Trump Administration “Unlikely” to Go After Marijuana States, Says Press Secretary
Trump’s Press Secretary Sean Spicer has spoken up for the first time regarding state marijuana laws.
Donald Trump’s Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
With the recent confirmation of prohibitionist Jeff Sessions as the next U.S. Attorney General, there’s a lot of well-founded fear in the marijuana community about what will happen next. However, President Trump’s Press Secretary Sean Spice says it’s “unlikely” the Trump Administration will attack states that have legalized marijuana.
“I think that’s unlikely” Sean Spicer told our D.C.-based reporter Rebecka Brian today when asked “can we expect the Trump Administration to enforce federal law in states where marijuana is legal?” Spicer chose not to answer any follow-up questions.
Obviously this doesn’t give us much to go off of, but the fact that Spicer is willing to say that a federal marijuana crackdown is “unlikely” is a significant indicator that the issue has been discussed among the administration, and that they are planning to respect state marijuana laws.
Still, “unlikely” doesn’t necessarily mean “it isn’t going to happen”, so there’s still plenty of reason to be cautious going forward. However, there are also reasons to be optimistic.
[Editor’s Note: Rebecka Brian is a pseudonym used at the request of our reporter to keep her real identity private (as a grad student with a day job she fears a conflict).]
Mark
Is there proof of this exchange? I cant find video of a press briefing where this took place. Thank you
Robert Chase
This is interesting news, to be sure, but I consider it impossible that Sessions will simply let the entire matter alone; we should consider the possibility that Spicer is lying too. We should expect some kind of clarification out of the Injustice Department, sooner rather than later.
Gary
I haven’t seen this, either. I have no reason not to believe it took place. Sessions is an extreme Prohibitionist though, so who knows. Congress needs to pass the Rohrbacher bill on states cannabis reform. Respect states rights AG Sessions! He said he couldn’t pick and choose what laws to enforce. Fine. But if Sessions is also for states rights he should respect a states right to legalize cannabis.
Robert Chase
I was too quick to credit this report — apparently it is BS. Sean Spicer denies having made any such statement; see https://massroots.com/blog/white-house-denies-marijuana-news-report