White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said WHAT? *devolves into uncontrollable, incredulous coughing*
"I do believe you will see greater enforcement of it" Spicer says in response to Q about whether DOJ will enforce recreational pot laws.
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) February 23, 2017
Spicer: DOJ will be "taking action" against states that have legalized recreational marijuana.
— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) February 23, 2017
Here's Vox quoting the Spiceguy:
There’s two distinct issues here: medical marijuana and recreational marijuana. I think medical marijuana, I’ve said before, that the president understands the pain and suffering that many people go through, who are facing especially terminal diseases, and the comfort that some of these drugs, including medical marijuana, can bring to them. And that’s one that Congress, through a rider in [2014], put an appropriations bill saying that the Department of Justice wouldn’t be funded to go after those folks.There’s a big difference between that and recreational marijuana. And I think that when you see something like the opioid addiction crisis blossoming in so many states around this country, the last thing we should be doing is encouraging people. There’s still a federal law that we need to abide by when it comes to recreational marijuana and other drugs of that nature.
What, good sir, are you smoking?
Meanwhile Slate and others are pointing to a serious double standard in Spicers states' rights formulation.
Make sure I've got this straight from Spicer's press briefing:
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) February 23, 2017
State's rights:
Whether trans people can exist.
Not state's rights:
Pot.
Seeing as Attorney General Jeff "good people don't smoke marijuana" Sessions reportedly said he thought the KKK "were OK until I found out they smoked pot," good luck convincing him or this administration that the devastating effect of the war on drugs on non-white Americans was a bad thing, and that legalization and decriminalization can help.
Oh god. We'll have to see how much of this is just empty threat when the smoke clears, but it's notable in that it's the most threatening the administration has gotten on the subject so far.
Hold onto those medical pot cards for now, everyone.