MASSACHUSETTS: Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush says that he supports the decriminalization of marijuana, but says that he remains opposed to federal legalization, citing a series of myths about weed. In an interview with a Boston radio station on Friday, Bush made a slight shift in his position on marijuana — previously, he had declined to voice support fordecriminalization — but also stated Read the full article…
NEW JERSEY: In New Jersey, we have medical marijuana laws, which I supported and implemented. … I’m not against medical marijuana. We do it in New Jersey. But I’m against the recreational use of marijuana.” — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), the second GOP debate, Sept. 16, 2015 Several claims from the second Republican presidential Read the full article…
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul continued to hit former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Thursday for admitting to smoking marijuana in high school — saying his “hypocrisy” is an example of why drug laws need changing in U.S. Bush admitted in previous interviews and again during Wednesday’s Republican presidential primary debate smoking marijuana Read the full article…
COLORADO: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s trip to Colorado this week includes a first for a presidential candidate: a fundraiser with the marijuana industry. The Republican is raising money Tuesday at the Cannabis Business Summit in Denver in what an industry trade group is billing as a history making event. “Never before has a major-party presidential candidate Read the full article…
CALIFORNIA: After years of voting down almost every proposal championed by pot legalization advocates, the House made a surprising move this week, approving a measure that would prohibit the Drug Enforcement Administration from busting state-licensed medical marijuana operations. The action in the GOP-dominated House reflected a continued shift in thinking on the issue for lawmakers Read the full article…
NEW YORK: In another sign that momentum might be shifting on the issue of medical marijuana, a rising leader in the Western New York branch of the state Republican Party is calling for the passage of a bill that’s currently blocked in the GOP-controlled Senate. Approval of the measure, contends Erie County GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy, would help with the Read the full article…
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: House Republicans will single out the District’s marijuana decriminalization bill during a May 8 hearing of the Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations . Witnesses from the D.C. Council, the National Park Service and the various law enforcement agencies with a footprint in the District will be invited to testify, according Read the full article…
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Let’s assume that the New York Times was right this week when it asserted that in 2013, “the only issue that truly unites Republicans is a commitment to shrinking the federal government.” Even though there’s ample evidence that the GOP doesn’t actually want to shrink the government, let’s nonetheless assume that Republicans are trying to rhetorically brand Read the full article…
IOWA: Today the Republican Party stands at a crossroads. Not one of taxes or war or school choice or the issues that get far more media coverage, but a crossroads of moral conscience. For most of us, medical marijuana isn’t a matter of life and death. For most of, this issue doesn’t concern us, doesn’t Read the full article…