Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams warned President Donald Trump on Friday not to stop states from legalizing marijuana, warning: “I’m gonna turn on this president faster than anyone has ever turned on him.”
Adams said that Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s decision Thursday to rescind an Obama administration policy from 2013 that refrained from enforcing federal marijuana laws in states that had legalized the drug was not necessarily a bad sign for users of medical and recreational marijuana, since Sessions left discretion in the hands of each state’s U.S. Attorney. He did not order a crackdown by federal law enforcement on states that had legalized it.
However, Adams said that the decision to maintain marijuana as a Schedule I drug — the most dangerous category of drugs, with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse” — was a worrisome sign.
Adams cast the issue as one relating to the welfare of veterans– many of whom, he said, relied on marijuana to relieve symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He also recounted how using marijuana had helped him overcome suicidal thoughts in college, and had relieved him of stomach pain he had suffered with since childhood.
Adams drew acclaim for predicting Donald Trump’s victory in August 2015, and for interpreting the unfolding drama of the 2016 presidential election by explaining how Trump (and rival Hillary Clinton) were using persuasion techniques in their political rhetoric.
His recent book, Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don’t Matter, expands the insights of the 2016 election to draw conclusions about human cognition more generally. He has developed a large following on Twitter and Periscope, and is quietly followed by Washington insiders for his insights and advice.
Eight states and the District of Columbia have made recreational marijuana legal, CBS notes. 29 states have made marijuana legal for medical purposes.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named to Forward’s 50 “most influential” Jews in 2017. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.