iStockphoto / OlegMalyshev
If you follow the marijuana legalization movement at all, chances are you’ve seen countless reports in the media suggesting the issue is gaining ground on Capitol Hill.
Well, it is, and it isn’t.
A lot of shit-talking got started last year when the Democrats fared well in the mid-term election and gained back control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
It was at that point cannabis advocates were seemingly convinced that the victory was somehow going to make it easier for marijuana reform to make strides at the national level.
After all, one of their key Congressional champions, Representative Earl Blumenauer, the bow-tie wearing, pro-pot legislator from Oregon, had a “Blueprint to Legalize Marijuana in the 116th Congress” in his back pocket.
It was a plan showing how the U.S. House was going to take smaller cannabis-related actions for the first few months of the new session, including getting veterans to access to medical marijuana and making prosecution-proof banking available to the cannabis industry.
Finally, the blueprint suggested that once Congress got used to the idea of passing pot-friendly reforms, the House would then move into the heavy shit – a full repeal of pot prohibition – around September.
But once Congress got down to business in January, all any of us could do was wait and see.
I published a column in Forbes at the time suggesting that, while it was indeed possible that the Democrats would throw the cannabis issue over their shoulders and run with it like they stole the goddamned thing, the cold hard fact was: If they didn’t get something substantial going within the first few months the cannabis issue was dead in the water in 2019.
We’re now headed into August and guess what? Those donkey-eared bastards haven’t done jack shit to get America high again.
No sir, despite all the jibber-jabber in recent months about increasing bi-partisan support for a marijuana banking bill and a “historical,” House subcommittee meeting concerning federal legalization, the issue of legalizing weed at the national level is not in much better shape than it was a year ago. Not really.
The problem is, although there is undoubtedly more support in Congress to eliminate federal marijuana prohibition, all of the swinging dicks with any power to make it happen are still entirely opposed.
That’s the one aspect of the legislative circus that the cannabis advocacy community failed to take into consideration before saying things like, “2019 will be a banner year for marijuana.”
Boy, were they wrong.
These folks have failed to see that the wheels of the federal government are still old school Republicans who, for whatever reason, cannot stand the thought of a nation where weed is legal.
The biggest of the bunch is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
If there is one thing this bastard has made unmistakably clear, it’s that he has no intention of legalizing marijuana or helping the Democrats further their agenda.
Even if Democrats did manage to get some kind of marijuana measure passed this year in the House — regardless of how large or small — it would die a miserable death as soon as it hit the Senate.
Make no mistake about it, McConnell, Cocaine Mitch, the Turtle, or whatever you want to call him, is death incarnate for all progressive legislation.
“If I’m still the majority leader in the Senate, think of me as the grim reaper. None of that stuff is going to pass,” McConnell said in April concerning proposals on gun control and immigration. “I guarantee you that if I’m the last man standing and I’m still the majority leader, it ain’t happening. I can promise you.”
Last year, when McConnell was asked if he would champion a marijuana legalization bill in the same way he did for hemp, he replied, “I do not have any plans to endorse the legalization of marijuana.”
So if you bet any of your buddies that marijuana was going fully legal in the United States in 2019 or 2020, prepare to pay up.
You fucking lost! I assure you.
The Grim Reaper and his cronies (Republican Senators Mike Crapo and Lindsey Graham) aren’t having any of it. Not the banking bill, not access for veterans, and no way in hell are they supporting the demise of federal prohibition.
The best-case scenario for nationwide marijuana legalization at this point – unless McConnell spontaneously combusts on the steps of the Capitol Building – is 2021.
But some things have to happen next year for this to play out favorably.
Specifically, Democrats must gain control of the Senate, and it wouldn’t hurt either if one of them (other than Joe Biden) got the keys to the White House.
This is undoubtedly possible next November when American voters are set to air their grievances at the polls. In addition to the presidency, there are around 20 U.S. Senate seats up for grabs, and one of them belongs to that McConnell fuck.
If Democrats can take over the Senate in 2021, they will replace McConnell as Senate Majority Leader, and fast.
It is a move that would allow the upper and lower chambers of Congress to work together harmoniously on several issues, including the federal legalization of marijuana.
Let’s just hope when that happens, there is a president in the Oval Office ready and willing to support those moves in ink.
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Mike Adams is a freelance writer for High Times, Cannabis Now, and Forbes. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.