Pot politics can depend on when you ask
That reversal, an apparent part of President Trump's ongoing campaign to undo everything President Obama did, outraged Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican from Colorado, which legalized cannabis for recreational use in 2014.
During Sessions' confirmation hearings, Gardner had asked him to promise that the feds wouldn't interfere with pot businesses and users that complied with state laws. After Sessions rescinded Obama's policy, Gardner chastised him from the floor of the Senate and began to hold up Trump's Justice Department nominees in a political hostage drama.
That standoff appears to have ended last Wednesday (April 11), coincidentally the same day as Boehner's announcement. Trump told Gardner in a phone call that he would support congressional efforts to protect states that have legalized marijuana. Gardner expressed satisfaction with the call, although skeptics suggested that he should get Trump's promise in writing first.
Gardner says he hopes to do better than that. He has been talking quietly with other senators about possible legislation to bar federal interference with states that have voted to legalize marijuana. I wish him luck. If there is any grand experiment that should be tested in the laboratory of the states, not our currently polarized and gridlocked national government, this is it.
Federal law has irrationally classified marijuana as a "schedule 1" drug under a law passed in 1970 during President Richard Nixon's "war on drugs." By listing marijuana as having no acceptable medical use and a potential for abuse and dependency as high as heroin and ecstasy, that law actually prevents useful research into the actual effects of the drug.
Removing federal interference from states that have decided to legalize pot would not be the same as a national legalization bill, but it would be an important step in the right direction at a time when common sense seems to have gone up in smoke.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
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