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You know it’s a bad idea if Joe Biden was for it. That’s the case with the mad push for marijuana reform, which Biden promised in a cynical grab for young voters in his State of the Union address last year.
But now President Trump is reported to be open to fulfilling Biden’s promise to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous Schedule III drug, which would benefit the $33 billion industry by giving them tax deductions and expanding their market.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump told donors he was considering the “de-scheduling” of marijuana at a $1 million-a-plate fundraiser at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey this month that was attended by Kim Rivers, the chief executive of one of the largest marijuana companies, Trulieve.
Trulieve and its ilk pretend that marijuana reforms are for altruistic medical reasons rather than about growing their profits.
Medical marijuana was the bait-and-switch trap when states started legalizing pot more than a decade ago.
Now recreational use has exploded to the point where it has overtaken alcohol, and there’s still no sound science on the benefits of medical marijuana.
‘Complicated subject’
The president confirmed last week to reporters at the White House that his administration is “looking at reclassification” and intends to make a decision soon.
“Some people like it. Some people hate it,” he said. “Some people hate the whole concept of marijuana because if it does bad for the children, it does bad for people that are older than children.
“It’s a very complicated subject base,” he said. “I’ve heard great things having to do with medical and bad things having to do with just about everything else.”
Trump is a teetotaler.
He credits his late older brother Fred Trump Jr., with his decision not to drink or take drugs. Fred struggled with alcoholism, and died in 1981, aged 42, as a consequence of his disease.
“He was a very handsome guy,” Trump told me on “Pod Force One.” “He had an unbelievable personality, but the booze got to him . . . He’d always say, ‘Don’t drink, don’t smoke.’ Now in those days, there were no drugs, or I guess there were, but you didn’t know about it. But he would have added drugs in there. He said, ‘Don’t ever smoke and don’t ever drink.’
“He was a great guy, you know, he was terrific. Could have done anything. He could fly airplanes unbelievably well,” Trump added. “He had a great talent for that, but alcohol was a killer for him.”
Trump learned from his brother’s mistakes: “I never had a drink of alcohol. I don’t smoke, and I’m a hard worker. Well, he worked, but he just had the curse, you know, and it was tough.”
Marijuana is a disaster. It’s infinitely worse than alcohol on every metric, especially mental health. The scientific evidence is incontrovertible that marijuana triggers psychosis in susceptible people.
For example, a large-scale Danish study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2017 found that up to 30% of young men’s schizophrenia could have been prevented if they had not used pot.
Even one psychotic episode triggered by marijuana use was associated with a 47% chance of a person developing schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, with the highest risk for those aged 16-to-25, according to the study of 6.9 million Danes between 1972 and 2021.
Another longitudinal study of 50,000 Swedes that began in 1987 found that marijuana users were twice as likely as non-users to develop psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Heavy users had a six times greater risk.
A more potent problem
And it was a far less potent drug than it is now.
Marijuana of 40 years ago had about a 5% concentration of THC, the intoxicating component of cannabis, but today’s industrial products such as gummies, vapes and pre-rolled joints can be as high as 99% THC.
The stench of pot wafting through blue cities like New York is a hallmark of chaos and disorder. It’s the opposite of President Trump’s law and order image.
So it is hard to believe he would bow to Big Weed and normalize this insidious drug further.
Unlike his predecessor, Trump understands on a personal level the perils of addiction.
You’d think with the drug problems that have afflicted the lives of both his adult children, Hunter and Ashley, Biden might have had more sense, but pandering to Big Weed was a running theme of his presidency, with executive orders and performative pardons for federal marijuana possession (not one person was in jail for possession alone).
Thankfully, wise heads inside the Drug Enforcement Administration dragged the chain long enough to stop Biden’s plan to reclassify marijuana.
The drug lobby has redoubled efforts under Trump, but the signs don’t look good for them with the confirmation last month of the new DEA administrator, Terrance Cole.
Much to the disappointment of pot advocates, marijuana was nowhere to be seen on his list of “strategic priorities” announced after he took office, which included combating drug trafficking, Mexican cartels, fentanyl and drug-fueled violence.
Even better, in a post on LinkedIn last year, he wrote: “Everybody knows my stance on marijuana after 30 plus years in law enforcement, so don’t even ask!” He added anti-drug hashtags #justsayno, #disorders, #notlegal4distribution, #healthissues, #thinblueline and #backtheblue.
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Cole, who worked at the DEA for 21 years, has made no secret of his concerns about marijuana. sharing a link last year to an article titled “NOT ‘Just Weed’: Four Times More Dangerous in Three Decades” that found that higher THC levels are “linked to increased problems with memory and learning, distorted perception, difficulty in thinking and problem-solving, and loss of coordination.”
Cole’s attitude is a good sign.
3 states ‘just say no’
So is the fact that three states — Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota — last November rejected marijuana legalization measures on the ballot: reversing the trend of the past decade in which 24 states have now approved the drug for recreational use and 40 for medical use, which of course is just the Trojan horse.
In Florida, Big Weed, mainly Trulieve, spent a reported $153 million lobbying for legalization and still lost, despite outspending opponents almost five to one.
It was the third time in four years that poor old North and South Dakotans rejected the ballot measure. But Big Weed just won’t take no for an answer, believing that it will eventually wear voters down.
Another good sign is that even The New York Times is starting to tell the truth about marijuana, reporting that 18 million people — nearly a third of adult users — reporting symptoms of “cannabis use disorder.”
The Times points out that only two states cap the levels of THC, with lobbyists busy preventing any new state health restrictions.
Let’s hope that the Trump administration puts the brakes on the headlong rush to legalize this dangerous drug.