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B<\/span>etween discussing the threat to our borders, the need to proliferate nuclear arms and refugees, President Donald Trump made no mention of cannabis in Tuesday night\u2019s State of The Union address.<\/p>\n The president did cover topics where cannabis policy intersects with broader American societal issues, including addiction, criminal justice reform and economic growth. Nevertheless, despite not being mentioned on Capitol Hill, pot found its way into the conversation on both sides of the aisle tonight.<\/p>\n Like he did on the campaign trail, Trump<\/a> regularly referenced law enforcement during the address, at one point calling for \u201ctotal and unwavering support,\u201d which presumably includes supporting the Department of Justice\u2019s recent threat of crackdown<\/a> on state cannabis programs.<\/p>\n Many advocates said after the State of the Union address that they do not have faith in Trump\u2019s policing or public health plans.<\/p>\n \u201cEscalating the War on Drugs by scapegoating immigrants and pushing for increased drug arrests will only exacerbate the crisis by diverting scarce resources away from evidence-based public health interventions that have actually been proven to reduce the harms of problematic drug use, including overdose,\u201d said Grant Smith, Deputy Director of National Affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance, in a statement<\/a>. \u201cIt is surreal that Trump would call for prison reform and an escalation of the War on Drugs in the same speech.\u201d<\/p>\n The only time Trump specifically referenced any crimes in the speech was when he was talking about North Korea and Iran.<\/p>\n Washington, D.C.-based progressive commentator Tim Black tweeted that he doesn\u2019t think people weren\u2019t fooled last night. \u201cTrump and Jeff Sessions are dead set on jailing poor people for possessing marijuana, meanwhile record numbers of Americans are overdosing on opioids prescribed by heartless pharmacies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n We are not fooled! Trump and Jeff Sessions are dead set on jailing poor people for possessing Marijuana meanwhile record numbers of Americans are overdosing on Opioids prescribed by heartless pharmacies. #sotu<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Tim Black John Hudak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute\u2019s domestic policy research arm, tweeted during the speech: \u201cIf the president is serious about cracking down on \u2018drug dealers and pushers\u2019 he ought to order his Attorney General not to crack down on state legal and regulated marijuana businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n Hudak also jumped on the president\u2019s comments about domestic experimental medical treatments, tweeting: \u201c@realDonaldTrump wants terminal patients to have access to experimental treatments and not have to go to other countries. I wonder what he thinks of his administration\u2019s attack on terminal patients seeking medical #marijuana?\u201d<\/p>\n .@realDonaldTrump<\/a> is following in his predecessors\u2019 footsteps by making sure that Gitmo remains open. The only difference between him and Obama, is that Trump was honest about wanting to keep it open.<\/p>\n \u2014 John Hudak (@JohnJHudak) January 31, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Others also joined on the experimental medicine topic with physician and 2008 Republican primary contender Ron Paul, who told followers on Twitter<\/a>, \u201cTerminally ill should have access to experimental drugs \u2013 yes! But in a free market all free individuals should be able to make decisions on what kinds of medicine they wish to take. Like marijuana.\u201d Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura backed Paul\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n Aaron Ross Powell of the Cato Institute was also curious about Trump\u2019s claims to protect people who want to try experimental medicine. \u201cDoes the Right to Try include medical marijuana? Because his DoJ seems rather opposed to it,\u201d tweeted Powell<\/a>.<\/p>\n While Trump\u2019s expected approach to pot doesn\u2019t have a lot of fans, with a record 64 percent of American voters supporting legalization in a Gallup poll last year<\/a>, the Democratic response also was far from pro-cannabis.<\/p>\n Bobby Kennedy\u2019s grandson, Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.), took the reins for the Democrats and gave the rebuttal to the State of the Union. Over the years, the Kennedys have earned themselves a reputation as working to continue cannabis prohibition. They achieved this by being founding backers of the nation\u2019s leading anti-pot political action committee<\/a>, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which celebrated getting the Governor of Vermont to delay signing legalization into law in 2017. (Ultimately, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott ended up signing a cannabis legalization bill earlier this month<\/a>, making Vermont the first state to legalize with the governor\u2019s pen and not a ballot initiative.)<\/p>\n Marijuana Majority Chairman Tom Angell provided a scathing review of the decision to pick Kennedy<\/a>. He noted 75 percent of Democrats back legal pot, 95 percent back medical cannabis and only 12 percent want the feds to interfere with state law. As for Kennedy, Angell reminded everyone that the representative voted against shielding state marijuana laws from the DOJ, voted against veterans being able to get access to a medical recommendation through the Veterans Administration, and voted against protecting epileptic children using CBD oil from being raided by the DEA.<\/p>\n 72% of Democrats support legalizing marijuana<\/p>\n 95% of Dems back medical cannabis<\/p>\n Only 12% of Dems want the feds to intervene in state marijuana laws<\/p>\n *** Joe Kennedy voted to let the DEA arrest patients following state medical marijuana laws ***https:\/\/t.co\/66u5auwK7k<\/a> #SOTU<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/46Vik8tp5v<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Tom Angell TELL US,<\/strong> do you think the president should have talked about cannabis?<\/p>\n The post State of the Union 2018: Where Is the Pot?<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In his first State of the Union speech as president, Donald Trump made no mention of cannabis \u2014 but he did advocate for increasing policing efforts. Between discussing the threat to our borders, the need to proliferate nuclear arms and refugees, President Donald Trump made no mention of cannabis inContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":23224,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,80,95,81,3198],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23223"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23225,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23223\/revisions\/23225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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(@RealTimBlack) January 31, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n
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(@tomangell) January 31, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
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\nRead More: State of the Union 2018: Where Is the Pot?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"