Tobacco and prison lobbies are both incredibly powerful.

one less arrow in the democrat's quiver. Seems like Trump is keeping his options open so he can defang any democrat initiative to rally around pot
If democrats actually made the calculation that legalization was popular enough to run a pro-pot platform in 2020, republicans could just dissolve the prohibition and preemptively steal their thunder
but he's not committing to anything while congress is deadlocked, not yet. Just opening the door a crack. Since democrats will see the trap, they'll be unlikely to pounce, which means Trump might still be unlikely to throw the door fully open


lets remember, pot like climate change is an issue where everyone on capitol hill is fully aware of how farcical the anti-science and denialism is in much of our policies, anyone like ted cruz who denies it is just a filthy liar. The political calculation is everything. For years nobody wanted to be labeled a soft on crime drug addled hippie when they knew that even if legalization was a majority opinion, the majority was apathetic about it while the minority of little old ladies was virulently hostile and could be swung against any candidate toking it up. Now we're still not over the threshold because of the uncomfortable nash equilibrium where whichever side acts first stands to lose.

This post was edited by Goomshill on Jun 8 2018 06:06pm

I predicted something like this happening about a decade ago.

Basically said that the pro-pot sentiments will come almost exclusively from the left until Republicans decide that they can bill it as "freedom" and switch positions overnight and pretend they've always been in favor of it.

Most people love their Congressman, but hate Congress. Fenno's paradox.



Lobbyism is one of the biggest problems in the United States. Even the fiscally conservative, free-market types should be against it, for obvious reasons.

I hope the next President and Congress finally address that issue. Lobbyism affects practically every issue and is inherently anti-democratic. It's a barrier to solving a lot of problems that we would otherwise have bi-partisan support in addressing.

Anyone who believes he will actually do this is a complete idiot.

Yeah highly unlikely. If this was on his priority list Session would have never been hired.

I imagine Sessions was given Attorney General because he was the first sitting Senator to endorse Trump.

If I had to guess, I'd say Trump personally wants to decriminalize marijuana use and leave it up to the states.

Thats basically how everybody in his administration got a job. By kissing ass

Yep. My point is that I don't think Trump hired Sessions because of his politics. Rather, it was a political agreement reached between the two after Sessions' relatively early endorsement while the GOP still opposed Trump's candidacy.

Sessions' lifelong dream was probably to be Attorney General. I think that's one of the only reasons he's holding onto the job despite Trump shitting on him on Twitter every morning, publicly humiliating him and essentially defecating upon his own administration.