Marijuana

If a motion to vacate the speaker of the House fails resoundingly, does it make a sound?The answer is, of course, yes — with a Capitol Hill press corps that loves nothing more than pitting all-too-willing Republicans against one another. Next week, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is poised to finally pull the trigger on her quixotic quest to oust Speaker Mike Johnson — but she’s likely to be left holding a bag of small-dollar donations and press clippings, which is what her detractors think she is actually motivated by.On one side of the push to oust Johnson is a trio of Greene, Thomas Massie and Paul Gosar.

When Colorado became the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use in 2014, expectations were as high as its users. For decades activists, investors and lobbyists assured Americans that the legalization of marijuana would displace the black market, generate an influx of tax revenue to finance schools and hospitals, halt senseless arrests and improve racial equity, all without attracting the attention of kids. In the run-up to legalization in Colorado, officials projected a $70 million jump in tax revenue from the hundreds of marijuana and THC products in newly minted dispensaries and licensed shops and budgeted accordingly. They learned quickly that the expectations didn’t live up to the reality, bringing in around $44 million in its first full year in operation.

With the make-up of Congress still taking shape after the midterms, perhaps the last thing anyone expected was any kind of bipartisanship. Yet despite a contentious campaign where rising crime featured prominently in attack ads, the first order of business in both the House and the Senate was a provocative move on marijuana. In the House, Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin and Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace cohosted a hearing on how state cannabis laws have developed and what reforms the federal government might yet undertake. The hearing was surprisingly friendly, save for an outburst from Texas congressman Pete Sessions who in a rambling monologue compared legalizing pot to profiting from slavery.

Several far-left Democrats are “extraordinarily disappointed” in the Biden administration. The Justice Department recently denied their request to de-schedule cannabis from its Schedule I classification within the Controlled Substances Act. “Schedule I” is applied to drugs with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker led the charge on behalf of stoners back in November 2021, and last month, the DoJ told them that “cannabis has not been proven in scientific studies to be a safe and effective treatment for any disease or condition.

There is a spot of Washington DC, a few blocks of downtown not far from the White House, where a cigarette is your only hope. The buildings are garish blocks of glass — 'like someone overturned a giant ice cube tray,' as one wag put it — while the color palette runs from charcoal gray to navy gray. The place can feel like ennui embodied, and all the worse when rain darkens the air and the streets fill with the soulless din of tires swishing through puddles. It can wear on you, this drab slice of middle-managerial noir. But at least for me, there is one thing that can brighten it up: cigarette smoke. I might catch it off a passerby or light up a Marlboro myself. But either way I feel paradoxically improved. I think, at least someone here is having a good time.