By Tom Angell
As Marijuana.com reported this week, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump disagrees with running mate Mike Pence when it comes to the medical value of cannabis and the question of whether the federal government should respect state marijuana laws.
Trump says he supports medical cannabis “100 percent” and has pledged to let states implement their own laws without interference, but Pence voted six times in Congress to let the DEA continue to raid medical cannabis patients and providers.
There’s also daylight between Trump and his party’s platform on marijuana policy.
“The progress made over the last three decades against drug abuse is eroding, whether for cultural reasons or for lack of national leadership,” the 2016 GOP platform states. “In many jurisdictions, marijuana is virtually legalized despite its illegality under federal law. At the other end of the drug spectrum, heroin use nearly doubled from 2003 to 2013, while deaths from heroin have quadrupled. All this highlights the continuing conflicts and contradictions in public attitudes and public policy toward illegal substances. Congress and a new administration should consider the longrange implications of these trends for public health and safety and prepare to deal with the problematic consequences.”
At a GOP Platform Committee meeting earlier this month, delegates defeated amendments that would have put the party in support of medical cannabis and in favor of evaluating the failures of drug prohibition:
In an appearance last Wednesday on Fox News, Trump seemed surprised to learn that the GOP platform takes a starkly different position on marijuana than he does as the party’s standard bearer. The candidate described the document as “largely a Trump platform,” but when interviewer Bret Baier pointed out that it isn’t supportive of marijuana legalization or even medical cannabis, Trump was visibly taken aback and could only shrug in response, along with a muttered, “OK”:
It remains to be seen how a Trump administration would actually respond to the growing number of states that are enacting marijuana policy reforms. While he has said repeatedly that he would respect local policies if elected, he has dramatically changed his mind on a broad number of issues over the years and could do so on cannabis if Pence, possible attorney general Chris Christie or other prohibitionist Republican officials persuade him to.
The Democratic Party’s 2016 platform calls for the federal government to respect state marijuana laws.
To find out what else Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton have said about cannabis, check out Marijuana.com’s comprehensive guide to the candidates.
