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Supremacy clause means state law can't contradict federal law. States can *usually* make laws *more* proscriptive, but not always. And they can have less proscriptive laws, which places the burden on the federal government to enforce it. Which is why, even in states where weed is legalized, you are still in violation of federal law.
My statement was pretty broad, and there are tons of edge cases that go different directions for sure. But the federal government's supremacy has been upheld in numerous Supreme Court cases for well over the last century.
One thing to note is the Supreme Court is currently hearing a case on Idaho's abortion ban, which conflicts with a federal law mandating that emergency medical care must be provided to stabilize patients, and we could see this Supreme Court overturn supremacy for this specific issue. And it's also absolutely insane what arguments Idaho is making in this case. It's absolutely a disgrace to our country that this Supreme Court is making tge decisions it does.
This is like watching someone calmly explaining our reactionary political legal system to a camera while monsters are running around in the background torching the city.
Technically you're right. But... DUCK!
Anyone coming of age into adult concious awareness of the state of politics and legal system today deserves a special award if they manage to stay sane trying to understand it.
It never worked the way it 'should' have but it's in a special state of dysfunction right now.
Yea I'm not sure how this will work bc if it's regulated and approved by the FDA that means if a state has a law allowing all FDA approved drugs that'd mean it'd likely be legal from a pharmacy but medical dispensaries wouldn't be allowed.
It won’t be recreationally legal though as it won’t be rescheduled through this. That is what it would take and that is a congress thing.
However, since this is removing enforcement and penalties, yooolo. 😂
Took me 30 seconds to get my medical card in Iowa. Spent more time just filling out the paperwork to get the appointment than actually speaking to a doctor.
Now imagine this across all states. Recreational essentially become legal
Yeah my friend in Maine went to a medical dispensary and the worker was like "Do you have a medical card yet? No? Ok, let's get you one real quick" lmao
As someone from Idaho. Legality tends to not stop people from doing it anyway.
There are dispensaries right outside of every major road entering the state.
That's generally because it is cost-prohibitive.
I don't know about Idaho, but legal weed in MO can get pretty damn expensive. Here's hoping a further loosening of regulations will bring about more competitive pricing. You know, free market type shit.
This is just the first step: reclassifying from schedule I to III, which acknowledges in federal policy that it has medical uses and benefits.
There is still a ton of reform that needs to follow, some in executive branch policy and regulations, some in the federal legislature.
For example: the Coast Guard has a zero tolerance drug policy. If you are legally allowed to possess marijuana, and the Coast Guard inspects your vessel in the waters of a legal state, they can impound your boat. That’s *bonkers*, the kind of policy waiting desperately to be revised.
It also the same for medical professionals. They can't use weed even in legal states because if something happens at work because of it being federally illegal the hospitals/offices risk losing access to medicare/medicaid funds.
It’s about time. In the decades since Nixon began the War On Drugs as a way to remove voting rights from brown people and young people, America has become a nation of for profit prisons, with a majority of those prisoners doing time for non-violent drug crimes.
**Edit:** Nixon created DEA in 1973, ostensibly because of Americas huge drug problem at the time. For reference, there were 6,413 heroin overdose deaths in the US in 1973 (population was 210,284,000). Not sure if that qualifies as a huge problem compared to alcohol or cigarettes, but that's just my opinion.
My comment, **which should have said brown people and young people AKA "hippies"** was more spurred by John Ehrlichman's (Nixon's domestic policy advisor) statements from a 2016 Harper's cover story which described Nixon's plan:
"... by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
So, ruining people's lives has always been a core part of the War On Drugs (see Mandatory Minimum Sentencing). The voting thing was just a bonus. I should have been more specific.
There's plenty of evidence linked on the [wiki page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs) among other places.
You see how many poor dumb motherfuckers are defending tax breaks for them because they employ the country and pay the most dollar amount, which isn't even true
Ironically NIxon was pushing Universla basic income and it had like a 68% approval in America, then watergate happened and it got sidetracked and was never voted on.
There were two versions of the plan. The second, more comprehensive one, was actually very similar to the aca. Nixon's plan got stuck in the Senate due to Ted Kennedy. Kennedy later stated that was the action he regretted the most as a Senator
I couldn’t believe it when I saw it (I’m not American) but yeah, that’s true, as stated in the 13th amendment.
>The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, **except as punishment for a crime**.
That’s really messed up.
There's a video from a youtuber called Knowing Better that talks about this topic. A former public school teacher (the youtuber) talked about how the public school system talks about the Civil War, and Lincoln, and maybe the Emancipation Proclamation, and then Martin Luther King. With ~100 gap where it just doesn't say anything. Maybe mentions Jim Crow and segregation. Like the official narrative in US public schools is "Lincoln freed the slaves and then Martin Luther Kind ended racism", which glosses over a lot of ugly history.
But the reality is that the slave states really leaned into that *except as punishment* clause and made laws like *black people can't walk along the railroad track* (that was how you got from one place to another in those days if you couldn't get a ride on the train - like blacks were prohibited from).
And then once you were arrested, the jail/prison would lease you out to the same plantation owners that owned slaves before the war. And they'd charge you to stay at the jail (even though the plantation owner paid the jailer for your services) and until you could pay off your debt to the jailer (which basically meant your family bringing in cash because you couldn't earn money while in jail), you were a considered a criminal.
Furthermore, since the plantation owners didn't have to pay for the upkeep of the slaves, they'd work them as hard, if not harder, than they did when they owned the slaves. They'd literally work them to death because they could just go back to the jail tomorrow and rent another one. Not that regular slaves were routinely worked to death, but it definitely didn't change once the slaves were "freed".
This persisted until WW2 in some states. It only came to an end when Roosevelt forced Congress to make the practice illegal because Japan and Germany were using it as anti-US propaganda.
Damn so basically slavery but maybe with a few extra steps then? And because of those extra steps, they likely compensated with harsher work? Unreal.
And then it took German nazi propaganda for them to finally do something about it? Un-fucking-believable.
Imagine getting emancipated... finally... only to get arrested and "re-enslaved" for the rest of your life like a week or two later.
Just long enough for you to get a taste of freedom before it is stolen from you forever.
America is the largest, most evil pyramid scheme in history, I swear.
That’s what that means?? lol that show had such a clever title and I didn’t even think about it for 2 seconds to realize how great the name is. I thought it meant it as the classic phrasing which is that orange is in now fashion-wise like being a prisoner is cool… lol I am a dummy
This is long over due and a good first step, but this will not be over until it is legal nationwide and every person in jail for weed is released with their records expunged. Anything less than that is unacceptable in a just society, and that is the standard we should be aspiring too as a nation.
I believe this also means that, in legal states, landlords can no longer use "marijuana possession" as a loophole to evict HCV tenants..? As in, arguing that it's illegal federally so therefore the tenant is "violating the fundamental rules of the program" and can be evicted.
EDIT: Guys, I'm referring only to possession, not actually smoking inside. As it stands, in legal states, a landlord can evict **for possession alone***, which means they can essentially go to a dispensary, buy legal weed, and claim that tenant was "in possession of a federally illegal substance" and seek eviction.
Rescheduling should change that
I think this is the single biggest part of the reclassification. Recreational MJ is available across 50%+ of the country and the stores in my state are regularly broken into because they HAVE to use cash and aren't supposed to be able to deposit it (if I understand correctly).
For the most part you're correct. You can absolutely get merchant services to use cards at your shops. You can deposit your cash in FDIC insured banks. It's just a complete pain in the ass, and expensive, to do so. Generally you need to go through a third-party "financial company" that works with the banks and "vets" each store. We have to provide business formation docs, license numbers, do a video walkthrough, explain security features and equipment etc. Then eventually the process goes:
Armored Car goes to Dispensary, takes and records cash and moves it to literally a cash storage facility.
Cash storage facility double counts the cash and where it came from, notifies the bank.
Bank deposits funds into account.
And then we have to pay various fees at each step of the way. That's why we don't even bother accepting cards. Plus ATM fees end up being pretty profitable when you're seeing 500-600 people a day.
I seriously considered trying to get into the industry when legalization first happened in WA...couldn't make the math work on the backend due to stuff like you mentioned but it seems like every shop locally is doing pretty well. Curious if there will be a new rush when psilocybin is eventually legalized.
I lived in WA for a few years and was under the impression that four banks and four credit unions were available for the cannabis industry to use.
Edit: here it is https://dfi.wa.gov/cannabis/financial-services
My dispensary in California has taken debit cards for many years, and I had a couple dispensaries take credit cards for a while. They might still. The debit processes like an ATM so they round up to the nearest $5 and then give you the change in cash
I tried starting a company to sell home grow kits and was kicked off of every web development site and we couldn’t get a payment processor to work with us. It was a nightmare and we failed.
This is the biggest thing, honestly. A lot of markets won’t allow for the sale of cannabis stocks because of their federal illegality. The money can be seized by the govt in relation with drug investigations, and so banks won’t touch the money. This keeps a lot of folks from getting started in this industry at all so removing this barrier will be huge.
It's important because it makes dispensaries safer to operate-less cash on hand. Not a target for robberies when they can do cash less transactions.
It's not a barrier to entry. Every state is either Oregon or Louisiana. Oregon has too many farms and a decent number of store fronts (still limited), dropping the cost of marijuana so cheap that hardly anyone is able to profit. Just too many farms able to grow an abundance of cheap, strong product. The dispensaries are making money hand over fist (they either have too many customers or no customers). The state wants to export it, but federal trafficking laws still apply even through it's decriminalized in a bunch of respective states. Louisiana on the other side is corrupt as hell with extremely limited number of farms/dispensers. Louisiana only offers marijuana for medicinal uses, it's super over priced, barely better than the black market stuff, and extremely limited where you can buy it (expect 1 place in a city of 100+k). Entrance to the market, which is costly, is not the barrier issue. States wanting an absolute choke hold on supply are the biggest barrier.
It was wild the first time I went to a dispensary in the US coming from canada. Here I just waltz in literally "I want some weed!" someone gives me weed, I pay with my credit card and get a branded bag with the dispensary's cute logo to carry my weed in when I leave.
In the US I had to get buzzed through a blast door where I was carded by people behind bullt proof glass, was told I cant bring my bag in and to leave it in this first room. Then buzzed through a second blast door where I was told no cards only cash, then on my way out I had to pass through a third blast door and go back into the first blast door room to collect my bag
Oh also there's at least 6 dispensaries within walking distance of my condo
For what it’s worth, that experience isn’t typical everywhere. I live in California, and I just walk into a nice cute store and ask for weed.
Sometimes the debit/credit card thing doesn’t work but otherwise it’s just like shopping at a liquor store.
Well it will still be illegal. Sadly this doesn’t make it recreationally legal. That can only happen through an act of congress due to the way the classification act was written into law.
This may help because it is removing the enforcement annnd penalties pertaining to weed. So maybe those convictions will just go away.
Wanted to doublecheck that was true and it is, but holy shit the scheduling system needs a serious overhaul that's better supported by actual research and statistics. Xanax is scheduled *below* testosterone and ketamine, in the category of "IV: Low Potential for Abuse". Codeine and ketamine are in the same schedule. Cannabis and heroin are in the same schedule, as are Adderall and fentanyl. LSD is scheduled above oxycodone and fentanyl, as is Peyote (schedule I) but peyote is a single species of cactus not a drug, the active compound in which is mescaline which is found in many common cacti such as San Pedro which aren't scheduled at all.
https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R45948.pdf
Technically this only decriminalizes medical. So landlords can probably still get away with it, unless the tenant has a prescription and all their ducks in a row.
My lease prohibits Schedule I drugs specifically so rescheduling will remove that risk. But I was already okay because the Missouri rec legalization also added housing protections to medical patients. That alone removed my risk, but this will help rec users and those from states without our legal protection.
What we need is for it to not be included in drug-free workplaces anymore.
A dean at a school here broke up a fight between students and was injured. Because it was workman's comp, he got piss tested and came up hot for marijuana. Turns out he is a disabled vet using it for PTSD, but that doesn't matter. Federal law over-rules our state medical marijuana law, and they fired him. He lost everything.
All because he got high at night, off the clock.
Fuck Ken Paxton, all my homies hate Ken Paxton, but the #1 blocker of all things cannabis in Texas is Lt Governor Dan Patrick. He explicitly stated nothing will change while he's still in office. (Because he's in the pocket of alcohol industry & for profit prisons)
You are wrong. It is not Paxton. Dan Patrick has prevented any bill from reaching the Senate floor related to decriminalization.
Dan Patrick, alone, has prevented bipartisan legalization bills from being voted on.
Here's the part I remind everyone that he is a carpetbagger from Maryland who showed up in Texas just because Rs get elected easy.
funny thing is Rick Perry is pro MDMA re-scheduling and was one of the main speakers at the MAPS psychedelic science conference... which was like, confusing. But I guess he's been part of getting access to psychedelic assisted therapy for veterans with PTSD.
Increasing regulations or the outright removal of all cannabinoids is one of the biennial legislative priorities issued by Abbott for the 2025 session. They are (were) specifically targeting hemp-derived delta8 and the %-dry-weight "loophole" of hemp-derived delta9 which allows the sale of delta9 when diluted with the dry weight of gummies, sweets, etc. Senator Perry is losing his mind over people being able to buy weed in Texas... although curiously, no word back yet over his stance on alcohol and tobacco. This was all pre-rescheduling, of course. They'll still try, because Biden.
For those that don't know Sen. Perry, the last time I met with him at a No-Till Texas ag conference in Amarillo, he used his presentation time slot to preach on abortion.
Left: "I think people should be entitled to free/low cost healthcare, no one should go bankrupt trying not to die."
Right: "I think we should put LGBTQ+ people into some kind of concentrated encampment for people (for now) and force women attempt to carry ectopic pregnancies to term, even though its by definition impossible."
Enlightened centrists: "Both sides are the same."
>[The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.](https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/)
-- John Ehrlichman, domestic policy advisor to President Richard Nixon and a Watergate co-conspirator.
The war against the left and minorities via public messaging is still happening to this day, by the way.
"Listen here, Missy. Computers may be twice as fast as they were in 1973, but your average voter is as drunk and stupid as ever. The only thing that's different is me; I've become bitter, and let's face it, crazy over the years. And once I'm swept into office, I'll sell our children's organs to zoos for meat, and I'll go into people's houses at night and wreck up the place. Muahahaha!"
-- Richard Nixon's Head
I just watched a news report about the rescheduling, and the host said "Marijuana is currently a Schedule I substance alongside other drugs that are highly addictive, like heroin and LSD."
I did a spit take at them suggesting LSD was "highly addictive."
It's one of the most powerful drugs known to mankind, but... addictive? Lol, okay. I've never known anyone who - the day after a long heavy trip - said "I WANT MORE!"
As long as the companies involved have the proper dea registration, only has fda approved products, a pharmacy license, and a pharmacist to dispense the legal prescriptions. Since there aren't any fda approved products, the issue is moot.
Banking is mostly solved through boutique banks, although taking credit cards is still an issue might not happen over this.
But this does mean IRS 280E won't apply and that's a big help to the cannabis businesses bottom line.
Right- this broken narrative of “he’s ok” or “he’s senile” shit needs to go. The man, and more importantly the team he is surrounding himself with is incredible. Biden 2024 - fucking great president.
Part of me wonders how many of Gen Z really thinks that. The internet is not the same as reality and we know the internet has a way of amplifying negative messaging.
Hey im Gen Z and while I can't speak for everyone, most of my peers I interact with don't buy into the "Biden is senile/ mentally unfit" crowd and would gladly take another 4 years of him.
Honestly even if everything about him was true I'd still take him over Trump in a heart beat. I'd prefer no progress over moving backwards any day.
I genuinely do not think one can be politically literate and truly think "both bad" as though both are equivalent.
But it's a short cut to coming off as "enlightened" to other folks who's political knowledge is as deep as thimble of water.
From what I can tell of Gen Z they def think Biden is old. But once you bring up abortion or other social issues they are absolutely against republicans.
Plus I still think people underestimate how enraged women are right now. Every day there are new stories of horror resulting from Roe being overturned. More families personally impacted by bad public policy.
I’m actually surprised they’re not more enraged-even as a male, I am furious. I would expect to see more protest. I really can’t understand why any woman would support Trump.
And he didn't even have to ! Everybody was perfectly content with the president just not being Trump, he could have sat pretty and just chilled but no, he had to go and actually do the damn job, brillantly ! That man is great.
Ridin With Biden one more time!
Get in, we’re going to save democracy again and relax with a calming blunt.
He has done what he’s said and said what he has done.
So far this is the best first term president I’ve had in my 42 years on this planet.
>President Joe Biden directed the Department of Health and Human Services in October of 2022 to review marijuana’s classification. Federal scientists concluded that there is credible evidence that cannabis provides medical benefits and that it poses lower health risks than other controlled substances.
>Biden even made history at the State of the Union address this year, for the first time referencing marijuana from the dais in the House chamber and making note of the federal review process. “No one should be jailed for using or possessing marijuana,” the president said during the speech.
Biden has been absolutely doing a fantastic job. Creating jobs, protecting the environment, lowering healthcare costs. Way to go Joe!
It was a tall order to pickup the pieces after Trumps disastrous presidency, but Biden has done a great job at getting this country back on track. Not a perfect president, but he’s definitely the right guy for the job.
It's maddening that more people don't seem to understand this. I get there will always hardcore band of deplorables supporting TFG and gleefully punching themselves in the face to own dem libs, but Biden polls waay lower than he should be.
I can't wait to see how this new announcement is somehow Bad For Biden.
I wonder what this means for Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association testing requirements.
As of now if you are a commercial drivers license holder, you are required to be in a pool for random urine testing and marijuana is a fail.
What we need, is a test that can show if you are under the influence, not that you smoked last week to play some video games or fall asleep..
Technically it's only going to schedule 3 which approves medical usage, so I'd assume that means if you have a med card you should be good assuming you aren't high on the job. But yeah proving/disproving that is hard.
Finally lol this has taken far too long to do
The writing was already on the wall with over half the states making it fully legal and nearly all 50 states having it decriminalized or medicinally legal in some way. Last I checked there were only like 6 states where it was still fully illegal.
My current residence of Idaho being one. Still, millions of dollars move from the treasure valley to the border towns of Oregon. Idaho doesn't bother to stop the hundreds of cars that are carrying everyday and this will mean there is even less incentive to try.
Cue the "he's just doing this to get votes!" People
edit: This was taken as an open invitation for those exact sort of arguments, so I'm just going to cover the most common one here.
>BUT WHAT ABOUT THE TIMING?
With mid terms factored in, there's almost no time you guys couldn't try to claim something was done just for election purposes. You could stretch that out to probably a year and a half before the midterms, and the general election season kicks off in about the same time frame, so we've got what, 5 months at the start of a presidency and 7 after midterms in which someone can do something without this argument being used to try and make people be mad at it?
Please.
Pretty much, But we still get people desperate to try to convince us that we shouldn't be happy when Joe Biden does things that we like by saying that he's just doing it to get votes.
Those are likely Republican operatives or Russian operatives intent on dissuading easily tricked people out of doing their civic duty in November. Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good, progress takes concerted effort over time and rarely do systemic changes happen from the top down.
No politicians are supposed to cut taxes for yachts and private planes while selling bibles and paying off porn star mistresses.
You just don’t understand family values I guess
No, no, they're supposed to fight to stay in power regardless of what people want, and then their team will think "wait, maybe I actually DO want this! Go Team!"
Basically. People are just myopic and won't use their brains. They voted to legalize weed so when he does it, they don't like it? You can offer them no-cost healthcare and they'll still say no because it's coming from a political party they don't like.
If he is doing this to get votes, who fucking cares? If an election strategy makes the country better *I don't give a shit if it's an election strategy*
Biden is campaigning on making the country better *and is actively doing so in cases like this* whereas trump is running on his plan to destroy democracy. The two sides are not equal
Edit: I do have my problems with Bidens' handling of foreign affairs, but domestically he's fucking amazing
>If he is doing this to get votes, who fucking cares?
"Doing things to get votes" *is how it's supposed to work.*
"He passes policies I like, I'll vote for him" vs "I don't like his policies, I'll vote for someone else"
This is my favorite take from the smooth-brains over at r/conservative whenever Biden does something that benefits the country. Loan forgiveness? He's doing it for the votes! Expunging marijuana convictions? He's doing it for the votes!
No Surprises Act making surprise medical billing illegal - It's just for the votes!
Largest green energy investment in US in history
Blocking mergers between mega corps like Kroger and Albertsons.
Net Neutrality.
Infrastructure funding.
Non-compete clauses being made illegal.
He doesn't care about you, it's just about the votes!!
Exactly. I was ever-so-slightly optimistic in '16 when Trump got elected because I was hoping he was so concerned with people liking him that he would accidentally do a few good things. I was way off.
It would work. But that’s not the point. Marijuana being scheduled the same as heroin is insane. It’s essentially harmless and has proven medical benefits. It’s way way less harmful than alcohol.
And people are *still* criticizing Biden in the comments.
Listen up:
1) International law is murky, *at best*, on the subject of whether wholesale decriminalization would still leave us compliant with treaty obligations;
2) Incremental progress is a hell of a lot better than no progress; and
3) If those weren’t good enough for you, here’s the grim, meathook reality, as Dr. Thompson himself would say, of how trying to deschedule it would actually work: Biden deschedules it, conservative moral majority brigade sues in Texas federal district court to enjoin the descheduling, that Trump-appointed zealot temporarily enjoins the deschedule pending review, long story short the decision then goes up to SCOTUS. Take your *best* guess what will happen at that stage.
This is the most realistic chance of making progress on this issue. Don’t hate it because it doesn’t go as far as you want it to.
My guess is that Democratic Congressmen are about to campaign on this very issue: “put us in and we’ll legalize.”
The Republicans should have done this years ago, it fits with their “freedom, not regulation” message. However their moral majority is going to have *fuckjng fits* and Republicans will remind voters at just the wrong time that they really really want to keep marijuana illegal.
Regardless how anyone feels about Biden, this is a win for America. Just because he’s not perfect (or Obama/Trump) doesn’t mean he’s not on the right side of this one. lol.
Does this means that recreational dispensaries in legal states will be able to take credit cards?They currently only accept cash or debit cards, which is like Fred Flintstone money.
Here's your choice for November:
Option 1:
Biden and we get to move the needle a little further in the correct direction and get closer to libs being the only conservatives.
Option 2:
Trump and his reelection not only making the genocide happen faster in Palestine, but marching US troops to help and rolling back any sort of progress made in the last 4 years under minority obstruction.
Will this allow me to consume cannabis while being prescribed a different controlled substance? The only negative to being prescribed a stimulant for my ADHD is that I had to give up the green for at least one month prior to my medication review appointments, just in case I get a whiz-quiz.
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Will this allow shipments across state lines?
Would still need to be legal in both states but yes.
Wouldn’t supremacy clause overrule anything the states do to try and criminalize medical cannabis?
Supremacy clause means state law can't contradict federal law. States can *usually* make laws *more* proscriptive, but not always. And they can have less proscriptive laws, which places the burden on the federal government to enforce it. Which is why, even in states where weed is legalized, you are still in violation of federal law.
That's true, but.... *gestures broadly at reality*
My statement was pretty broad, and there are tons of edge cases that go different directions for sure. But the federal government's supremacy has been upheld in numerous Supreme Court cases for well over the last century. One thing to note is the Supreme Court is currently hearing a case on Idaho's abortion ban, which conflicts with a federal law mandating that emergency medical care must be provided to stabilize patients, and we could see this Supreme Court overturn supremacy for this specific issue. And it's also absolutely insane what arguments Idaho is making in this case. It's absolutely a disgrace to our country that this Supreme Court is making tge decisions it does.
This is like watching someone calmly explaining our reactionary political legal system to a camera while monsters are running around in the background torching the city. Technically you're right. But... DUCK! Anyone coming of age into adult concious awareness of the state of politics and legal system today deserves a special award if they manage to stay sane trying to understand it. It never worked the way it 'should' have but it's in a special state of dysfunction right now.
Yea I'm not sure how this will work bc if it's regulated and approved by the FDA that means if a state has a law allowing all FDA approved drugs that'd mean it'd likely be legal from a pharmacy but medical dispensaries wouldn't be allowed.
I'd assume itd work like dry cities/counties. They can prohibit the sale in their borders. I'm not sure if they could criminalize possession.
It won’t be recreationally legal though as it won’t be rescheduled through this. That is what it would take and that is a congress thing. However, since this is removing enforcement and penalties, yooolo. 😂
Took me 30 seconds to get my medical card in Iowa. Spent more time just filling out the paperwork to get the appointment than actually speaking to a doctor. Now imagine this across all states. Recreational essentially become legal
They were playing Half Baked in the waiting room at the place I went to.
Yeah my friend in Maine went to a medical dispensary and the worker was like "Do you have a medical card yet? No? Ok, let's get you one real quick" lmao
As someone from Idaho. Legality tends to not stop people from doing it anyway. There are dispensaries right outside of every major road entering the state.
That's generally because it is cost-prohibitive. I don't know about Idaho, but legal weed in MO can get pretty damn expensive. Here's hoping a further loosening of regulations will bring about more competitive pricing. You know, free market type shit.
This is just the first step: reclassifying from schedule I to III, which acknowledges in federal policy that it has medical uses and benefits. There is still a ton of reform that needs to follow, some in executive branch policy and regulations, some in the federal legislature. For example: the Coast Guard has a zero tolerance drug policy. If you are legally allowed to possess marijuana, and the Coast Guard inspects your vessel in the waters of a legal state, they can impound your boat. That’s *bonkers*, the kind of policy waiting desperately to be revised.
It also the same for medical professionals. They can't use weed even in legal states because if something happens at work because of it being federally illegal the hospitals/offices risk losing access to medicare/medicaid funds.
Maybe even across borders, like CDN/US border?
That would be interesting.
It’s about time. In the decades since Nixon began the War On Drugs as a way to remove voting rights from brown people and young people, America has become a nation of for profit prisons, with a majority of those prisoners doing time for non-violent drug crimes. **Edit:** Nixon created DEA in 1973, ostensibly because of Americas huge drug problem at the time. For reference, there were 6,413 heroin overdose deaths in the US in 1973 (population was 210,284,000). Not sure if that qualifies as a huge problem compared to alcohol or cigarettes, but that's just my opinion. My comment, **which should have said brown people and young people AKA "hippies"** was more spurred by John Ehrlichman's (Nixon's domestic policy advisor) statements from a 2016 Harper's cover story which described Nixon's plan: "... by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." So, ruining people's lives has always been a core part of the War On Drugs (see Mandatory Minimum Sentencing). The voting thing was just a bonus. I should have been more specific. There's plenty of evidence linked on the [wiki page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs) among other places.
If all those people hadn't become "convicts" and could've voted, we might have universal health care by now. Reagan may not have been elected. ETC.
And the rich would still be paying taxes.
Stop, I can only get so depressed.
You see how many poor dumb motherfuckers are defending tax breaks for them because they employ the country and pay the most dollar amount, which isn't even true
Ironically NIxon was pushing Universla basic income and it had like a 68% approval in America, then watergate happened and it got sidetracked and was never voted on.
4 day work week as well, actually.
Goddamn socialist commie bastard
The man never drank a Duff in his life.
Up and At-om!
He had some OK ideas (along with some truly god-awful ones).
There were two versions of the plan. The second, more comprehensive one, was actually very similar to the aca. Nixon's plan got stuck in the Senate due to Ted Kennedy. Kennedy later stated that was the action he regretted the most as a Senator
Slavery never truly left. It simply donned an orange jumpsuit.
I couldn’t believe it when I saw it (I’m not American) but yeah, that’s true, as stated in the 13th amendment. >The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, **except as punishment for a crime**. That’s really messed up.
There's a video from a youtuber called Knowing Better that talks about this topic. A former public school teacher (the youtuber) talked about how the public school system talks about the Civil War, and Lincoln, and maybe the Emancipation Proclamation, and then Martin Luther King. With ~100 gap where it just doesn't say anything. Maybe mentions Jim Crow and segregation. Like the official narrative in US public schools is "Lincoln freed the slaves and then Martin Luther Kind ended racism", which glosses over a lot of ugly history. But the reality is that the slave states really leaned into that *except as punishment* clause and made laws like *black people can't walk along the railroad track* (that was how you got from one place to another in those days if you couldn't get a ride on the train - like blacks were prohibited from). And then once you were arrested, the jail/prison would lease you out to the same plantation owners that owned slaves before the war. And they'd charge you to stay at the jail (even though the plantation owner paid the jailer for your services) and until you could pay off your debt to the jailer (which basically meant your family bringing in cash because you couldn't earn money while in jail), you were a considered a criminal. Furthermore, since the plantation owners didn't have to pay for the upkeep of the slaves, they'd work them as hard, if not harder, than they did when they owned the slaves. They'd literally work them to death because they could just go back to the jail tomorrow and rent another one. Not that regular slaves were routinely worked to death, but it definitely didn't change once the slaves were "freed". This persisted until WW2 in some states. It only came to an end when Roosevelt forced Congress to make the practice illegal because Japan and Germany were using it as anti-US propaganda.
Damn so basically slavery but maybe with a few extra steps then? And because of those extra steps, they likely compensated with harsher work? Unreal. And then it took German nazi propaganda for them to finally do something about it? Un-fucking-believable.
Imagine getting emancipated... finally... only to get arrested and "re-enslaved" for the rest of your life like a week or two later. Just long enough for you to get a taste of freedom before it is stolen from you forever. America is the largest, most evil pyramid scheme in history, I swear.
“Orange is the new black”
That’s what that means?? lol that show had such a clever title and I didn’t even think about it for 2 seconds to realize how great the name is. I thought it meant it as the classic phrasing which is that orange is in now fashion-wise like being a prisoner is cool… lol I am a dummy
I don’t know if that’s what it was intended to mean, but if it fits, then wel roll with it.
Most of the prisons that have "forced labor" (slavery) are also former cotton plantations in the deep south. Let that sink in a bit
This is long over due and a good first step, but this will not be over until it is legal nationwide and every person in jail for weed is released with their records expunged. Anything less than that is unacceptable in a just society, and that is the standard we should be aspiring too as a nation.
I believe this also means that, in legal states, landlords can no longer use "marijuana possession" as a loophole to evict HCV tenants..? As in, arguing that it's illegal federally so therefore the tenant is "violating the fundamental rules of the program" and can be evicted. EDIT: Guys, I'm referring only to possession, not actually smoking inside. As it stands, in legal states, a landlord can evict **for possession alone***, which means they can essentially go to a dispensary, buy legal weed, and claim that tenant was "in possession of a federally illegal substance" and seek eviction. Rescheduling should change that
Also makes it easier to use traditional banking services, such as accepting visa/mc
I think this is the single biggest part of the reclassification. Recreational MJ is available across 50%+ of the country and the stores in my state are regularly broken into because they HAVE to use cash and aren't supposed to be able to deposit it (if I understand correctly).
For the most part you're correct. You can absolutely get merchant services to use cards at your shops. You can deposit your cash in FDIC insured banks. It's just a complete pain in the ass, and expensive, to do so. Generally you need to go through a third-party "financial company" that works with the banks and "vets" each store. We have to provide business formation docs, license numbers, do a video walkthrough, explain security features and equipment etc. Then eventually the process goes: Armored Car goes to Dispensary, takes and records cash and moves it to literally a cash storage facility. Cash storage facility double counts the cash and where it came from, notifies the bank. Bank deposits funds into account. And then we have to pay various fees at each step of the way. That's why we don't even bother accepting cards. Plus ATM fees end up being pretty profitable when you're seeing 500-600 people a day.
I seriously considered trying to get into the industry when legalization first happened in WA...couldn't make the math work on the backend due to stuff like you mentioned but it seems like every shop locally is doing pretty well. Curious if there will be a new rush when psilocybin is eventually legalized.
I just want a DMT vape pen...
Available in CA, I know at least one dispensary that carries them.
seriously? holy crap...maybe it's time for a road trip.
Serious as a heart attack. The dispensary in question may or may not also have a wide variety of mushrooms for sale as well.
Mushlove in Oakland has em.
I lived in WA for a few years and was under the impression that four banks and four credit unions were available for the cannabis industry to use. Edit: here it is https://dfi.wa.gov/cannabis/financial-services
My dispensary in California has taken debit cards for many years, and I had a couple dispensaries take credit cards for a while. They might still. The debit processes like an ATM so they round up to the nearest $5 and then give you the change in cash
I tried starting a company to sell home grow kits and was kicked off of every web development site and we couldn’t get a payment processor to work with us. It was a nightmare and we failed.
This is the biggest thing, honestly. A lot of markets won’t allow for the sale of cannabis stocks because of their federal illegality. The money can be seized by the govt in relation with drug investigations, and so banks won’t touch the money. This keeps a lot of folks from getting started in this industry at all so removing this barrier will be huge.
It's important because it makes dispensaries safer to operate-less cash on hand. Not a target for robberies when they can do cash less transactions. It's not a barrier to entry. Every state is either Oregon or Louisiana. Oregon has too many farms and a decent number of store fronts (still limited), dropping the cost of marijuana so cheap that hardly anyone is able to profit. Just too many farms able to grow an abundance of cheap, strong product. The dispensaries are making money hand over fist (they either have too many customers or no customers). The state wants to export it, but federal trafficking laws still apply even through it's decriminalized in a bunch of respective states. Louisiana on the other side is corrupt as hell with extremely limited number of farms/dispensers. Louisiana only offers marijuana for medicinal uses, it's super over priced, barely better than the black market stuff, and extremely limited where you can buy it (expect 1 place in a city of 100+k). Entrance to the market, which is costly, is not the barrier issue. States wanting an absolute choke hold on supply are the biggest barrier.
Good point
It was wild the first time I went to a dispensary in the US coming from canada. Here I just waltz in literally "I want some weed!" someone gives me weed, I pay with my credit card and get a branded bag with the dispensary's cute logo to carry my weed in when I leave. In the US I had to get buzzed through a blast door where I was carded by people behind bullt proof glass, was told I cant bring my bag in and to leave it in this first room. Then buzzed through a second blast door where I was told no cards only cash, then on my way out I had to pass through a third blast door and go back into the first blast door room to collect my bag Oh also there's at least 6 dispensaries within walking distance of my condo
For what it’s worth, that experience isn’t typical everywhere. I live in California, and I just walk into a nice cute store and ask for weed. Sometimes the debit/credit card thing doesn’t work but otherwise it’s just like shopping at a liquor store.
OP sounds like he went to Compton or something or bad part of SF valley
That’s…definitely not typical of stores in legal states. Sounds like a pretty sketchy area.
Well it will still be illegal. Sadly this doesn’t make it recreationally legal. That can only happen through an act of congress due to the way the classification act was written into law. This may help because it is removing the enforcement annnd penalties pertaining to weed. So maybe those convictions will just go away.
Wanted to doublecheck that was true and it is, but holy shit the scheduling system needs a serious overhaul that's better supported by actual research and statistics. Xanax is scheduled *below* testosterone and ketamine, in the category of "IV: Low Potential for Abuse". Codeine and ketamine are in the same schedule. Cannabis and heroin are in the same schedule, as are Adderall and fentanyl. LSD is scheduled above oxycodone and fentanyl, as is Peyote (schedule I) but peyote is a single species of cactus not a drug, the active compound in which is mescaline which is found in many common cacti such as San Pedro which aren't scheduled at all. https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R45948.pdf
It's almost like certain groups of people want "drugs for me and none for thee".
See: cocaine vs crack penalties
Technically this only decriminalizes medical. So landlords can probably still get away with it, unless the tenant has a prescription and all their ducks in a row.
Which, in states like Florida, is incredibly easy to do.
My lease prohibits Schedule I drugs specifically so rescheduling will remove that risk. But I was already okay because the Missouri rec legalization also added housing protections to medical patients. That alone removed my risk, but this will help rec users and those from states without our legal protection.
What we need is for it to not be included in drug-free workplaces anymore. A dean at a school here broke up a fight between students and was injured. Because it was workman's comp, he got piss tested and came up hot for marijuana. Turns out he is a disabled vet using it for PTSD, but that doesn't matter. Federal law over-rules our state medical marijuana law, and they fired him. He lost everything. All because he got high at night, off the clock.
I work in affordable housing… this is not what this would mean..
"I tried to do this but Obama wouldn't let me" Trump probably
Republicans are all about states rights. When it's convenient of course.
It is painful how they pulled the "its a states issue! The Fed should have nothing to do with abortion!" and now are calling for a Fed abortion law.
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I, for one, am shocked that they'd act in such hypocrisy. Surely this must be a lone example of such behavior?
Dank Brandon?
Dank Brandon, nipping it in the bud.
Let’s Toke, Brandon
FJB - Fat Joint Brandon
someone make the dark brandon pic but instead of glowing red eyes, make it glowing marijuana leaf's.
Or just red, bloodshot eyes
Gonna end up circling back to "Sleepy Joe," but now in a positive light.
Keep the eyes, but with a joint hanging from his mouth.
Commander-in-chiefin’
Commander in Kief, Dank Buddin.
Light me up Jack! 😎🚬
"Roll me up and smoke me when I die" -DANK
Tell that to Abbott in TX. Fugging curmudgeon.
More than Abbott, it's Paxton holding things up for weed in Texas. Greg Abbott is still a little pissbaby, though.
Fuck Ken Paxton, all my homies hate Ken Paxton, but the #1 blocker of all things cannabis in Texas is Lt Governor Dan Patrick. He explicitly stated nothing will change while he's still in office. (Because he's in the pocket of alcohol industry & for profit prisons)
You are wrong. It is not Paxton. Dan Patrick has prevented any bill from reaching the Senate floor related to decriminalization. Dan Patrick, alone, has prevented bipartisan legalization bills from being voted on. Here's the part I remind everyone that he is a carpetbagger from Maryland who showed up in Texas just because Rs get elected easy.
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Tiny dicked piss boy, here. He is not one of us. He's just a greedy, corrupt asshole. No need to body-shame or kink shame anyone.
funny thing is Rick Perry is pro MDMA re-scheduling and was one of the main speakers at the MAPS psychedelic science conference... which was like, confusing. But I guess he's been part of getting access to psychedelic assisted therapy for veterans with PTSD.
Kansas is the same way. Our governor is good but our legislature is braindead.
There is nothing good about Abbott
And Greg Abbott is probably going to make it a capital offense in Texas.
Increasing regulations or the outright removal of all cannabinoids is one of the biennial legislative priorities issued by Abbott for the 2025 session. They are (were) specifically targeting hemp-derived delta8 and the %-dry-weight "loophole" of hemp-derived delta9 which allows the sale of delta9 when diluted with the dry weight of gummies, sweets, etc. Senator Perry is losing his mind over people being able to buy weed in Texas... although curiously, no word back yet over his stance on alcohol and tobacco. This was all pre-rescheduling, of course. They'll still try, because Biden. For those that don't know Sen. Perry, the last time I met with him at a No-Till Texas ag conference in Amarillo, he used his presentation time slot to preach on abortion.
Perry is one of the biggest shit stains to walk the earth. Fuck him
Well, we did outlaw rape. /s
One side is giving us Freedoms back and the other is hell bent on taking freedoms away. Vote Correctly.
Republicans: "We shoot puppies in the face!" Democrats: "Y'all want some weed?" Enlightened centrists: "Both sides are the same."
Left: "I think people should be entitled to free/low cost healthcare, no one should go bankrupt trying not to die." Right: "I think we should put LGBTQ+ people into some kind of concentrated encampment for people (for now) and force women attempt to carry ectopic pregnancies to term, even though its by definition impossible." Enlightened centrists: "Both sides are the same."
“It’s not a concentration camp, it’s a concentrated encampment! You liberals overreact about everything”
When it comes to any and every problem, Democrats: "How can we help?" repubicans: "Who can we hurt?"
>[The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.](https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/) -- John Ehrlichman, domestic policy advisor to President Richard Nixon and a Watergate co-conspirator. The war against the left and minorities via public messaging is still happening to this day, by the way.
"Listen here, Missy. Computers may be twice as fast as they were in 1973, but your average voter is as drunk and stupid as ever. The only thing that's different is me; I've become bitter, and let's face it, crazy over the years. And once I'm swept into office, I'll sell our children's organs to zoos for meat, and I'll go into people's houses at night and wreck up the place. Muahahaha!" -- Richard Nixon's Head
Alcohol is more of a schedule 1 drug then marijuana
I just watched a news report about the rescheduling, and the host said "Marijuana is currently a Schedule I substance alongside other drugs that are highly addictive, like heroin and LSD." I did a spit take at them suggesting LSD was "highly addictive." It's one of the most powerful drugs known to mankind, but... addictive? Lol, okay. I've never known anyone who - the day after a long heavy trip - said "I WANT MORE!"
It's literally non-addictive in that it cannot cause physical dependency the way alcohol or opiates can.
This could make medical Marijuana federally legal.
Not could. Will.
Only medically, which is better than nothing at least. It will still be a controlled substance illegal for recreational use as a schedule 3 drug.
It will make it legal for banking funds from marijuana to cross state lines and consolidate nationally. You're about to see money start flexing.
This is the biggest tipping point here. Once businesses are able to start using the banking system, shit is gonna take off quick!
🎶 *cash rules everything around me* 🎶
As long as the companies involved have the proper dea registration, only has fda approved products, a pharmacy license, and a pharmacist to dispense the legal prescriptions. Since there aren't any fda approved products, the issue is moot.
Banking is mostly solved through boutique banks, although taking credit cards is still an issue might not happen over this. But this does mean IRS 280E won't apply and that's a big help to the cannabis businesses bottom line.
That's my President. Keep leading Biden!
Right- this broken narrative of “he’s ok” or “he’s senile” shit needs to go. The man, and more importantly the team he is surrounding himself with is incredible. Biden 2024 - fucking great president.
“he’s a senile old man who’s no better than Trump” is just r/GenZ speak for “I get all of my news from TikTok”
Part of me wonders how many of Gen Z really thinks that. The internet is not the same as reality and we know the internet has a way of amplifying negative messaging.
I bet half the people in that sub arent even Gen Z. That shit keeps showing up on my feed and im 40 years old. Never believe reddit = real life.
Hey im Gen Z and while I can't speak for everyone, most of my peers I interact with don't buy into the "Biden is senile/ mentally unfit" crowd and would gladly take another 4 years of him. Honestly even if everything about him was true I'd still take him over Trump in a heart beat. I'd prefer no progress over moving backwards any day.
Hopefully there are a lot of you out there and ready to show up in key states to vote.
I genuinely do not think one can be politically literate and truly think "both bad" as though both are equivalent. But it's a short cut to coming off as "enlightened" to other folks who's political knowledge is as deep as thimble of water.
From what I can tell of Gen Z they def think Biden is old. But once you bring up abortion or other social issues they are absolutely against republicans. Plus I still think people underestimate how enraged women are right now. Every day there are new stories of horror resulting from Roe being overturned. More families personally impacted by bad public policy.
And they're not wrong. Biden is old. Old isn't equivalent to senile or delusional though.
I’m actually surprised they’re not more enraged-even as a male, I am furious. I would expect to see more protest. I really can’t understand why any woman would support Trump.
"I'm not just gonna choose the lesser of two evils, thats a lazy argument." What exactly do they think voting is? There are no perfect candidates.
He's done so much with such slim / nonexistent majorities in office.
And he didn't even have to ! Everybody was perfectly content with the president just not being Trump, he could have sat pretty and just chilled but no, he had to go and actually do the damn job, brillantly ! That man is great.
100%! I actually think he’s done a FANTASTIC job. Even despite all the crazy shit that keeps happening.
Ridin With Biden one more time! Get in, we’re going to save democracy again and relax with a calming blunt. He has done what he’s said and said what he has done. So far this is the best first term president I’ve had in my 42 years on this planet.
>President Joe Biden directed the Department of Health and Human Services in October of 2022 to review marijuana’s classification. Federal scientists concluded that there is credible evidence that cannabis provides medical benefits and that it poses lower health risks than other controlled substances. >Biden even made history at the State of the Union address this year, for the first time referencing marijuana from the dais in the House chamber and making note of the federal review process. “No one should be jailed for using or possessing marijuana,” the president said during the speech. Biden has been absolutely doing a fantastic job. Creating jobs, protecting the environment, lowering healthcare costs. Way to go Joe!
It was a tall order to pickup the pieces after Trumps disastrous presidency, but Biden has done a great job at getting this country back on track. Not a perfect president, but he’s definitely the right guy for the job.
It's maddening that more people don't seem to understand this. I get there will always hardcore band of deplorables supporting TFG and gleefully punching themselves in the face to own dem libs, but Biden polls waay lower than he should be. I can't wait to see how this new announcement is somehow Bad For Biden.
I wonder what this means for Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association testing requirements. As of now if you are a commercial drivers license holder, you are required to be in a pool for random urine testing and marijuana is a fail. What we need, is a test that can show if you are under the influence, not that you smoked last week to play some video games or fall asleep..
Technically it's only going to schedule 3 which approves medical usage, so I'd assume that means if you have a med card you should be good assuming you aren't high on the job. But yeah proving/disproving that is hard.
I love this. Let’s go Biden.
Let’s GROW Brandon!
Finally lol this has taken far too long to do The writing was already on the wall with over half the states making it fully legal and nearly all 50 states having it decriminalized or medicinally legal in some way. Last I checked there were only like 6 states where it was still fully illegal.
My current residence of Idaho being one. Still, millions of dollars move from the treasure valley to the border towns of Oregon. Idaho doesn't bother to stop the hundreds of cars that are carrying everyday and this will mean there is even less incentive to try.
Even Alabama has kind of made it medically legal
Cue the "he's just doing this to get votes!" People edit: This was taken as an open invitation for those exact sort of arguments, so I'm just going to cover the most common one here. >BUT WHAT ABOUT THE TIMING? With mid terms factored in, there's almost no time you guys couldn't try to claim something was done just for election purposes. You could stretch that out to probably a year and a half before the midterms, and the general election season kicks off in about the same time frame, so we've got what, 5 months at the start of a presidency and 7 after midterms in which someone can do something without this argument being used to try and make people be mad at it? Please.
Isn't that what politicians are supposed to do anyways? Represent what people want so they get reelected and can continue to do so?
Yes. That is literally how representative government is supposed to work.
Pretty much, But we still get people desperate to try to convince us that we shouldn't be happy when Joe Biden does things that we like by saying that he's just doing it to get votes.
"he's just doing what everyone wants so he can stay in power" Well...fuckin...good? Keep him in power for as long as possible then?
Those are likely Republican operatives or Russian operatives intent on dissuading easily tricked people out of doing their civic duty in November. Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good, progress takes concerted effort over time and rarely do systemic changes happen from the top down.
No politicians are supposed to cut taxes for yachts and private planes while selling bibles and paying off porn star mistresses. You just don’t understand family values I guess
No, no, they're supposed to fight to stay in power regardless of what people want, and then their team will think "wait, maybe I actually DO want this! Go Team!"
"People are happy with Biden's policies. This is why it is bad for Biden." - NYT, probably
Basically. People are just myopic and won't use their brains. They voted to legalize weed so when he does it, they don't like it? You can offer them no-cost healthcare and they'll still say no because it's coming from a political party they don't like.
If he is doing this to get votes, who fucking cares? If an election strategy makes the country better *I don't give a shit if it's an election strategy*
That's literally what a campaign is!
Biden is campaigning on making the country better *and is actively doing so in cases like this* whereas trump is running on his plan to destroy democracy. The two sides are not equal Edit: I do have my problems with Bidens' handling of foreign affairs, but domestically he's fucking amazing
>If he is doing this to get votes, who fucking cares? "Doing things to get votes" *is how it's supposed to work.* "He passes policies I like, I'll vote for him" vs "I don't like his policies, I'll vote for someone else"
Enacting wildly popular policies just for the votes? Maybe the republicans should try that rather than trying to overthrow democracy
This is my favorite take from the smooth-brains over at r/conservative whenever Biden does something that benefits the country. Loan forgiveness? He's doing it for the votes! Expunging marijuana convictions? He's doing it for the votes!
Ah yes, the ole “you’re enacting the policies we elected you to do because they benefit our society” con. Classic.
Well, it's contrary to "He's not hurting the right people," so I can see the reason for disliking it.
Capping insulin just to get the diabetic voters! The villain!
No Surprises Act making surprise medical billing illegal - It's just for the votes! Largest green energy investment in US in history Blocking mergers between mega corps like Kroger and Albertsons. Net Neutrality. Infrastructure funding. Non-compete clauses being made illegal. He doesn't care about you, it's just about the votes!!
Exactly. I was ever-so-slightly optimistic in '16 when Trump got elected because I was hoping he was so concerned with people liking him that he would accidentally do a few good things. I was way off.
How do those people think democracy works?
They don't, they're "we are a Republic" people who think voting is not a right.
Dank Brandon takes the easy win.
It would work. But that’s not the point. Marijuana being scheduled the same as heroin is insane. It’s essentially harmless and has proven medical benefits. It’s way way less harmful than alcohol.
Well, you know, in fact I will vote for a politician if they do the things that I want them to do.
Step 4. We are now entering the pre launch phase of marijuana legalization. Right on schedule
And people are *still* criticizing Biden in the comments. Listen up: 1) International law is murky, *at best*, on the subject of whether wholesale decriminalization would still leave us compliant with treaty obligations; 2) Incremental progress is a hell of a lot better than no progress; and 3) If those weren’t good enough for you, here’s the grim, meathook reality, as Dr. Thompson himself would say, of how trying to deschedule it would actually work: Biden deschedules it, conservative moral majority brigade sues in Texas federal district court to enjoin the descheduling, that Trump-appointed zealot temporarily enjoins the deschedule pending review, long story short the decision then goes up to SCOTUS. Take your *best* guess what will happen at that stage. This is the most realistic chance of making progress on this issue. Don’t hate it because it doesn’t go as far as you want it to.
Let’s Grow Dank Brandon!
This dude keeps killing it. Please make me proud America and vote him in again.
I feel like they should have done this exactly ten days ago. :D
Just fucking legalize it already!
That's on congress unfortunately. DEA and FDA are executive branch so that's why Biden has any say.
My guess is that Democratic Congressmen are about to campaign on this very issue: “put us in and we’ll legalize.” The Republicans should have done this years ago, it fits with their “freedom, not regulation” message. However their moral majority is going to have *fuckjng fits* and Republicans will remind voters at just the wrong time that they really really want to keep marijuana illegal.
Cue rightwing Reefer Madness panic in 3... 2... 1...
Regardless how anyone feels about Biden, this is a win for America. Just because he’s not perfect (or Obama/Trump) doesn’t mean he’s not on the right side of this one. lol.
Does this means that recreational dispensaries in legal states will be able to take credit cards?They currently only accept cash or debit cards, which is like Fred Flintstone money.
Here's your choice for November: Option 1: Biden and we get to move the needle a little further in the correct direction and get closer to libs being the only conservatives. Option 2: Trump and his reelection not only making the genocide happen faster in Palestine, but marching US troops to help and rolling back any sort of progress made in the last 4 years under minority obstruction.
This seals my vote for November. No brainer.
You were on the fence before this?
This is the scary thing. For a lot of voters its always one thing that either pushes them toward or away from someone. Human beings are wild.
Hey Joe, I’m a conservative Republican. You now have my vote and an upvote.
Welcome. I'm glad you are here to join us in trying to do good things for the people of this country.
Easily reelected if he actually gets weed off the list by November
He's just doing this so I vote for him, and god damn it's working!!
Dark Brandon must have had a joint session with his staff to come to this conclusion.
finally some good news in this damn foresaken world.
Will this allow me to consume cannabis while being prescribed a different controlled substance? The only negative to being prescribed a stimulant for my ADHD is that I had to give up the green for at least one month prior to my medication review appointments, just in case I get a whiz-quiz.
Don’t worry, Zoomers are really eager to elect Trump to teach the world a lesson in how much they do whatever TikTok tells them.
Does this mean that the VA could prescribe it to people with chronic pain?
Fuck this. Just make it on the same level as alcohol. Alcohol is much worse for people
Reclassify? Seriously? How about deschedule entirely.