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Ben Carson, President Donald Trump\u2019s former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), says a move to reschedule marijuana that the administration is actively considering would play into plots to \u201cdestroy this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview with Fox Business on Monday, Carson reiterated his opposition to cannabis reform as Trump weighs a proposal to transfer marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).<\/p>\n
Asked why he feels his \u201ccaution\u201d against rescheduling could lead the administration to reject the reform, Carson said that \u201cwith a lot of things, it\u2019s just a matter of common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a matter of putting the facts on the table and then making policy decisions based on what those facts are,\u201d he said, pointing to a study he claims found a \u201cdramatic increase in crime\u201d in neighborhoods with cannabis dispensaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t take a great deal of intellect to recognize that when you put these substances into communities and you make them easy to obtain, you get a much worse result,\u201d Carson said. \u201cAlso, people say, \u2018Well, you know, when I was young, I smoked marijuana. It didn\u2019t cause me to have a lot of problems.\u2019 Recognize that the marijuana of the 60s and 70s was much less potent than the marijuana today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI think what happens is politicians try to please too many areas, and they\u2019re looking at this group of constituents versus that group. They don\u2019t want to make anybody mad, so they try to walk the middle of the line,\u201d he said. \u201cBut this is not a middle of the line issue. We\u2019re talking life and death issues. We\u2019re talking dramatic change to quality of life issues for people, and they can find other ways to entertain themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went on to say that the \u201cenemies\u201d of the U.S. are \u201ctaking advantage\u201d of marijuana reform, pointing to \u201cChinese cartels\u201d that \u201ccome in and do business here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to sound too paranoid, but if I were trying to destroy this country, I would love to get a large proportion of the population just asking for the drugs and their check,\u201d Carson said.<\/p>\n
A Schedule III designation would not federally legalize cannabis. It would, however, acknowledge that it has medical use and allow state-licensed marijuana businesses to take federal tax deductions they\u2019ve been barred from under an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code known as 280E. It would also lift certain research barriers that apply to Schedule I drugs.<\/p>\n
The Fox Business interview came about a week after the former HUD secretary published an op-ed where he also spoke out against the marijuana rescheduling proposal<\/a>.<\/p>\n The former Cabinet member\u2019s position is also being promoted eight years after he criticized the impact that criminal drug enforcement has on disadvantaged communities<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 Meanwhile, Trump\u2019s former press secretary Sean Spicer and his long-time advisor Roger Stone recently traded diverging takes on\u00a0the prospect of the administration moving forward on marijuana rescheduling<\/a>.<\/p>\n Stone\u00a0separately made the case for reform in an op-ed for Marijuana Moment<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n Retired boxer Mike Tyson, meanwhile, recently spoke about the need for federal marijuana rescheduling on a podcast hosted by the wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller\u2014saying he\u2019s expecting \u201cgood news\u201d on the issue soon<\/a>.<\/p>\n In June, the retired boxer also took to Fox News and delivered a message to the president,\u00a0urging him to reschedule, and ultimately legalize, marijuana<\/a>.<\/p>\n That interview came days after Tyson led a letter alongside\u00a0other professional athletes and celebrities promoting cannabis reform<\/a>\u00a0that was sent to Trump, calling for rescheduling marijuana, expanding clemency and allowing licensed cannabis businesses to access the banking system.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Trump\u2019s former senior advisor Kellyanne Conway has been the \u201cbiggest champion\u201d of marijuana rescheduling<\/a> within the president\u2019s \u201cinner circle,\u201d a GOP congressman recently told Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis \/\/ Side Pocket Images.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Former Trump Cabinet Member Says Marijuana Rescheduling Would Help To \u2018Destroy This Country\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Ben Carson, President Donald Trump\u2019s former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), says a move to reschedule marijuana that the administration is actively considering would play into plots to \u201cdestroy this country.\u201d In an interview with Fox Business on Monday, Carson reiterated his opposition to cannabisContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":83233,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83232"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83234,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83232\/revisions\/83234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Former Trump Cabinet Member Says Marijuana Rescheduling Would Help To \u2018Destroy This Country\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"