# The future of dope not looking good under Trump **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 24, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997 "2017-01-24T01:57:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/1 "2017-01-24T01:57:24Z")
It looks like the will of the people isn’t going to be considered. > **[What Does Trump's Presidency Mean For Marijuana Legalization?](https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2017/01/137122/will-donald-trump-legalize-marijuana)** > > Our outlook is moving away from "hazy" and towards "not great." ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/2 "2017-01-24T02:40:13Z")
I think if they crack down on legal weed, it’s going to turn a lot of their supporters against them. I have no idea what’s going to happen, but the Trump supporters I know tend toward states rights and fewer laws. I think it would go badly for them. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/3 "2017-01-24T02:42:25Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > It looks like the will of the people isn’t going to be considered. > > [http://www.refinery29.com/2017/01/137122/will-donald-trump-legalize-marijuana?ref=yfp](http://www.refinery29.com/2017/01/137122/will-donald-trump-legalize-marijuana?ref=yfp) Ok, I was going to say it; but Ehrlichman, the Nixon man, said it better: > **[Legalize It All, by Dan Baum](https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/)** > > How to win the war on drugs > [@](#): > > In 1994, John Ehrlichman, the Watergate co-conspirator, unlocked for me one of the great mysteries of modern American history: How did the United States entangle itself in a policy of drug prohibition that has yielded so much misery and so few good results? Americans have been criminalizing psychoactive substances since San Francisco’s anti-opium law of 1875, but it was Ehrlichman’s boss, Richard Nixon, who declared the first “war on drugs” and set the country on the wildly punitive and counterproductive path it still pursues. I’d tracked Ehrlichman, who had been Nixon’s domestic-policy adviser, to an engineering firm in Atlanta, where he was working on minority recruitment. I barely recognized him. He was much heavier than he’d been at the time of the Watergate scandal two decades earlier, and he wore a mountain-man beard that extended to the middle of his chest. > > At the time, I was writing a book about the politics of drug prohibition. I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky questions that he impatiently waved away. “You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “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.”** When Jefferson Beauregard “Jeff” Sessions claims that he is no racist now (and Trump) they can plausibly do it because they know that the War on drugs will continue and continue to disrupt more the minority communities and the ones opposed to Trump and him. Besides that for the same crimes minorities are more likely to be sent to prison than white people, a lot of the crime that drug prohibition causes does affect the poor and minorities more. All under the pretext that the new administration will be doing “good”, but sadly many still swallow their big lies. Others that did say it better: The guys at Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell: > [@](#): > > Over 40 years ago, US President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse public enemy number one, starting an unprecedented global campaign, the War on Drugs. Today, the numbers are in. > > The War on Drugs is a huge failure, with devastating unintended consequences. It led to mass incarceration in the US; to corruption, political destabilization, and violence in Latin America, Asia, and Africa; to systemic human rights abuses across the world. It negatively affected the lives of millions of people. > > All of this while we waste billions of dollars every year only to create and fuel powerful drug cartels while the goal of the War on Drugs seems less achievable than ever: a world without drugs. How could this happen? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/4 "2017-01-24T02:47:07Z")
A scare piece long on opinion and short on substance. We’ll see. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/5 "2017-01-24T03:02:17Z")
\*There used to be tons of gold and green Comin’ up here from Mexico A donde esta la planta, mi amigo, del sol? But Mexico is under the thumb of a man called Richard And he’s come to call himself king But he’s a small-headed man And he doesn’t know a thing About how to deal for you\* [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p41rCBCk7Ss) ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/6 "2017-01-24T03:04:48Z")
I don’t think marijuana is a priority for Trump. He’s said many times in the past that he approves of medical marijuana and believes that states should set their own policy for recreational use. True, there are those in his cabinet who think differently. We’ll just have to see who’s driving this bus (and with Trump’s ego I suspect he won’t let anyone else near the driver’s seat.) ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/7 "2017-01-24T03:08:31Z")
Moved from Elections to Great Debates. [/ moderating] ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/8 "2017-01-24T03:08:42Z")
(Link is to a live perf of a pretty-much forgotten song from the waning days of the Jefferson Airplane. Worth watching because a) it’s a great song; b) it’s a commentary on the outset of Tricky Dick’s drug war; c) Jorma does a noble job on lead guitar; d) Jack starts everything off by igniting a big fat joint; e) Grace is a very pretty young hippie lady.) ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/9 "2017-01-24T03:13:05Z")
> [@Renee](#): > > I think if they crack down on legal weed, it’s going to turn a lot of their supporters against them. I have no idea what’s going to happen, but the Trump supporters I know tend toward states rights and fewer laws. I think it would go badly for them. This really isn’t true. When there’s an issue where states’ rights work in their favor - say states that enact laws that target homosexuals or restrict abortions - then they’re all for states’ rights. But if there’s a states’ rights issue that goes against their agenda then they’re all for the federal government coming in and stomping all over it. “States’ rights” is a convenient philosophical cover for their agenda when it works in their favor, and irrelevant when it doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/10 "2017-01-24T03:26:26Z")
BTW, this article is from a fashion magazine. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t get my political news from [Refinery29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refinery29). ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/11 "2017-01-24T03:44:30Z")
Take off the blinders. Observe everything. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/12 "2017-01-24T07:09:01Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > Take off the blinders. > > Observe everything. Funnily enough, I observe that the article mentions the [Rohrabacher–Farr Amendment,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohrabacher%E2%80%93Farr_medical_marijuana_amendment) which prohibits the Justice Department from spending federal funds to interfere with state medical marijuana laws. Which appears to be the best legal shield preventing Sessions from unilaterally violating states’ rights on this matter. Granted, the RFA is a flimsy shield; it only applies to medical cannabis, not recreational use, and since it’s basically a rider attached to an omnibus spending bill, it needs to be renewed every year or else it no longer has force. I agree that having Jeff Sessions as A.G. is very disturbing and doesn’t bode well for the future of legal weed, but until he actually takes action, the only reasonable thing to do is wait and watch. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/13 "2017-01-24T07:27:00Z")
> [@Renee](#): > > I think if they crack down on legal weed, it’s going to turn a lot of their supporters against them. Yes, there were four communities in Ohio that voted to roll back city ordinances prohibiting marijuana (a symbolic act as the authorities can simply switch to charging under the state law), and I believe all four voted for Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/14 "2017-01-24T07:33:11Z")
I’ve been saying for years that state initiatives to legalize marijuana are bad policy because of federal supremacy and the fact that a future administration could easily put all those “legal” purveyors and users of the stuff behind bars. Good to see the rest of you are catching up. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/15 "2017-01-24T07:40:02Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I don’t think marijuana is a priority for Trump. He’s said many times in the past that he approves of medical marijuana and believes that states should set their own policy for recreational use. True, there are those in his cabinet who think differently. We’ll just have to see who’s driving this bus (and with Trump’s ego I suspect he won’t let anyone else near the driver’s seat.) His attourney general said he liked the KKK until he learned they were into pot. Even if it isn’t a priority for Trump, it’s probably a priority for Sessions. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/16 "2017-01-24T12:49:49Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I’ve been saying for years that state initiatives to legalize marijuana are bad policy because of federal supremacy and the fact that a future administration could easily put all those “legal” purveyors and users of the stuff behind bars. > > Good to see the rest of you are catching up. De-facto nullification and civil disobedience has been a driver of American history since the beginning. State laws legalizing marijuana have impaired the federal government’s ability to enforce its destructive policies. Sessions will do nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/17 "2017-01-24T13:42:34Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I’ve been saying for years that state initiatives to legalize marijuana are bad policy because of federal supremacy and the fact that a future administration could easily put all those “legal” purveyors and users of the stuff behind bars. This doesn’t make sense at all. You think the states should protect people from _future_ small-scale federal enforcement by engaging in _current_ large-scale local enforcement? A handful of DEA agents might one day go out and arrest people, so it’s better to tell every single state and local officer to get them arrested now? …Ooookay. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/18 "2017-01-24T23:33:28Z")
There’s some level of “the cat’s out of the bag” is some of these States … obviously the Feds can crack down and threaten to withhold money from a State if they don’t end their commercial growing licensing programs … but then we still have all the little growers, a few plants out back for personal use … and if the States are allowed to continue their medicinal programs then local police enforcement will be a nightmare … and expensive … My local community effectively stopped enforcing marijuana laws ten years ago and focused their police’s efforts on heroin and meth … and there’s be a big drop in property crimes associated with heroin and meth addiction … it’ll be a tough sell to return to 1980’s felony enforcement of these marijuana laws … we’re much better off, and generally safer, with marijuana being legal … and prices have crashed, fairly good grade medicinal marijuana can be had for $50 to $100 an oz … not enough profit for the criminal operations … We shall see … once the prisons are full of Muslims and Mexicans there may not be room for the potheads … ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/19 "2017-01-24T23:43:24Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > When Jefferson Beauregard “Jeff” Sessions claims that he is no racist now (and Trump) they can plausibly do it because they know that the War on drugs will continue and continue to disrupt more the minority communities and the ones opposed to Trump and him. > > Besides that for the same crimes minorities are more likely to be sent to prison than white people, a lot of the crime that drug prohibition causes does affect the poor and minorities more. All under the pretext that the new administration will be doing “good”, but sadly many still swallow their big lies. A DEA crackdown on state-legalized marijuana is very different from the average war on drugs hassling of small time minority drug dealers. In the states that have legalized marijuana, the proprietors are largely white people, and increasingly well financed _major_ local taxpayers. The DEA doesn’t have the time or the resources to go after small fry, so if they’re involved, we’re talking about going after the legal-under-state-law players. Now, it’s possible that they will still do so, just to piss off and disrupt the liberal states that have legalized marijuana. But suggesting that it’s just a repeat of Nixon-era war on drugs rhetoric is overly simplistic. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997/20 "2017-01-24T23:46:42Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I don’t think marijuana is a priority for Trump. He’s said many times in the past that… With Trump this means nothing. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-future-of-dope-not-looking-good-under-trump/777997.md?page=2)