Thursday, May 18, 2017

The Marijuana Industry Under Trump

Since the inauguration of Donald Trump, the marijuana industry has been on edge. After slow growth and the beginnings of a seemingly massive legal industry under the Obama administration, under which states created laws permitting marijuana that ignored federal legislation on the subject, it seems that the Trump administration may take a less generous stance.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the creation of a crime reduction task force that would evaluate marijuana "enforcement policy." While the conversation would once have asked whether the federal government would, finally, remove its legislation against marijuana, the wording seemed to suggest that Sessions was considering resuming enforcement of those same laws - effectively ignoring the states' legislation and assuming the supremacy of federal law, as should theoretically have happened under the prior administration.

Sean Spicer, the White House Press Secretary, has drawn parallels between the rise of marijuana and the opiate addiction crisis that has ravaged the central U.S. in recent years; it's important to note that the communities most strongly affected by the crisis also voted for Trump, an indication that his attention to the issue may have helped build elements of his constituency. Whether marijuana is related to the crisis remains unclear. As yet, the administration has made no decision on the subject.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/12/marijuana-industry-braces-for-clash-with-trump-administration.html
http://www.npr.org/2016/12/17/505965420/study-communities-most-affected-by-opioid-epidemic-also-voted-for-trump

2 comments:

  1. I like how your post explains the background of the issue on marijuana and different opinions on the issue. What do you think the Trump administration would do on this issue?

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  2. According to this article http://www.businessinsider.com/marijuana-california-weed-legal-economy-2016-11. The marijuana market in California is going to increase in the billions in places that legalize it, I believe that the and popularity is not decided by the president but by the states that end up legalizing marijuana. However I still find it interesting that on the federal level the opinion marijuana is not going to change, but on the state level new laws are getting passed every year. Why is marijuana such an important issue in the united states?

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