. That's probably more true since Coloradans legalized recreational marijuana use in a 2012 ballot initiative. And yet, on that front, there's some cause for optimism. You just have to listen carefully to hear it: Most of the candidates descending on Boulder for Wednesday's debate have signaled a desire to end the Republicans' long-running war on pot.

Anyone listening to the Republican candidates will still hear plenty that's negative about marijuana. With the exception of libertarian Rand Paul (whose undergraduate exploits in this area are legendary), GOP candidates still appear to feel obligated to express their disapproval of legal marijuana. But these days, they usually do so only when prompted by a voter or a debate moderator. And they often append an important qualifier.

See if you can detect a pattern:

• Jeb Bush on Colorado's legalization: "I thought it was a bad idea, but states ought to have the right to do it."
• Ted Cruz on same: "I personally don't agree with it, but that's their right" and "I actually think this is a great embodiment of what Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called 'the laboratories of democracy.'"
• Carly Fiorina, who lost a child to addiction: "I respect Colorado's right to do what they did. They are within their rights to legalize marijuana and they are conducting an experiment that I hope the rest of the nation is looking closely at. I believe in states' rights. I would not, as president of the United States, enforce federal law in Colorado where Colorado voters have said they want to legalize marijuana."
• John Kasich: "I would try to discourage the states from doing it. Hopefully we'll defeat it in Michigan and Ohio, but if states want to do it ... I haven't made a final decision, but I would be tempted to say I don't think we can go and start disrupting what they've decided."

Each candidate, while registering his or her personal disapproval, is also declaring a "states' rights" approach to marijuana meant to placate traditional anti-pot conservatives while at the same time signaling to the growing number of Americans who favor legalization that they won't act on their personal opposition. (New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a former prosecutor, is a notable exception.) Is this a craven bid to win votes packaged as a principled defense of the 10th Amendment that would never apply to, say, abortion? Sure looks like it!

Long-besieged supporters of legal marijuana welcome the change. "My theory is that Republicans are looking for a 'safe landing zone' on the issue of legalization, and states' rights is it," says Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association in Denver. "Nothing is certain, but I'm cautiously optimistic about where this is heading."

West adds that Republicans are trying to straddle a tricky divide. They don't want to alienate the older voters who make up the Republican base and generally oppose marijuana. But neither do they want to come across as the scolding authoritarians of old, because they're desperate to improve their popularity with millennials, a group that strongly favors legalization. Indeed, when asked about marijuana at the Conservative Political Action Conference this year, Donald Trump was jeered for saying, "I think it's bad." (He didn't always.) And even Trump made an exception for medical marijuana.

Given Coloradans' approval of legal marijuana, it's all but certain that the Republican candidates will get asked about it in Wednesday's debate. If the moderators really want to make them squirm, they'll frame the question as whether the candidates would shut down the small-business owners running the dispensaries, a class of entrepreneur that Republicans typically venerate. The key to their answer won't be the part where they dump on pot–they're Republicans!–but what comes after.

News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Many Republican Presidential Candidates Are Secretly OK With Legal Pot
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[Happy Hemper]

'Conservatives' don't care about States Rights in any real sense, remember how we got the drinking age of 21 nationwide, other than as a phrase to pander to the hard line but what the do care about is the $$$$$$ and that is what they see in Cannabis. Like a shark can sense blood in the water these folks sense a new source of regressive taxation.

 

[gentlhart]

Carly Fiorina for example, she believes cannabis is the gateway which is the cause of losing her child from drugs. I can't believe her about state's rights issue. Why would anyone who claims the gateway theory allow states to legalize it? It's easier for me to believe Santa clause and the tooth fairy are real than to believe they will remove cannabis from schedule 1. I see it as a decieptive ploy for votes.

 

[Happy Hemper]

Santa is not real????
Now there goes my year.

 

[Nicholas Flamel]

They are all so worried about the Evanjelical vote. Rand Paul has the best ideas out of all candidates on both sides. Fiscally conservative Socially Liberal. I looks like the rest of the world is easing up on pot. Mexico is supposed to have a MM program by the end of the year. Canada new prime minister has vowed to legalize weed, and there are all sorts of little countries around the world that have decriminalized or legaled some for of weed. Things are headed in the right direction and that is great. The republicans cannot delay this for much longer. Everyday the pro legalization numbers go up. Colorado has demonstrated that legal weed will not destroy the world but has added to the states economy instead of the Black market economy. I have high hopes that Obama will get the federal government out of the weed buisiness before his term is over.

 

[Happy Hemper]

It is not that easy for a President to get it rescheduled as it is a bureaucratic mess that would have to be navigated. However, it would be a simple process for Congress to do as all they would have to do is write or amend the law. Of course I would not hold my breath for Congress to do anything.