How Trump Can Win Millennials and Minorities on Marijuana

Arresting, prosecuting and jailing folks for marijuana use-possession is INSANE.  Even the majority of the American people who once leaned strongly prohibitionist now endorse legalization for both medicinal (yes, marijuana is a very effective medicine) and recreational use.

Americans continue to warm to legalizing marijuana, with 64% now saying its use should be made legal. This is the highest level of public support Gallup has found for the proposal in nearly a half-century of measurement, here. 

So why are state and federal legislators dragging their feet on the issue?  The answer is simple; there are well heeled and powerful lobbies that literally bribe legislators to keep marijuana illegal.  The top 5 lobbies against marijuana legalization are police unions, prison guard unions, private prison corporations, the beer booze industry and big pharm.  I've always believed that marijuana would become legal ONLY when big pharm figures out a way to to obtain patents on marijuana and create monopolies.  Big pharm will always oppose folks growing their own marijuana for medicinal purposes.  The prohibitionist industry creates a lot of jobs for statist prohibitionists.

Another big issue is America's Prison Industrial Complex which is a deeply disturbing shame that should horrify all Americans because America's prisons are loaded with drug offenders.  These are NOT symptoms of free countries or anything that we should be proud of but are indicative of raw and absolute tyranny and abuse of power.  We lock up folks for drug offenses simply because it's very lucrative for certain industries that profit enormously.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, same as heroin and other heavy duty drugs. Bear in mind that many American including George Washington grew marijuana and it was grown in America for a variety of uses and commercial applications.  Marijuana has been a Schedule 1 drug since 1970.

Drugs or Substances listed in DEA Schedule I may include:
Heroin (diacetylmorphine)
LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide)
Marijuana (cannabis, THC)
Mescaline (Peyote)
MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine or “ecstasy”)
GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric acid) - except formulations in an FDA-approved drug product sodium oxybate (Xyrem) are Schedule III
Ecstasy (MDMA or 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine)
Psilocybin
Synthetic marijuana and analogs (Spice, K2)
Methaqualone (Quaalude)
Khat (Cathinone)
Bath Salts (3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone or MDPV), here.  

Legalizing marijuana is a smoking hot issue and the Republicans are dropping the ball on it.  Hillary Clinton clobbered Trump on the millennial or youth vote 55-37%.  These folks are most affected by America's draconian drug laws.

While the GOP is viewed as the prohibitionist party, folks opposed to the War on Drugs and specifically the War on Marijuana heavily lobbied the Obama Administration to get marijuana removed from the Schedule 1 list.  Obama refused. If marijuana was removed from the DEA's Schedule 1 list, it would most probably become a state issue which it should be anyway.

Not only did Obama support keeping marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, he sneakily and quietly added CBD oil to the Schedule 1 list, most probably at the urging of Big Pharm.  CBD oil has been proven to be effective for a variety of ailments - cancer, seizures, pain, depression and much more, here.

DEA Quietly Classifies CBD Oil as Schedule 1 Drug

If President Trump wants to do something that is eminently sane and that would also earn him wide support, he should:

1. Instruct his DEA to immediate remove marijuana from the Schedule 1 list.  It's legal and easy to do.
2. Publicly endorse and strongly advocate for Congress to pass a law decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level, a constitutional approach that boots the issue to the states where it belongs.  This is a necessary follow up to step 1 because it would prevent future presidents from reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug without Congress passing a law.

The Democrats have been very much a party to prohibitionist policies and just as strongly as the Republicans.  However, if Trump strongly got behind the issue he'd put both the R's and D's in a hot seat.  What Dem in their right mind would campaign on keeping marijuana a Schedule 1 drug and illegal at the federal level?  None that wants to get re-elected.

Finally, if Trump and the Republicans took the initiative in removing marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug and passed a law removing the issue from federal jurisdiction, it wouldn't just help the Republicans with the millennial vote, it would vastly help them with the African American vote.  Despite overwhelming proof that African Americans don't use marijuana in greater proportions than Caucasians, they are indeed arrested and incarcerated in far greater numbers.  It can be absolutely documented that marijuana laws disproportionately affect minority voters.

President Trump has an awesome opportunity to right a wrong and to also deliver what the American people want and want badly.  Just do it and to hell with special interests! 

In conclusion, I'd like to leave folks with one horrifying story on the insanity of America's drug laws.

There's a Man Serving Life in Prison for $5 Worth of Marijuana in the Same Country Where Millions Can Smoke It Legally

In 2008, Winslow was homeless on the streets of Shreveport, Louisiana. One night, an undercover cop approached and asked him for “a girl” and some pot. Winslow got two dime bags of weed from a white dealer he knew and sold them to the officer. In all, he made five bucks from the sale, money he needed to buy food, he says.

Police arrested Winslow, but not the dealer, even though he’d profited more handsomely from the sale; the marked $20 bill was found on him.

During Winslow's trial, prosecutors pointed to his long criminal history as a reason to put him away. But court records show he was far from a criminal mastermind. He had two nonviolent priors and a drug charge, which is not uncommon for poor people living on and off the streets. Still, after the predominantly white jury voted guilty, he was deemed a habitual offender. Under Louisiana law, that meant an automatic sentence of hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence.

“I just keep praying I know everything will be all right,” Winslow writes in a letter.

“There are people serving life for marijuana,” Deedee Kirkwood says. “When I tell people about this, they don’t believe me.”

It does defy plausibility, even in the context of the American criminal justice system, which is hardly famous for being rational or sane. According to the ACLU’s “A Living Death” report, as of 2012, 3,278 people were serving life without parole for nonviolent crimes—and that’s just federally and in nine states. The states that have locked away the most people per capita are Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Oklahoma.

Even at a time when more Americans support pot legalization—a Gallup poll released Wednesday found that 64 percent of Americans want legal weed—Fate Winslow is not the only person serving an absurdly long sentence for marijuana.

The marijuana issue is destroying lives and it's long overdue to correct this gross injustice.