Search Results: republican (494)

Photo: Franky Benitez
Rep. Robert Watson likes making fun of marijuana. Oh, and smoking it.

​In the latest fine example of Republican high-pocrisy when it comes to cannabis, a high-ranking GOP legislator in Rhode Island is squirming after being charged with driving under the influence of marijuana, possession of marijuana, and possession of “drug paraphernalia.”

An embarrassing pot bust would be bad enough for any politician, but this guy — Rep. Robert Watson — is a real piece of work who is remembered for making offensive anti-drug, anti-gay and anti-immigrant remarks, reports Kase Wickman at The Raw Story.
In February, Watson said the Rhode Island Legislature had their priorities right — “if you are a Guatemalan gay man who likes to gamble and smokes marijuana.”
Rather than just apologize and move on, Watson — while a guest on a radio show soon after that misstep, and in response to the understandable outcry over his comments — said, “I reject the suggestion that it’s insulting.”
Watson continued to refuse to say he was sorry. “I apologize when appropriate and/or necessary,” Watson told the Providence Journal in February. “I identify this situation as representing neither circumstance.”

Photo: Hampden-Sydney College
Delegate Harvey Morgan: “Making simple possession a civil rather than a criminal offense makes sense”

​Virginia lawmakers will have a chance to end criminal penalties for simple marijuana possession when the Assembly convenes in January — and the fight to decriminalize pot is being led by an 80-year-old Republican.

GOP Delegate Harvey Morgan, an assistant clinical professor of pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University, is sponsoring House Bill 1443, which would replace the criminal fine for pot possession with a civil penalty and eliminate the 30-day jail sentence and criminal record following conviction.
HB 1443 would not change penalties for the “manufacture” or distribution of marijuana, reports Eric W. Dolan at The Raw Story. It would also continue to require drug screening and education for minors convicted of pot possession.

Graphic: KFBB

​With the next session just months away, Republican legislators are getting ready for a battle to ban medical marijuana in Montana, spurred by an explosion in the number of patients in the state.

At least two GOP lawmakers plan to introduce bills in the 2011 Legislature — which begins in January — to repeal the medical marijuana law altogether, reports Daniel Person at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
This spring, the Montana GOP added to its platform the belief that the state’s medical marijuana law should be either “amended or repealed,” with several Republican lawmakers putting forward repeal bills. The state Democratic Party platform does not address the issue of medical marijuana.

Photo: You Are Hated!
Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz wants you to stay off the pot.

​Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) announced Wednesday afternnon that they have introduced a resolution to disapprove the District of Columbia’s city law legalizing medical marijuana, reports Mike DeBonis of The Washington Post.

“While derivatives of marijuana are available in pill form for medicinal purposes, smoked marijuana is a health danger, not a cure, and therefore remains a harmful and dangerous drug for people of all ages,” the clueless Chaffetz said.
Chaffetz, a Mormon convert, Brigham Young graduate and right-wing crank already known for opposing progressive legislation of any sort, is the creepiest sort of reactionary, the “I used to be a liberal” young kind of earnest, clean-cut, gay-marriage-opposing, pot-hating, wholesome-looking wingnut.

If America’s legal cannabis movement is going to be successful, it needs support from both of the major political parties and from people like Dan Anglin, a former U.S. Marine turned Republican lobbyist turned edibles entrepreneur. A veteran of Desert Storm as well as the early days of cannabis legalization in Colorado, Anglin has seen — and helped usher in — significant changes to laws and regulations surrounding cannabis edibles, while also starting a national brand of his own.

We chatted with Anglin about the early days of pot edibles, expanding his CannAmerica edibles into new states, and the political climate surrounding cannabis.

Senators Cory Gardner and Elizabeth Warren just reintroduced their States Act today, April 4, in hopes of guaranteeing states the right to choose their own marijuana policy. The two may seem an odd pairing, but Democrat Warren represents Massachusetts, where recreational cannabis is now legal, and Republican Gardner has pushed the feds before to observe Colorado’s laws regarding marijuana.

Representatives Earl Blumenauer and David Joyce have introduced the bill concurrently in the House, and the measure is expected to be heard by a House committee within weeks, according to House Rules Committee chairman Jim McGovern, who’s bullish on its chances.

Senator Cory Gardner’s shot at protecting states with legal marijuana programs was blocked on December 18, when his states’-rights amendment was sent into the rafters by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley.

Colorado’s Republican senator has been pushing for more guaranteed protection from federal encroachment on state-legalized marijuana industries and consumers, as well as for any banks that want to provide services to them. On December 17, he attached an amendment to the First Step Act, a set of legislative reforms to the federal prison system, that would have done just that.

On December 17, Senator Cory Gardner introduced an amendment to a federal prison reform bill that would protect a state’s right to legalize marijuana and determine how to regulate it within its borders.

Republican Gardner first helped introduce the legislation as its own bill, in a bipartisan effort with Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren known as the States Act. Despite gaining considerable attention over the summer, including an expression of support from President Donald Trump, the bill gained only ten co-sponsors after its introduction in June.

Of the 33 state legislators from Colorado who signed a recent letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions calling for congressional action “to protect the sovereignty of states like Colorado and ensure that marijuana businesses and consumers will be free from undue federal interference,” none were Republicans.

Given that Republican U.S. Senator Cory Gardner was among the document’s original signatories and is currently working with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, aka NORML, to prepare legislation on the subject, the reticence of GOP state reps and senators seems surprising. But while Republican state senator Tim Neville says he agrees with the letter’s ultimate goal, he doesn’t see the need for such a measure.

In a story of strange political bedfellows, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws is working with the office of Colorado Republican Senator Cory Gardner on an upcoming bill that would prevent the federal government from interfering with the marijuana system here and in other states that have legalized.

As noted by NORML political director Justin Strekal, Gardner has confirmed that he’s teaming up with Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, “to craft legislation that would reduce the tension between federal prohibition and states that have moved forward with legalizing marijuana for medicinal or adult use. And we’re working with a number of offices to make sure the language is going to be right and palatable to a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate.”

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