New Democrat Led House, New Legislation to Loosen Federal Restrictions on Cannabis

Democrats and Marijuana

[Partial credit to Oren neu dag and Lestatdelc via Wikicommons]

This post was written by Thadeus Greenson and posted first in the North Coast Journal. It is reprinted here with their kind permission.

In one of its first acts, the newly seated House of Representatives introduced bipartisan legislation that would require the federal government to take a hands-off approach to cannabis and let states establish their own laws and programs.

“The national consensus on medical marijuana is solid and bipartisan, but our federal drug laws continue to treat patients and their doctors like criminals,” one of the bill’s authors, Steve Cohen (D-Tennessee) said in a statement supporting the bill, which boasted 42 co-sponsors.

Over in the Senate, a bipartisan coalition stands ready to introduce the bill, with senators Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), Cory Gardner (R-Colorado) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) all having pledged support. And President Trump indicated last summer that he “probably will end up” supporting the bill.

So bully, right? Weed is all but legalized.

Not so fast. Those pushing to see the end of the folly that is federal prohibition still have two huge hurdles. First and foremost, there’s the fact that the Senate is still under Republican control, meaning Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is still in the driver’s seat as majority leader.

Not only has McConnell flatly stated that he has “no plans to endorse the legalization of marijuana,” he also just trumpeted a big win with the legalization of industrial hemp — marijuana’s THC-less cousin — and CBD products in the passage of the federal Farm Bill. McConnell supported that effort in large part because industrial hemp is poised to become a huge cash crop in Kentucky, especially as the legal market for CBD products is projected to expand rapidly. Plainly, legalizing cannabis outright undercuts that.

The one thing working in weed’s favor here is that Gardner is facing a tough re-election fight in 2020 in Colorado, where close to 70 percent of voters favor federal legalization. Republicans currently hold a three-seat majority in the Senate and, if it looks like that’s in danger, it’s possible McConnell would allow the bill to go to a Senate vote in an effort to keep Republicans’ majority.

But that 2020 thing cuts both ways and there in lies the second hurdle. If the bill were to win the blessing of the Senate and head to Trump’s desk, his signature would give a huge win to Booker, rumored to be mulling a 2020 presidential run, and Warren, who last week became the first prominent Democrat to announce she’ll take Trump on in 2020.

Faced with signing a bill that ends decades of disastrous federal policy that has disproportionately hurt people of color or protecting his own self-interests, what do you think Trump would do?

If you want to read the rest of the North Coast’s Journal’s This Week in Weed, click here and scroll down to “In somewhat related news…”

Facebooktwitterpinterestmail

Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules

Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

51 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Willie Caso-Mayhem
Guest
5 years ago

They still have to jump the old white man hurdle.

I Never Said There Was No Collusion! 🇷🇺🐘
Guest
I Never Said There Was No Collusion! 🇷🇺🐘
5 years ago

Old White men can’t jump! All they can do is belch and fart. 💩🚽

Y Knot?
Guest
Y Knot?
5 years ago

You need shaggy hair, scruffy beard, junk cars, and dirty clothes to be a good liberal….

Marijuana helps with this.

hmm
Guest
hmm
5 years ago
Reply to  Y Knot?

Sounds like a description of a local conservative to me.

timmay
Guest
timmay
5 years ago
Reply to  hmm

everyone up there is a libertarian whether they know it or not… except for the squirrel worshippers…

Servant of Nuttio
Guest
Servant of Nuttio
5 years ago
Reply to  timmay

Do not dis-respect Nuttio, the Great One. Many buried acorns may yet be taken, never bto be returned to the unbeliever.

Lotta Wordsworth
Guest
Lotta Wordsworth
5 years ago

“Plainly, legalizing cannabis outright undercuts that.”

That’s an assertion with no source cited or supporting argument offered.

How would thc pot undercut the opportunities for hemp and/or cbd farmers? I don’t know that it’s necessarily inaccurate, but it’s also not prima facia.
It’s a statement that needs a source for the opinion or supporting documentation. I expect more from the NCJ.

I often wonder if hemp growers wouldn’t seriously impact thc farming in a given region given the sensimilla need for removing all male plants.

Nonetheless, I think hemp and cbd legalization are still HUGE leaps forward in our national treatment of the cannabis plant and its political prohibition.

Sheesh
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Hemp/cbd plants are huge. They can be harvested with a combine on an industrial scale.
Our high cbd cannibis plants are very small. Short and squat.
I doubt cbd from cannibis especially from here in the emerald triangle or California for that matter will garner even a meager market share.
It will still be a niche product in my opinion that will need to be marketed as such.

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Sheesh

Medicinal cannabis strains contain tens of thousands times the CBD content of hemp. There’s room in the market for both methods, as a byproduct of fiber and smoke production.

Perspective
Guest
Perspective
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

What, “tens of thousands”? The definition of Hemp is a cultivar testing at or less than %0.3 THC. Right now there are hemp cultivars testing 20-26% CBD and reamining legal under the hemp laws. So show me the “cannabis strains” producing more than that.

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Perspective

Those “hemp cultivars” are a marketing gimmick. They’re crossbred with medicinal strains of weed.
https://www.potnetwork.com/news/no-cbd-oil-not-made-industrial-hemp-and-stop-saying

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Perspective

Nm, I definitely misunderstood what the .3 percent meant in this context.

Perspective
Guest
Perspective
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

Yeah, def not a gimmick. Besides think about what you are saying. How could it be a gimmick? Why are we making such dividing lines between “medical”, “hemp”, “drug” varietals? Cannabinoids are cannabinoids no matter what cannabis cultivar it comes from. A cbd molecule is not going to get you high if it is sourced from a “medical”, “drug” cultivar or strain as most call them. The 2018 Farm Bill defines what Hemp is.

Cannabis Sativa L. under %0.3 THC is defined as Hemp. and it doesn’t matter what cannabis genetics are used in breeding. So OG kush showing .3 THC in fact is defined as Hemp. Cannabis Sativa L. over the .3 is just that, cannabis or marijuana, pot, weed, grass, labrador, maui wowie, dope, reefer, jazz cabbage, devils lettuce, medicine, whacky tobacci, left handed hemp, the kind, kind bud, dank, jolly green giant, trees and so on

The Hermit of Grizzly Mountain
Guest
The Hermit of Grizzly Mountain
5 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

FYI, FWIW, Dr. Bonnie Goldstein (author of ‘Cannabis Revealed: How the World’s Most Misunderstood Plant Is Healing Everything from Chronic Pain to Epilepsy’) claims that hemp CBDs have little or no therapeutic value as compared to cannabis CBDs and explains that a small amount of THC is necessary to activate the CBDs.

https://www.projectcbd.org/about/clinical-research/dr-bonni-goldstein-cannabis-therapeutics

Central HumCo
Guest
5 years ago

Thank you Hermit of Grizzly Mountain.

Perspective
Guest
Perspective
5 years ago

A molecule is a molecule. CBD is CBD. What Goldstein and others are saying is THC and full spectrum cannabinoids have better efficacy than just CBD. FYI, hemp is cannabis.

Central HumCo
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Perspective

“Cannabis” means any of the preparations (as marijuana or hashish) or chemicals (as THC) that are derived from the hemp and are psychoactive. Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

Perspective
Guest
Perspective
5 years ago
Reply to  Central HumCo

Keep researching. You’ll get it figured out.

Disgusting supervisors.
Guest
Disgusting supervisors.
5 years ago

The old white man is starting to see $$$$$$$. Sighns and that’s all it takes for them to be a Hippocrate real quick !!! Gonna see some fork tongues start flapping !!!!!

Guest
Guest
Guest
5 years ago

As opposed to the $$$$$$ that was the motivation for illegal pot growers for decades?

Hubertus
Guest
Hubertus
5 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Sure, it’s just a little hypocritical one was locking up the other for the same behaviour they’re willing to profit on now without batting an eye.

Disgusting supervisors.
Guest
Disgusting supervisors.
5 years ago

The criminals have just changed over to a new status qoe there guest. Look at Rex bone and his son in honeydew.theres a prime example of a slimy,fat, Republican, corrupt, Hippocrate lying theif !!!!!

Y Knot?
Guest
Y Knot?
5 years ago

Wait until they put a toll on that bridge.

Sickofem
Guest
Sickofem
5 years ago

Awesome news,weed will be even more affordable. Hopefully the bearded ,baseball hat,sunglasses wearing grower douchebags that call everyone “BRO”in their Chevy volts will finally fuck off somewhere else when weed becomes super cheap. And before the commenters spout” their precious weed money won’t pay your poverty wages anymore “rhetoric. I don’t need their money, they can fuck off and take their lazy ,fake, massage/bodywork /yoga teacher guru wives with them. They’re all claiming bennies anyway, medi cal , care program, snap, head start.dishonest lying SCUMBAGS, good riddance.

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Sickofem

Person: *exists*
Sickofem: “You’re ruining my way of life! My taxes pay for your food stamps, maybe! The way you wear your hat makes me angry!”

I think I’d prefer to have a random San Diego Flatbrim for a neighbor than a misanthrope like you.

Keep On Dancing@aol.com 🕺💃 🎼
Guest
Keep On [email protected] 🕺💃 🎼
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

San Diego Raiders – for one year only.

Their Vegas stadium isn’t ready yet.

rollin
Guest
rollin
5 years ago
Reply to  Sickofem

Sickofem,

When you point a finger their will be three pointed back at you. Now go flip my burger.

Disgusting supervisors.
Guest
Disgusting supervisors.
5 years ago

There not going anywhere there just faking a new game,lol. You haters are ablivious and jelouse cuz you choose to dedicate your lives to working for peanuts,live in shacks,and secretly collect welfare while downing it on redheaded black belt !!!!

AfroMerican
Guest
AfroMerican
5 years ago

.

Small Fry
Guest
Small Fry
5 years ago

We will see what happens.. Hey Kym why is you have not run an article on the supervisors giving themselves a hefty raise?

Small Fry
Guest
Small Fry
5 years ago

I guess we will see what happens.. Hey Kym, why no article about the giant raise the supervisors just awarded themselves?

Cenk
Guest
Cenk
5 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Yeah. Shielding liberals and failed, olive-green ‘presidents’ is a full-time job!

Small Fry
Guest
Small Fry
5 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Kym, I appreciate your blog and what you do.. I know it cannot be easy..But don’t you think that was a rather important article for the community at large? I mean the supervisors have boarder line bankrupted this community with thier overextensive and overeaching policies, and you did not think it was an important enough article to run? Sad. Can’t say I am not disappointed. It will be the supervisors political suicide. Kudo’s to Madrone for not taking a raise before the in home workers got one.. Hopefully next election the 2nd district will elect a real Supervisor, instead of a self-serving pretendor..

Small Fry
Guest
Small Fry
5 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

I understand you have a lot on your plate, and thank you so much for reporting on all the under reported issues facing the triangle. I just hope we can rely on your outlet as a source of independent news. I understand your strapped, and maybe if people donated more you would be able to provide a wider range of coverage.. but, I still feel the supervisors raise deserved at least.. a mention..

Keep On Dancing 🕺💃 🎼
Guest
Keep On Dancing 🕺💃 🎼
5 years ago
Reply to  Cenk

Shielding fat-ass fascist orange 🍊 traitor presidents is your job, fool! 🐘🇷🇺

Central HumCo
Guest
5 years ago

I think Kym is to be neutral, like a Public Notary, like the Fourth Branch Grand Juries.

Will
Guest
Will
5 years ago

8 years of 0bama raiding Humboldt grows and all we have to show for it is … [edit]bathrooms?????? What a laugh. The big game-changer in regards to cannabis / hemp = Trump. Trump has legalized hemp and allowed states to rule themselves in regards to recreational cannabis. He’s even bringing the troops home, much to the chagrin of democRAT war-mongers.

shak
Guest
shak
5 years ago
Reply to  Will

The Farm Bill Trump signed in December allows hemp to be grown, insured, banked, and treated in all other ways like regular agriculture.
It’s still up to each state, of course.
“Everybody who has been in the industry before now has taken a risk, and frankly, I think it’s proven to be a wise risk. But this Farm Bill, more than anything, takes away that risk … There is no longer going to the specter of the DEA coming in and arresting people.”
https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2018/12/20/hemp-cbd-farm-bill-signing-trump-boost-newest-cash-crop-tennessee/2342272002/

The ‘political’ side of why it failed to pass the last two tries.
“The original House bill failed during its first floor vote when 30 GOP members blocked it over an unrelated immigration issue. It passed a second time around, but without any support from Democrats, who insisted they wouldn’t vote for a bill with the new work requirements included.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/12/12/montana-representative-votes-farm-bill/2294062002/

Brian
Guest
Brian
5 years ago
Reply to  shak

Shak, because you are someone who doesnt know if the Earth is flat or round, how can I or others take this or any other comment you make seriously?

Seriously.

I mean, I can’t even bare to read your comments anymore once you became a flat-earth defender.

Central HumCo
Guest
5 years ago
Reply to  Brian

~cheese?

Keep On Dancing 🕺💃 🎼
Guest
Keep On Dancing 🕺💃 🎼
5 years ago
Reply to  Brian

“Shak” must be Bud Rogers. 🤪. Watch out for those Monsanto planes spraying chem trails all over your “crops”! (Or not. LMFAO! 😆🤣😭😂😅)

Hmmmm
Guest
Hmmmm
5 years ago

Keep it illegal. It’s gross

Jail them all

W
Guest
W
5 years ago

This article is WRONG. The bill was introduced in another bill before the dems took over the house, but it was taken out.
Why is he leaving facts out?
It seems his article was written to try and bash Trump like most people who say they are reporters but really it’s an opinion article.
I think Trump would legalize it, if given a well written bill.
As for hemp let the other states grow all they want. It will make it harder for them to grow any females without seeds.

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  W

From the Article:
“McConnell flatly stated that he has ‘no plans to endorse the legalization of marijuana,'”

James Marmon MSW
Guest
James Marmon MSW
5 years ago

Does anyone know if the new democrat led house plans on getting rid of the firearm laws pertaining to cannabis users?

CANNABIS AND GUN LAW

Unfortunately, the legalization of cannabis in California in 2016 will not end federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regulations designed to prevent gun sales to cannabis users. If anyone thinks Nancy Polosi would allow that, I’ve got a bridge for sale in Brooklyn.

“Every person who applies to purchase a firearm must (according to regulations implemented by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)) submit a Form 4473. Question 11e on that form asks “are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug or any other controlled substance?” (Firearms Transaction Record Part I-Over-the-Counter Form 4473)”

http://cannabusinesslaw.com/2017/12/cannabis-and-gun-law/

Nancy Pelosi: Gun Confiscation “Will Be A Priority”

Well, this sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Does anyone remember that under Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro Sobarkah and following Sandy Hook that the cries from the Democrats were that they were going to make gun confiscation a priority and try to ramrod gun bans down our throat?

https://dcdirtylaundry.com/nancy-pelosi-gun-confiscation-will-be-a-priority/

James Marmon MSW

I Never Said There Was No Collusion! 🇷🇺🐘
Guest
I Never Said There Was No Collusion! 🇷🇺🐘
5 years ago

He loves guns. 💋🔫. What would Dr. Freud say? 🍌