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Trump Is Petrified That Pro-Weed Forces Will Roast Him:
The president and some of his team, already obsessed with the potential drop-off of various demographic groups that make up his battered coalition, have begun openly worrying that the drive to legalize or decriminalize marijuana might hurt him and fellow Republicans at the ballot box.
According to two GOP strategists who've independently discussed the topic with Trump this year, the president believes that inclusion of marijuana initiatives on state ballots could supercharge turnout for voters who lean toward Democratic candidates and causes. The president, according to one of the sources, asked for updates on critical swing-states that could see such ballot measures in the 2020 elections.
"The president is keenly aware of how presidential elections [nowadays]... can be won at the margins," one of the Republican strategists said. "The pot issue is one of many that he thinks could be a danger... He once told me it would be very 'smart' for the Democrat[ic] Party to get as many of these on the ballot as they could."
Decades ago, Trump had publicly advocated full-on legalization, arguing that "we're losing badly the war on drugs," and that "you have to legalize drugs to win that war. You have to take the profit away from these drug czars." During this iteration of his political identity, he put the blame on politicians who "don't have any guts" to tackle drug legalization.
But by his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump had come out "strongly" against legal weed. By the time he reached the Oval Office, he was enthusiastically proposing executing drug dealers by firing squad. And his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, revoked an Obama-era guidance that discouraged the feds from prosecuting marijuana-based criminal cases in states where it was legal.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday August 26 2020, @05:10PM (3 children)
I agree with you on the first point. I philosophically agree with you on the second point, but drug addiction, even to marijuana, is a terrible thing. My brother-in-law is hopelessly addicted to pot and it has destroyed his life. Everything he does and is revolves around getting baked. Tragically, it has so altered his brain chemistry that he is only minimally tolerable when he's stoned out of his mind, and a miserable, insufferable bastard when he's not.
Smoking a joint now and then doesn't seem like a bad thing, and dropping acid or doing mushrooms for the experience doesn't sound too horrible, but the nature of drugs rather makes casual use difficult or impossible, doesn't it?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26 2020, @06:12PM
mushrooms and lsd are not addictive. mushrooms are probably actually good for you as long as you don't go completely crazy with the dosage. see the Fantastic Fungi doc. weed is somewhat psychologically addictive, but easy to quit if you have the desire. your brother-in-law doesn't really want to quit.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday August 26 2020, @07:08PM
I've never been into drugs myself. I don't even like being drunk, and do that rarely (as in, less than once a year). But I've known people who were into all sorts of things (including some friends of Timothy Leary), and from what I can tell, the ranking of real danger amounts to:
1. Opioids: That stuff will kill you if you don't break free of the addiction. And it also causes a lot of property crime as addicts desperate for their fix steal in order to pay for it.
2. Tobacco: That stuff could very likely kill you with cancer, emphysema, and other long-term damage.
3. Alcohol: Alcohol kills mostly through drunk driving and violent stupidity, although alcohol poisoning can definitely be an issue. Other major issues here include unprotected sex leading to disease and pregnancy, domestic violence, and fist-fights.
4. Sugar: This is a very powerful psychological addiction for a lot of people. Heck, you might be a sugar addict and not think about it - I sure was for a while. The main way this harms is through obesity and diabetes. Like alcohol, once in a while and not too much it's fine, every day it's a problem.
5. Psychedelics: The biggest danger with acid, shrooms, and other similar stuff is that you blithely do something suicidal while you're tripping and don't see what you're doing. There can also be psychological surprises for people who are tripping if they aren't well-prepped for the experience. However, the folks I know who do these kinds of drugs generally arrange to have people they trust who aren't tripping to keep them out of trouble. And I've met nobody who has done these on a regular basis.
6. Cannabis: There's definitely a chance of psychological addiction with it, just like alcohol. However, since the worst effects of a pothead not getting their dope seems to be that they're a bit miserable and cranky, and there's been no proven medical dangers, I consider it to be far less harmful than many other drugs.
7. Caffeine: If you don't think that there are people with psychological and minor physical dependency on caffeine, look at what happens when you take away the supplies from a regular coffee drinker - they get miserable and cranky and possibly get a headache.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2020, @06:23AM
I've heard this lie before from so many people. The closest this cool bro story approaches the truth is that you have a brother-in-law you can't stand, and you saw this person using weed once or twice.
Let me try my version (which is still a lie...):