Thursday, January 11, 2018

Trump's cannabis flip-flop may doom re-election

Gary Johnson says Trump marijuana reversal could doom re-election - Steven Nelson,  Washington Examiner:

January 5, 2018 - "Former Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson reacted angrily to President Trump's apparent abandonment of a campaign pledge to leave pot policy to the states, saying he hopes the pivot ends Trump's shot at re-election.

"Johnson, who served two terms as a Republican governor of New Mexico, said the Trump administration is 'grossly underestimating the anger this will create.'

"I hope it dooms his re-election. Trump promised to leave marijuana to the states," Johnson told the Washington Examiner.

:On Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the 2013 Cole Memo, a policy document that allowed states to unfurl recreational marijuana markets. Eight states and the nation's capital allow adults to possess recreational pot.... Now, the Justice Department says individual U.S. attorneys can decide how to enforce federal law, which still makes nearly all pot possession a crime.

Johnson has worked in the state-legal pot industry. He became CEO of Nevada-based startup Cannabis Sativa in 2014, promoting cannabinoid lozenges before stepping away from the company to run for president. He's currently on the advisory board of CB1, a hedge fund investing in publicly traded marijuana companies.

"Johnson, who took 3.3 percent of the popular vote against Trump in 2016 and finished third nationally, supported marijuana legalization before the idea gained broad public support.

"While he was a sitting governor in 1999 he called for a taxed and regulated market. The Clinton administration’s drug czar Barry McCaffrey flew to New Mexico to chastise him at a press conference, saying, 'He ought to be ashamed of himself telling a bunch of college students that marijuana was wonderful'."

Read more: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/gary-johnson-says-trump-marijuana-reversal-could-doom-re-election/article/2645062
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