White Home reveals indicators of easing marijuana restrictions

[ad_1] NEW Now you can take heed to Fox Information articles!

Pot was hardly troublesome to search out on campuses, and elsewhere, again when it was not simply unlawful however focused by politicians as a menace to society.

In actual fact, it usually discovered you, when you stopped in at events and even small gatherings.

Once I was in school, there was a worry of being busted by police and getting kicked out of college or fired out of your job. It made in any other case law-abiding youngsters see the cops as their enemy.

However that was light-years in the past.

FATAL CRASH REPORT FINDS NEARLY HALF OF DEADLY WRECKS TIED TO ILLEGAL DRUG

Now the Trump administration is strongly contemplating loosening the restrictions on weed.

It nonetheless amazes me to drive up Connecticut Avenue right here in Washington and see hashish retailers, with such names as MrGreen and Blunt–and Style Budz, just a few blocks from the Capitol–overtly peddling the stuff. And it’s branded below extremely marketable names, corresponding to Violet Sky and Hash Burger.

A well-reported story by the Free Press says President Trump is contemplating reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I drug to Schedule III. That may put it in the identical class as anabolic steroids, ketamine and Tylenol with codeine.

A demonstrator waves a flag with marijuana leaves throughout a protest calling for the legalization of marijuana, exterior the White Home on April 2, 2016. (Jose Luis Magana, File/AP Picture)

The transfer "would ease restrictions on it however cease in need of making pot fully authorized."

In fact, medical marijuana is already authorized in 40 states and the District of Columbia, and allowed for leisure use in D.C. and 24 states, from New York to Colorado.

So the place is the opposition?

Uh, there isn’t that a lot.

And the White House is being open about this.

Marijuana advocate Alex Bruesewitz tells the Free Press that the shift to Schedule III "retains hashish as a managed substance however permits for extra testing for medicinal functions," and is a "politically savvy transfer" with robust public assist.

STATE BANS PRODUCTS WITH DANGEROUS SUBSTANCE AMID GROWING FEARS OF OVERUSE BY KIDS

If that’s true, it’s as a result of generations have not less than tried weed because the Sixties and ’70s and dismiss the darkish warnings about how harmful it's and the way it will result in the tougher stuff. They scoffed on the notorious 1936 movie "Reefer Insanity."

Richard Nixon, in his war on drugs a half-century in the past, tried to affiliate hippies with pot and Blacks with heroin.

As prime aide John Ehrlichman, who went to jail for Watergate, stated in a 1994 interview: "Did we all know we had been mendacity in regards to the medication? In fact we did."

Ronald Reagan , who as a candidate known as pot "most likely probably the most harmful drug in the US," wrote in his diary that he bought mad when watching Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton toking up within the film "9 to five." His spouse Nancy later launched her "Simply Say No" marketing campaign.

By the point Bill Clinton was operating for the workplace, his transient experimentation with pot–that he had tried it however "didn’t inhale"--had grow to be a punchline.

An individual prepares a marijuana joint throughout 420 celebrations at Washington Sq. Park in New York Metropolis on April 20, 2024. (Leonardo Munoz/AFP through Getty Photos)

Some critics have undoubtedly emerged. Pete Classes, a GOP congressman from Texas, not too long ago wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi with eight different lawmakers, saying that rescheduling "would ship a message to youngsters that marijuana is just not dangerous."

Donald Trump doesn’t smoke, drink or take medication, in response to his brother’s dying from alcoholism. However the White Home appears on board.

Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio took a survey in March that discovered 66 p.c of these questioned backed legalized marijuana, and 70 p.c supported rescheduling the drug.

POT AND GAMING COMBO COULD POSE HIDDEN HEALTH RISKS, RESEARCHERS WARN

A senior White Home official is quoted as saying: "For lots of the bottom, it’s a problem like homosexual marriage that individuals have gotten snug with. It’s good politics." A choice is anticipated by yr’s finish.

However as with nearly each Beltway concern, well-heeled lobbyists are a part of the method. Pot smoking, as soon as an underground pastime, is now a big-bucks business .

Bruesewitz’s consulting agency, X Methods, is being paid $300,000 by American Rights and Reform, a pro-cannabis group, for "media" providers. One other massive PR agency, Mercury Public Affairs, represents the US Hashish Council.

<source media="(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/10/931/523/activist-protests-federal-prohibition-of-marijuana.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/10/1862/1046/activist-protests-federal-prohibition-of-marijuana.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="523" width="931"> Marijuana activists stage an indication in entrance of the White Home on Independence Day on July 4, 2021, in Washington, DC. Members of the group Fourth of July Hemp Coalition gathered for its annual protest on marijuana prohibition which the group stated it dated again to greater than 50 years in the past throughout Nixon administration. (Picture by Alex Wong/Getty Photos)

The dimensions of this burgeoning business is estimated at $38 billion final yr–actual cash, even by jaded Washington requirements.

I confess to some blended emotions. For one factor, right this moment’s hashish is many occasions extra highly effective than the nickel and dime baggage that used to flow into.

I all the time felt pot’s milder effects had been preferable to alcohol, particularly in terms of driving. It does provide the munchies, although. And as a father or mother I say, what about homework?

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Whereas the drinking age has lengthy since been raised to 21, that doesn’t appear to cease these a number of years youthful from acquiring beer, wine and liquor.

However with so many tens of millions having not less than sampled marijuana over the many years, it was most likely inevitable that they wouldn’t need it to stay in the identical federal class as heroin, cocaine and – what is really a killer drug – fentanyl.

Howard Kurtz is a media and political analyst and the previous host of FOX Information Channel's MediaBuzz . Based mostly in Washington, D.C., he joined the community in 2013 and repeatedly seems on Particular Report with Bret Baier and The Story with Martha MacCallum amongst different applications.