Marijuana Moment: Biden’s Reelection Strategy Is To ‘Get More People To Smoke Marijuana,’ GOP Senator Claims

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President Joe Biden’s strategy to win reelection this November is “to get more people to smoke marijuana,” a GOP senator is claiming.

In an interview with Ask a Pol that was published on Friday, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said he thinks the administration’s move to reschedule cannabis is a “terrible idea” that fits into a political agenda heading into the election.

“It’s amazing to me the number of stories I’ve already read that this is Biden’s plan to be able to win the election is to get more people to smoke marijuana,” he said. “I was like, okay, well, that’s quite a plan, ‘I can only win the election when more people smoke marijuana.'”

“I think it’s a bad idea, and I think it sends all the wrong message about the drug use in our country,” he said.

The Biden campaign has made clear they view the push to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) as a politically appealing action, contrasting it with the Trump administration’s decision to rescind federal cannabis enforcement guidance, for example.

However, rescheduling would not legalize marijuana or legitimize state markets. There would still be significant criminal penalties for cannabis-related activities under federal law, so it’s unclear what Lankford means by suggesting it would incentivize use.

“Marijuana doesn’t make our families stronger, it doesn’t make our workplaces more efficient, it doesn’t make our streets safer,” Lankford went on to say in the Ask a Pol interview. “So to say that the solution for the election for Biden is to get more people to smoke marijuana, I find very bizarre.”

The senator also claimed that Colorado’s legalization law “created greater criminal activity” and that his home state of Oklahoma’s medical marijuana program has invited “all kinds of outside criminal organizations that have moved in to be able to do redistribution of drugs in our state, and it’s been a terrible consequence for our state.”

Last September, Lankford also led a letter urging the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to “reject” the top federal health agency’s recommendation to reschedule marijuana and instead keep it in Schedule I.

More recently, the senator called on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to “reverse” its updated policy that narrows the window of employment ineligibility over past marijuana use from two years to three months, arguing that it “undermines the security and integrity of the Border Patrol workforce” and questioning the “trustworthiness” of recruits who used cannabis.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s proposed rule to federally reschedule marijuana was officially posted on Tuesday, kicking off a public comment period that’s expected to elicit a major response from supporters and opponents of cannabis reform alike.

Police Groups Back Bill To End Federal Marijuana Prohibition In Legal States And Allow Interstate Commerce

Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.

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