Bad news, stoners: If you live in one of the states (and the District of Columbia!) that currently have laws legalizing recreational marijuana in some way, Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is coming for you. Today during his White House Press Briefing, Sean Spicer said that the Department of Justice will be cracking down on states that have legalizes recreational marijuana. Reminder: Legal weed in Colorado alone “created 18,005 full-time jobs and added about $2.4 billion to the state’s economy.” But apparently that doesn’t make Donald Trump’s MAGAing White House very happy according to Spicer comments today.
Here’s a summary via the Sun Times:
Spicer said Trump intends to uphold the Congressional budget measure that prevents the federal government from interfering with state medical marijuana laws but added that “there’s a big difference between medical marijuana and recreational marijuana.”
Spicer suggested that the country has enough on its plate with the “opioid crisis,” and that “the last thing” we should be doing is encouraging recreational cannabis use.
“I believe you are going to see greater enforcement” of federal marijuana laws in states that have legalized the drug for recreational use, Spicer said.
“The Department of Justice will be further looking into this,” he said.
On a related note, this also just happened:
BREAKING Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinds Obama era guidance directing the Justice Dept to reduce its use of private prisons.
— Carrie Johnson (@johnson_carrie) February 23, 2017
And here’s a few clips of Sean Spicer discussing this matter to the press today, as curated by Twitter:
Spicer: DOJ will be "taking action" against states that have legalized recreational marijuana.
— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) February 23, 2017
Sure seems like Spicer just compared recreational marijuana to the opioid crisis pic.twitter.com/JcQo3FxXcC
— Colin Jones (@colinjones) February 23, 2017
Sean Spicer says Trump administration sees a big difference between medical marijuana (cool) and recreational marijuana (not cool) pic.twitter.com/NYuF5F8o7Z
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) February 23, 2017
Many are pointing out the immediate hypocrisy of a Republican White House being so vocal in support for state rights yet storming into states that have legalized marijuana:
Spicer one minute: "We are a states rights party."
Spicer next minute: Federal marijuana laws override state recreational marijuana laws.— Paul Blumenthal (@PaulBlu) February 23, 2017
https://twitter.com/HITEXECUTIVE/status/834862308786450433
Spicer, on the trans guidance: "It's a states' rights issue. If a state wants to pass a law … that's their right."
— Chris “Law Dork” Geidner (@chrisgeidner) February 23, 2017
Sean Spicer addresses the issue of recreational marijuana: pic.twitter.com/zBoOOScNVi
— Axios (@axios) February 23, 2017