President Trump Issues his First Statement on Cannabis

On Friday, President Donald Trump, signed a $1.1 trillion dollar spending bill, which allowed the government to be funded until September 2017. The bill will fund the federal government for the next four months and included the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment, which prohibits the Department of Justice from using federal funding to crack down on state-approved medical cannabis operations.

After signing the bill, the president issued a signing statement featuring potential concerns he had with the bill as a whole. A signing statement is written by the president, and it is intended to clarify the president’s position on important matters. In the past, signing statements were used to coax Congress into specific actions like going to war or passing legislation that the president desired, but could not get passed on his own.

What makes this particular statement interesting is that it features President Trump’s first formal declaration on the subject of cannabis since being sworn in this January. Buried in the text, where he explains his opinions on a number of other issues was the following:

“Division B, section 537 provides that the Department of Justice may not use any funds to prevent implementation of medical marijuana laws by various States and territories.  I will treat this provision consistently with my constitutional responsibility to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

Based on the negative reaction to the previous issues addressed in the statement, one interpretation is that this is a declaration against cannabis. If so, it could be that Trump is trying to appease his constitutes. Only 40 percent of Republicans polled by the General Social Survey were in favor of cannabis legalization, as opposed to 63 percent of Democrats, and 63 percent of Independents. However, the wording of this signing statement is ambiguous at best.

Another interpretation is that the phrase “consistently with my constitutional responsibility” is in line with Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment, which protects medical cannabis laws, but does not afford much protection for states that have legalized recreational cannabis within their states. If there is an area that seems vulnerable to the White House, it is recreational cannabis. Medical cannabis has the overwhelming support of the people behind it. A recent poll showed that 93 percent of those questioned were in favor of cannabis for medical purposes, as opposed to 54 percent in favor of recreational cannabis.

Regardless of how the verbiage is translated, it is well passed time for the President to come out with an official statement on cannabis. He ran on a platform of state’s rights, but several of his key appointments were to individuals with an anti-cannabis track record.

The spending bill will keep the government running until September 30, and was reached through a number of bi-partisan gestures, which included the continued funding of Planned Parenthood, no funding for a border wall and compromises on immigration.