Across the country, states and activists are grappling with the implications of a legalized weed industry and how to reckon with the racist history of drug enforcement. San Francisco, for example, is wiping out pot-related criminal convictions, and entrepreneurs are trying to figure out how to bring some kind of equity to the industry.
And then there’s the federal government, represented in this case by a president and an attorney general who disagree on when exactly history should have stopped (the 1980s and the 1850s respectively) but ultimately agree that the clock needs to be turned back. Jeff Sessions has made no secret that he’s ready to go to war against states’ rights in the name of keeping marijuana criminalized. Donald Trump, on the other had, has signaled some support for legalization, but if that’s the case then it turns out he’s working against his own White House.
A new report from BuzzFeed News details how the White House has been prepping for a behind-the-scenes campaign to fight public support for legalizing marijuana. Right now, 61 percent of the country favors legalizing the drug, and inside the White House, a committee has been dedicated to convincing them otherwise. The so-called (and unpublicized) Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee has instructed the Drug Enforcement Administration to submit any data they have on the “most significant negative trends” of marijuana use and any “threats” that it poses.
BuzzFeed News interviewed agency staff and reviewed documents relating to the committee and found its “hardline agenda and deep bench suggest an extraordinarily far-reaching effort to reverse public attitudes and scrutinize” states that have legalized or decriminalized marijuana:
In an ironic twist, the committee complained in one memo that the narrative around marijuana is unfairly biased in favor of the drug. But rather than seek objective information, the committee’s records show it is asking officials only to portray marijuana in a negative light, regardless of what the data show.
“The prevailing marijuana narrative in the U.S. is partial, one-sided, and inaccurate,” says a summary of a July 27 meeting of the White House and nine departments.
There are obviously better places for the White House to dedicate its time and resources, like, say, fighting the opioid epidemic instead of just blaming it on China.
The committee may struggle to find a receptive audience under 60 years old, but they could have smashing success with one easily impressionable Baby Boomer: Donald Trump. Apparently the group’s plan is to present all the “marijuana is bad” data to Trump in an effort to win him over to the Jeff Sessions side of things. If that’s the case, it’s hard to know where the president will end up. He famously agree with whichever person he most recently spoke to. But then again, there may be few people he hates more than Jeff Sessions.
Credit: www.gq.com
