The extraterrestrials were finally going public, or so it seemed. After decades of rumors, speculation, theories and even eyewitness accounts of lizard people, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell managed to upstage the very presence of \u201clittle green men\u201d with a scary\u2014and very public\u2014health crisis moment.<\/p>\n
Just hours after a whistleblower went before Congress to testify that there were, in fact, \u201cbiological non-humans\u201d in the possession of the US military, McConnell, who was set to give a briefing about a defense policy bill, glazed over in front of cameras, becoming speechless<\/a> before the gather press corps for nearly 20 seconds before being escorted away by his colleagues.<\/p>\n Although the 81-year-old McConnell has said that he\u2019s \u201cfine\u201d and plans to \u201cserve his full term in the job they overwhelmingly elected me to do,\u201d his next health crisis could be right around the corner. And that, as dark as it might sound, could bode well for cannabis reform as it attempts to gain momentum at the federal level.<\/p>\n On top of being inarguably the most conservative Congressional leader and the longest serving Republican senator, McConnell\u2019s been fighting to criminalize drug users since the early 1980s. More than that, he\u2019s a staunch opponent of cannabis legalization.<\/p>\n \u201cSenator McConnell is strongly opposed to legalization of marijuana as Kentucky families deserve no less,\u201d a spokesperson for McConnell\u2019s Senate office said back in 2014. Nearly a decade later, Kentucky surpassed McConnell\u2019s politics by legalizing cannabis for medicinal use. Even to this day, McConnell appears to treat the cannabis economy less than seriously. Despite years of Democratic efforts to pass the landmark\u2014and industry-wide lifeline\u2014cannabis banking bill (SAFE), McConnell has blocked it at every step, saying that he worries that throwing any support behind \u201cpot banking\u201d will make the US financial system \u201cmore sympathetic to illegal drugs.\u201d Logic may not be his strong suit.<\/p>\n What makes McConnell\u2019s constant opposition to cannabis legalization even stranger is the fact that he\u2019s not totally against it. He was instrumental in getting the 2018 Farm Bill<\/a> passed, which legalized industrial hemp production in the US for the first time since it was banned in 1937. This made cannabis advocates hopeful that the legislation meant that he was warming up to federally legalizing cannabis, but that hasn\u2019t been the case. It was just an attempt to reinvigorate the American farmer, giving them a profitable cash crop, that was never to include the plant\u2019s intoxicating cousin. The cannabis industry likes to believe that they\u2019ve got his support in some cases, always hopeful that he\u2019ll do the right thing and get behind cannabis banking (something hemp farmers need as well), but the self-proclaimed Grim Reaper of Capitol Hill won\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n But what happens if\u2014and when\u2014McConnell is no longer in the US Senate?<\/p>\n McConnell doesn\u2019t think he\u2019s going anywhere soon. But that\u2019s not up to him. There\u2019s cause for concern with respect to his health. Even Republicans are worried about it becoming an issue, according to several published reports. But they\u2019ve got his seat covered. If he falls ill or dies during his term, a new law requires Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear to pick three candidates from the Republican Party, putting them on the ballot for a special election to determine who fills that seat. Had the law not been changed, Governor Beshear could have just selected a Democrat as his successor. And that would have opened Congress to a bunch of reforms, including cannabis.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no mistaking McConnell\u2019s power on the Hill. Even as Minority Leader, he has managed to thwart cannabis reform, no matter how much support Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) can seem to muster. Schumer went into his role as Majority Leader ready to end pot prohibition once and for all, but McConnell has been the Alpha. Without McConnell holding power, however, the tides could still turn in favor of pot reform. Unfortunately, the clock is ticking.<\/p>\n If his body holds up, McConnell isn\u2019t up for re-election until 2026, which would mean maybe a decade before cannabis reform could potentially get the push needed for federal legalization. For now, McConnell is upholding \u201cthe Republican party of Ronald Reagan,\u201d and that means more prohibition. So don\u2019t hold your breath. And if you do, make sure it\u2019s a big ole hit of something good.<\/p>\n The post Was Sen. McConnell\u2019s Public Health \u2018Moment\u2019 Good for Cannabis Reform?<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The extraterrestrials were finally going public, or so it seemed. After decades of rumors, speculation, theories and even eyewitness accounts of lizard people, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell managed to upstage the very presence of \u201clittle green men\u201d with a scary\u2014and very public\u2014health crisis moment. Just hours after a whistleblowerContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,90],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67897"}],"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\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67898,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67897\/revisions\/67898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Was Sen. McConnell\u2019s Public Health \u2018Moment\u2019 Good for Cannabis Reform?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"