On Friday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced his endorsement of Donald Trump for the next President of the United States. The New York Times reported this development to be “a major turn in a wild race” that is sure to give Trump some extra power coming into Super Tuesday, adding that Christie’s pledge of support could become “a catalyst for other leading Republicans to back” “The Donald” as their candidate of choice.
The word on the street is that Chris Christie has jumped aboard team Trump in hopes of securing the position as the next U.S. Attorney General if the reality star takes his sideshow to the White House in 2017. Matt Katz, author of “American Governor: Chris Christie’s Bridge to Redemption” posted to his Twitter account that it was “Time to talk about Attorney General Chris Christie. Much more likely than veep,” while Tom Angell of the Marijuana Majority pointed out the potential tragedy from such a happening – the end of legal weed.
“The phrase “U.S. Attorney General Chris Christie” should send waves of fear through the legal marijuana industry. Not good, folks. Not good,” Angell wrote in a Twitter post.
Although Donald Trump has remained mostly on the side of allowing states to legalize marijuana however they see fit, the man has not exactly been the most stable of the breed when it comes to his politics. In 1990, Trump told the Sarasota Herald Tribune that “we’re losing the War on Drugs,” and “that you have to legalize drugs to win that war.” But then he turned around last year and told attendees of a Conservative Political Action Conference “they’ve got a lot of problems going on right now in Colorado, some big problems.” Yet, he still claims to support medical marijuana “100 percent,” at least for now.
Chris Christie, the man now apparently positioning himself to control the Department of Justice, has been one of legal marijuana’s most vocal opposing forces, saying earlier last year, “As President of the United States, I will enforce the marijuana laws, because I believe marijuana is a gateway drug that causes our children and adults to use other drugs. I think it lowers productivity. I'm against recreational use… And I am for limited medical use not mandated by the federal government, but permitted by the federal government."
Unfortunately, this means if the next President of the United States is Donald Trump and he appoints Chris Christie to take over as Attorney General, the four states that have legalized marijuana for recreational purposes stand a relatively good chance at being forced to shut down. Also, states like Arizona, California, Maine, and Massachusetts, all seeking to legalize in 2016 through ballot measures, those developments, if passed by the voters, could be forbade to even take effect under a Trump regime. In short, the cannabis industry is in serious jeopardy. As it stands, the federal government simply considers statewide legalization an “experiment,” and there are no laws in place to stop the next administration from bringing it all to a screeching halt.
Of course, Trump still has win before the threat becomes real, which may be as good as a done deal if Bernie Sanders doesn’t take the Democratic nomination. A recent article in Current Affairs suggests “If Democrats honestly believe, as they say they do, that Trump poses a serious threat to the wellbeing of the country… they must make absolutely sure that Bernie Sanders is the Democratic nominee for President.” This, the article claims, is because “every one of Clinton’s (considerable) weaknesses plays to every one of Trump’s strengths, whereas every one of Trump’s (few) weaknesses plays to every one of Sanders’s strengths.” While the cards may be stacked against Sanders for the Democratic nomination, the Vermont Senator is highly electable in a ticket against Trump. A nomination for Clinton will almost inevitably put Trump in the White House, Christie in the Attorney General’s seat, and lead to the destruction of the cannabis trade, as we know it.
Mike Adams is a contributing writer for HIGH TIMES. You can follow him on Twitter @adamssoup and on Facebook.com/mikeadams73.
