A vote in Congress to ease banking restrictions on cannabis companies is being praised for the possibility the legislation could make operating in the nascent industry much easier and more fair, and for the signal it sends that marijuana is moving toward establishment acceptability. Continue reading “Cannabis Companies: House’s SAFE Act Vote A Milestone”
Tag: Donald Trump
What Trump said about marijuana enforcement while campaigning in Colorado
Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recent decision to clear the way for possible enforcement of federal laws that outlaw marijuana contradicts what Donald Trump told The Colorado Springs Gazette during his presidential campaign.
During a conversation with The Gazette’s editorial board in July 2016, Trump, then the GOP nominee, repeatedly pledged that he would respect states’ legalization laws and take a wait-and-see approach to enforcing federal law. Continue reading “What Trump said about marijuana enforcement while campaigning in Colorado”
Sessions Is All Talk: Drug Prosecutions Are Lower and Marijuana Industry Remains Intact
Although the Trump administration emerged with a raging hard-on earlier this year in the name of a renewed discipline to combat the War on Drugs, a recent analysis by CBS News indicates that all of the tough talk pertaining to the ramping up of drug prosecutions in the United States has, so far, resulted in nothing more than empty threats. Continue reading “Sessions Is All Talk: Drug Prosecutions Are Lower and Marijuana Industry Remains Intact”
It took the Trump Administration just a month to turn Obama-era drug policy on its head
My third son, William, was born on April 28. I’ve spent the past month or so getting to know him (thanks, Washington Post’s generous parental leave policy!), and not paying much attention to federal drug policy.
As it turns out I missed quite a bit. In the month of May alone, the Trump administration, particularly Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department, steadily ratcheted up its tough-on-crime rhetoric and put in place some policies that give that rhetoric some real-world bite. Continue reading “It took the Trump Administration just a month to turn Obama-era drug policy on its head”
“He lied to me”: Trump’s budget lets down families hit by drug addiction crisis
He slept next to his son’s ashes most nights back when Kraig Moss first met Donald Trump.
In a hall packed with Iowa voters, the presidential candidate looked the middle-aged truck driver in the eye and vowed to fight the opioid crisis that killed his only son two years earlier. Continue reading ““He lied to me”: Trump’s budget lets down families hit by drug addiction crisis”
Under Donald Trump, It’s Boom Times for Drug Fraudsters
In 2009, Alfred Caronia, then a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company working in New York City and on Long Island, was convicted of federal charges for telling doctors tall tales about the drug he was selling.
Caronia worked for a company called Orphan Medical, the manufacturer and marketer of a drug called Xyrem. Xyrem is a powerful central nervous system depressant that’s approved by the FDA for use in treating narcolepsy. Continue reading “Under Donald Trump, It’s Boom Times for Drug Fraudsters”
U.S. Border Guards: We Can’t Tell If We’re Stopping Cartel Drugs
Along with “murderers and rapists,” President Donald Trump would have you believe that his famed and heretofore mythical wall on the U.S.’s border with Mexico will keep imported drugs out of the country.
Like so much else the president says, this is not true—and won’t be true, whether the wall is 100 feet high or a thousand or constructed out of concrete or an impenetrable force field. Continue reading “U.S. Border Guards: We Can’t Tell If We’re Stopping Cartel Drugs”
Trump’s Choice for FDA Has Ties to Wall Street, Drug Makers
A conservative doctor-turned-pundit with deep ties to Wall Street and the pharmaceutical industry is President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb would be tasked with Trump’s goal of cutting red tape at the FDA, which regulates everything from pharmaceuticals to seafood to electronic cigarettes. Continue reading “Trump’s Choice for FDA Has Ties to Wall Street, Drug Makers”
Where Does Trump’s Choice for the Supreme Court Stand on Weed Legalization?
Does Neil Gorsuch believe that states’ rights and medical marijuana laws should be respected and protected? Good question and there aren’t a lot of answers just yet.
But, then, after not even two weeks into the Trump administration, we are witnessing history’s most chaotic authoritarian rule via a narcissist’s Twitter account and a radical right wing presidential puppeteer, Stephen Bannon, who just moved into the West Wing and on to the National Security Council. Continue reading “Where Does Trump’s Choice for the Supreme Court Stand on Weed Legalization?”
He doesn’t like legal weed. But who really is AG pick Jeff Sessions?
“One of my friends was a football manager and they were picking on him. Jeff stood up and said, ‘Leave him alone,’” recalled fellow student George Alford Continue reading “He doesn’t like legal weed. But who really is AG pick Jeff Sessions?”