Marijuana 2016

The federal elections offered little excitement in terms of pro-marijuana candidates. I mean yeah, there are always long-shot third party platforms that offer practical reform, but third parties in our system are always set up for failure - especially at the federal level.  State politics tend to be a little more accommodating to third party opportunity because state politicians generally have a closer connection to their constituents.

Anyway, I’m getting off topic. The point of this post was simply to recap the 2016 U.S. Election as it pertained to marijuana policy. Here we go:

U.S. Congressional - Republicans keep control of the House and Senate; majority of congressional Republicans are against marijuana taxation. An analysis of member positions is underway. I’ll share my results when I have them.  

U.S. Presidential - Donald Trump shocked the world and defeated Hillary Clinton to become the 45th United States President.  Like many of President-Elect Trump’s policy positions, it is hard to tell what he really believes - he has been vocal on both sides of marijuana taxation. A huge indicator of where the President-Elect leans for the next four years will be who he selects for Attorney General.  More analysis of this position will be provided in a different submission.  Basically, the Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. The AG interprets our laws and makes sure those laws are enforced.  Specifically, the AG has a lot of responsibility in the execution of the Controlled Substance Act, and has the ability to act in certain ways that would push our country toward marijuana legalization and subsequent taxation.  More on this to come too.  

It is important we stay vigilant in our push for federal legalization, because the states are starting to take matters into their own hands, acting contrary to the Controlled Substance Act. The federal government needs to keep pace with the states because the federal side would likely like to develop a sound means for taxation, and a code for interstate commerce.

Speaking of state legalization, citizens in four states voted to legalize recreational marijuana use. California, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada join a growing list of states that allow adults to smoke marijuana. However, the vote in Maine was really close, and it is likely a recount will occur.  Concerning medicinal marijuana, voters in Arkansas, Florida, Montana and North Dakota have elected to recognize marijuana as medicine.

The 2016 U.S. Presidential Election had many Americans in a political whirlwind, and the results left many Democrats and Republicans in a haze. No matter who you wanted to win, we have our next president, and hopefully we can come together and push for meaningful marijuana reform.