Blunting Trump

I am hella worried that the Trump administration is going to clamp down on cannabis, especially in legal states. Are my fears unfounded?

—P. Turbed

I don’t think there’s any need for you to hide all your weed just yet, but you are right to sense a disturbance in the Force. The Trump administration has not really said whether they will bother states that allow cannabis use. We know that Attorney General Jeff Sessions hates weed, but we also know that Colorado and Washington made more than $1 billion in legal cannabis sales.

California has more than three times as many people as Colorado and Washington combined, and California weed is the best in the world, so the California cannabis market could believably make twice as much in cannabis revenue as any other legal state. It’s easy for the feds to push around a bunch of outlaws, but it’s a completely different thing when the feds start trying to bully a multibillion dollar industry. Legal cannabis provides money and jobs. It will be hard for state legislators to let go without a fight.

Legal cannabis makes America a better place. Hell, some of the weed taxes collected in Pueblo, Colorado, are being used to create a scholarship fund for its high school students. Yes, I could make a joke about “higher education,” but it would be too easy. The point is: In America, money talks, and right now cannabis money is doing most of the talking.

If you are still worried, there are some things you can do. You can email, call or go visit your local Republican politician and let them know that you support cannabis remaining legal. I was just at the International Cannabis Business Conference, and they had a panel on “How to talk Republican.” The panelists, all of them GOP lobbyists and advisers, suggested using phrases like “small government” and “free market” and “states’ rights.”

I agree with the first two, and would like to add that you use words like “liberty” and “democracy,” and maybe you could remind your Republican politician that cannabis is more popular than any political candidate and perhaps they should respect the will of the people. I am not a fan of the “respect states’ rights” argument, mostly because “States’ rights!” is the battle cry of the folks that want to bring back Jim Crow and rampant homophobia.

Remember, the Civil War wasn’t fought over slavery, it was a battle over “States’ rights.” (Snicker.)

Another thing that was mentioned in the panel was that cannabis just isn’t a big priority for the White House right now. I think they are correct. Sessions and President Bannon will probably be too busy taking away health care from millions of people and keeping minorities and liberals from voting to worry too much about all the rich, white Republicans looking to take over the cannabis game. We should be fine. For now.