SEATTLE (AP) – From Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to Hippie Hill in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, marijuana enthusiasts observed their 4/20 holiday Thursday with public smoke-outs, parties and, yes, great deals on weed.
The annual celebration of cannabis culture was providing activists an opportunity to reflect on how far they’ve come – recreational use of marijuana is now legal in eight states and the nation’s capital – and on the national political tone, with Trump administration officials reprising talking points from the heyday of the war on drugs.
“We’re looking at an attorney general who wants to bring America back into the 1980s in terms of drug policy,” said Vivian McPeak, a founder of Hempfest in Seattle. “I’m skeptical they can put the cannabis genie back into the bottle.”
President Donald Trump hasn’t clarified what his approach to marijuana will be, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions opposes the drug’s legalization and this month ordered a review of the government’s marijuana policy, which has included a largely hands-off approach in legal marijuana states.
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly recently called marijuana “a potentially dangerous gateway drug that frequently leads to the use of harder drugs” – a view long held by drug warriors despite scant evidence of its validity.