“The Stop Pot Act to withhold certain federal funding from states and tribes that permit the use of recreational marijuana.”
North Carolina Congressman Chuck Edwards hates drugs so much that he sought his current seat against former US Rep. Madison Cawthorn after the GOP incumbent became embroiled in scandals involving cocaine, guns, and all sorts of other campaign killers.
Now in office, Edwards, also a Republican, is showing how much he means business in this realm by going after weed. Not despite it remaining outlawed in his home state, but more like because he wants it to stay that way.
As for the 23 states and additional territories that have legalized adult-use cannabis, he’s proposing a bill with them in mind. As his office describes it:
The Stop Pot Act will withhold 10 percent of federal highway funds for governments that violate federal law under the Controlled Substances Act, which prohibits recreational marijuana and classifies it as a Schedule I drug. This legislation does not apply to jurisdictions that authorize medical use of marijuana when prescribed by a licensed medical professional.
“The laws of any government should not infringe on the overall laws of our nation, and federal funds should not be awarded to jurisdictions that willfully ignore federal law,” Edwards said in a statement. “During a time when our communities are seeing unprecedented crime, drug addiction, and mental illness, the Stop Pot Act will help prevent even greater access to drugs and ease the strain placed on our local law enforcement and mental health professionals who are already stretched thin.”
The congressman’s stated immediate problem: the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ Sept. 7 vote on “whether to legalize the sale and use of recreational marijuana on tribal lands.” “If the EBCI’s referendum passes,” Edwards writes, “the Qualla Boundary will be the only place in North Carolina to buy marijuana legally for recreational use.”
It’s an insane proposal propped up on unspecified crime trend analysis and naked fear mongering, and it gets even uglier. The bill is covered in the fingerprints of Smart Approaches to Marijuana Action (SAM Action) President and CEO Dr. Kevin Sabet, who offered a comment about how “today’s marijuana isn’t Woodstock Weed.” An arch-prohibitionist who travels the country like an anti-cannabis crusading clown, Mass advocates once caught him lying about the potency of edible props he held up on stage during a legalization forum in 2016.
From the looks of things, the embarrassment did not stop Sabet from wheeling his house of marijuana mirrors to the next state.
“The legalization movement has worsened America’s mental health and addiction crisis by preying on communities of color and young people,” Sabet said in the Edwards media release. But that’s not all … “Today’s commercial marijuana products are associated with depression, suicidality, IQ loss and most recently psychosis and schizophrenia, especially for young people.”
