Curiouser and Curiouser Cannabis Politics

If you were in Oregon on Sunday watching the heart-wrenching hour-long 60 Minutes program on 9/11 and the terrible toll it took on the FDNY, you would have seen an ad funded by the National Republican Congressional Committee slamming OR Congresswoman Val Hoyle for her association with the cannabis company La Mota while serving as OR’s labor commissioner. La Mota is under investigation by the FBI and the huge scandal around it lead to the resignation of Oregon’s Secretary of State. 

Hoyle responded to the ad when it first appeared, and a counter ad that aired just after the NRCC one on 60 Minutes featured a firefighter talking about Hoyle’s advocacy for workers. (A second appearance of the NRCC ad on the program went unrebutted.)

Hoyle has apparently been a friend in Congress, tweeting out support  for the cannabis industry when former NFLer and cannabis entrepreneur Ricky Williams visited her office in June. She seems to face scant competition from her “Young Gun” Republican challenger who has now called for a federal investigation into Hoyle and La Mota; still, it’s disturbing that NRCC would attack a Congressperson on this basis, even as presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris now squabble about who is the bigger legalization supporter. 

Harris supported medical marijuana as DA of San Francisco, but was derisive about adult legalization when running for a second term as California's AG. She did a rather complete turnaround when she was elected to the Senate, where she co-sponsored a bill to legalize marijuana at the federal level, and stumped for Biden's plan to reschedule cannabis on the talk show circuit, reiterating that, "No one should be in jail for weed." She's also touted her administration's pardons for low-level cannabis offenses, even as the Last Prisoner Project pushes for clemency for the estimated 3000 current federal cannabis prisoners. 

Trump, meanwhile, continues to call for the death penalty for drug dealers, even after Fox New's Brett Baier tripped him up on that topic over his Alice Johnson pardon. Now, facing a challenger who could get the weed vote, Trump has announced he will vote for marijuana legalization when he casts his ballot in Florida, and he's also embraced rescheduling and banking reform for cannabis businesses. While calling medical marijuana "amazing" he at the same time called for restrictions on where pot can be smoked, saying New York "smells all marijuana-y." It's been reported that he met with at least one cannabis CEO before making his announcement, and some have speculated campaign contributions were involved. He has bashed Harris for prosecuting cannabis crimes in California, although he didn't bring that up at last night's debate debacle.  

Both DonOld and his VP pick J.D. Vance have repeated the much-debunked myth that illicit marijuana can contain fentanyl. In Vance's case, it's particularly troubling, since many studies, including a recent one from Ohio, have shown that marijuana legalization can reduce the use of opioids, and another recent study out of Appalachia found that medical marijuana helps depression, pain and anxiety patients while reducing prescription drug use. Vance and Trump are now repeating strange and unconfirmed reports that illegal Haitian immigrants are eating people's pets in Ohio, perhaps in an attempt to win back the cat lady vote. Both Vance's wife Usha and Harris's families have roots in the Hindu religion, which connects with cannabis. 

Fentanyl is all over the voting map, e.g. in attack ads against Portland, OR Congresswoman Janelle Bynum for supporting Oregon's erstwhile drug decriminalization law, even as a new study reports that increases in drug overdoses can't necessarily be tracked to that law, but rather to the spread of fentanyl. At the debate, Harris pointed out that Trump made phone calls to congressmembers to kill a border control bill that would have helped stem the importation of fentanyl, but he didn't rebut her accusation after being distracted by her assertion that people were leaving his rallies early in boredom, as delegates reportedly did at the RNC. 

Malphine Fogel and her son Marc in happier times

In another bizarre and tragic incident, Trump met with the 95-year-old mother of Butler, PA–born schoolteacher Marc Fogel, who has served three years of a 14-year sentence in Russian for bringing a small amount of medical marijuana into the country, just before the candidate spoke at the rally where a sniper shot at him before he could say Marc's name. The Biden/Harris administration has refused to designate Fogel as "wrongfully detained" as they did with WNBA and US Olympic star Brittney Griner, and Fogel was reportedly devastated when he was left out of the recent hostage swap that freed Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan. 

For a bit of comic relief, Texas House of Representative candidate Sally Duval has tweeted out a campaign ad in which she enjoys some Strawberry Cough and says, "It’s HIGH time for a change. If you agree that we need leaders who will ensure that Texans have access to safe, tested marijuana products, chip in today." And Seth Meyers, picking up on Trump accusing Biden of hunkering down in his basement, predicts upon leaving office Biden will start wearing a man bun and "get super into hydroponics." 

Independent presidential candidate Cornell West has tweeted, "Brothers and sisters, I call on VP Harris to not only fulfill her promise on cannabis legalization but, in the name of mental health and addiction, to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms, MDMA, and Ibogaine. The War on Drugs has devastated our communities—we must end it, we must end it, expunge records, and offer real second chances. Science and compassion demand it. Let’s support small businesses and home growers while building an economy rooted in truth, justice, and love. It’s time to hold our leaders accountable." It's a similar position to that of Democratic challenger Marianne Williamson, who's now dropped out of the race. Either are possible for write-in or protest votes, although I urge readers to think hard about voting this way if you live in a swing state.