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Trump Claims Marijuana Causes Lower IQs

PHOTO Gage Skidmore

Politics

Trump Claims Marijuana Causes Lower IQs

Secretly taped video reveals Trump saying marijuana lowers IQ and that legalization has led to traffic accidents.

There is a legion of Republi-cannabis enthusiasts among us that have been eagerly waiting for their president, a man known by most Americans only as Donald Trump, to finally come forth and reveal his official stance on marijuana. Because, well, let’s face it, the man, the myth, the Donald hasn’t had much to say on the issue since winning the keys to the White House back in 2016. No, he’s been too busy trying to hold it all together amidst four years of madness that has led to a big, fat, hairy impeachment trial. It’s a Ukrainzy scene, to say the least.

All noise aside, considering that the U.S. is smack dab inside an election year, some cannabis advocates, even the ones who didn’t vote for Trump before, are sort of on the fence about what to do later this year when it comes time to hit the polls. It’s a deal where most of the Democrats running this time around support federal cannabis legalization, except for the one candidate, Joe Biden, who seems most likely to get the nomination. Soooo, some toking folks believe that even though Trump is mostly a menace to the nation, as long as he comes out in support of legal weed, they might go that direction come November. That’s just the kind of confusing world we’re living in right now. Politicians are all crooks, pedophiles and capitalist creeps, so why not vote for the one who’s at least going to give us something we’ve spent decades fighting for?

It might not be the best plan, but it’s an ethos, nonetheless. Still, it could backfire in the end. It turns out that not even Trump has much faith that legal weed is a good thing for the Land of the Free. A new, secretly taped video from PBS News Hour reveals a President Trump saying that marijuana legalization has caused an uprising in motor vehicle accidents in Colorado and even lends itself to the stupidization (yes, we’re making up words now) of the U.S. population. No seriously, Trump believes marijuana is Making America Dumb Again. In the video, he clearly states that weed causes people to “lose IQ points,” and later reiterates the statement with “It does cause an IQ problem.”

But this doesn’t necessarily mean that, given the right circumstances, President Trump wouldn’t get on board with legal marijuana at the national level. In fact, it is worth pointing out that the video that has the cannabis community so up in arms was captured in April 2018 during a dinner party. As we’ve witnessed with Trump since he took office, it is nothing for him to flip-flop on issues when it becomes convenient. Hell, it is conceivable that he may not have even realized what he was talking about when pressed to get into it by secret videographer attorney Lev Parnas. After all, we are talking about the same guy who thinks oranges are picked from the refrigerator and that Apple CEO Tim Cook’s real name is actually Tim Apple. So, let’s not put too much stock in his words.

Incidentally, just two months after the low IQ video was taken, Trump came out in support of a long since dead piece of legislation known as the STATES Act, which would have essentially legalized marijuana at the federal level.

“I probably will end up supporting that, yes,” Trump told reporters ahead of the 2018 G-7 summit in Canada.

There was no mention of lower IQ points or other problems associated with marijuana legalization back then, just that Trump may have been ready to put pen to paper if that bill crossed his desk.

OK, so this is the obligatory part of the article where every other cannabis journalist would argue against Trump’s lower IQ comments by pointing to studies showing that marijuana doesn’t really do that. I don’t want to spend that much time beating a dead horse. Sure, there is research calling BS on the president’s assertions. I mean, even the federal government admits that “recent results from two prospective longitudinal twin studies did not support a causal relationship between marijuana use and IQ loss.” So, there’s that. But what is more important, more critical to the marijuana movement, as a whole, that is if it has any shot of succeeding within the next decade, is that we focus on what it’s actually going to take to get this issue some real consideration in D.C.

The thing is, voters get to decide this year on enough Senate seats (including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s) that could ultimately lead to Democratic domination in both chambers come 2021. I’m not going to mince words here, but having the Dem’s in control of Congress would do a hell of a lot of good for the course of full-blown marijuana legalization in the United States.

If such a thing were to happen, however, it would also be crucial to have a president in there willing to work with Democratic leadership to help further the issue. Considering the Democrats have all but burned President Trump at the stake trying to impeach him, it might be challenging to get “the son of a bitch” (his words, not ours) to side with their ideas if he does snag a second term.

But then again, Biden, if he does, in fact, receive the nomination, will likely hold the nation back no matter what cannabis-related legislation a Democratic-controlled Congress pushes through. In addition to thinking marijuana is a gateway drug (he did eventually walk back on this statement after some backlash, but still!), Biden pretty much stands on the side of state’s rights concerning legal weed. He has shown no interest, however, in signing a bill gear toward federal legalization. That could change with the right pressure from Congress, but his attitude could easily remain stagnant.

All in all, America, we are potentially screwed when it comes to seeing marijuana going legal nationwide within the next few years. The dynamic just isn’t quite there yet. And you can bet it’s going to be more of the same prohibitionist crud if the Republicans somehow make it out of the election still in control of the Senate. It’s easy to see that while marijuana might not cause lower IQs, politics sure seems to.

TELL US, do you believe marijuana lowers IQs?

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