White House shows signs of easing marijuana restrictions

It was not difficult to find marijuana on campuses and elsewhere, when it was not only illegal but considered a threat to society by politicians.

In fact, he often ran into you if you passed by at parties or even small gatherings.

When I was in college, I was afraid that the police would arrest me and I would be kicked out of school or fired from work. It made otherwise law-abiding children see the police as their enemy.

But that was light years ago.

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Now the Trump administration is seriously considering loosening marijuana restrictions.

It still amazes me to drive down Connecticut Avenue here in Washington and see cannabis stores, with names like MrGreen and Blunt – and Taste Budz, just a few blocks from the Capitol – openly selling the product. And it has very marketable names, like Violet Sky and Hash Burger.

A well-reported Free Press article says President Trump is considering reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I drug to Schedule III. That would put it in the same category as anabolic steroids, ketamine, and Tylenol with codeine.

The measure “would ease restrictions, but would stop short of making marijuana completely legal.”

Of course, medical marijuana is already legal in 40 states and the District of Columbia, and is allowed for recreational use in DC and 24 states from New York to Colorado.

Where is the opposition then?

Uh, there’s not much.

And the White House is being open about it.

Marijuana advocate Alex Bruesewitz tells the Free Press that the move to Schedule III “maintains cannabis as a controlled substance but allows for more testing for medicinal purposes” and is a “politically smart move” with strong public support.

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If that’s true, it’s because generations have at least tried marijuana since the 1960s and ’70s and ignored the dark warnings about how dangerous it is and how it would lead to harsher substances. They mocked the infamous 1936 film “Reefer Madness.”

Richard Nixon, in his war on drugs half a century ago, tried to associate hippies with marijuana and black people with heroin.

As his top collaborator John Ehrlichman, who went to prison for Watergate, said in a 1994 interview: “Did we know we were lying about drugs? Of course we did.”

Ronald Reagan, who as a candidate called marijuana “probably the most dangerous drug in America,” wrote in his diary that he was angered by seeing Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton smoking in the movie “9 to 5.” His wife Nancy later launched her “Just Say No” campaign.

By the time Bill Clinton was running for office, his letter about experimenting with marijuana—that he had tried it but “didn’t inhale it”—had become a joke.

There have definitely been some criticisms. Pete Sessions, a Republican congressman from Texas, recently wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi along with eight other lawmakers, saying the rescheduling would “send a message to children that marijuana is not harmful.”

Donald Trump does not smoke, drink or take drugs, in reaction to the death of his brother from alcoholism. But the White House seems to agree.

Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio conducted a poll in March that found 66 percent of respondents supported legalizing marijuana and 70 percent supported rescheduling the drug.

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A senior White House official is quoted as saying, “For much of the base, it’s an issue like gay marriage that people are comfortable with. It’s good politics.” A decision is expected by the end of the year.

But as with virtually all Beltway issues, wealthy lobbyists are part of the process. Smoking marijuana, once an underground pastime, is now a big-money business.

Bruesewitz’s consulting firm, X Strategies, receives $300,000 from American Rights and Reform, a pro-cannabis group, for “media” services. Another large public relations firm, Mercury Public Affairs, represents the United States Cannabis Council.

The size of this burgeoning industry was estimated at $38 billion last year—real money, even by jaded Washington standards.

I confess that I have some mixed feelings. For one thing, today’s cannabis is many times more potent than the nickel and dime bags that used to circulate.

I always felt that the milder effects of marijuana were preferable to those of alcohol, especially when it came to driving. Although it makes you want to eat. And as a parent I say, what about homework?

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While the drinking age was long ago raised to 21, that doesn’t seem to stop those several years younger from getting beer, wine and spirits.

But with so many millions of people having at least tried marijuana over the decades, it was probably inevitable that they would not want it to remain in the same federal category as heroin, cocaine and – what is truly a killer drug – fentanyl.