Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), right, confer in the hallway near the House chamber just after a stopgap spending bill advanced on a procedural vote but with final passage uncertain at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023. J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Just say no to the Mace and Gaetz marijuana show
Washington Examiner November 02, 05:01 AM November 02, 12:01 AM Video Embed
The last time Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) teamed up with Democrats, the result was three weeks of chaos in the House of Representatives. The end result of their mayhem appears to be a distinction with little difference, for new Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is not radically unlike former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
The same cannot be said about Mace’s and Gaetz’s latest gambit. The new GOP odd couple wants to legalize marijuana.
Under Mace’s STATES Reform Act, marijuana would be removed from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act and would instead be regulated like alcohol. This is a terrible idea.
Despite what the George Soros Drug Policy Alliance tells you, marijuana is not a benign substance with medicinal properties. It is an addictive drug, particularly for young users. Its habitual consumption has been conclusively linked to schizophrenia and permanent brain damage, particularly in the frontal cortex. As the strength of marijuana has increased in recent years, it has become more addictive and more damaging.
Mace and her Soros-funded allies argue that marijuana legalization will lead to less crime, more tax revenue for states that choose to tax the drug, and fewer deaths from other addictive substances such as fentanyl.
But after a decade of legalized marijuana experiments in states throughout the country, we can now say conclusively that all of these claims are false.
Marijuana legalization has increased crime and not just in communities where the drug is used. Every state that has legalized marijuana has also created a burdensome and complicated regulatory regime that has in turn created a vast illicit market that easily undercuts the legal market on price. Because possession of marijuana is legal in these states, just as it is legal to possess alcohol, it is virtually impossible to crack down on the illegal market.
This has left rural communities that never experienced drug violence before vulnerable because low-population county sheriffs don’t have the budgets, staff, or laws to defeat cartel-funded illegal marijuana farms. This has brought drug gang shootouts, robberies, kidnappings, and killings to communities that never suffered from them before.
With the illegal market double the size of the legal one, estimated tax revenues from legal marijuana sales have fallen far short of promises, leaving states stuck with massive bills for increased addiction services but without the extra revenue to pay them.
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Recent research confirms that marijuana legalization is also associated with higher opioid use and mortality. Instead of acting as a substitute for more harmful drugs, legal marijuana is a slipway to their increased use.
Introducing legislation to legalize marijuana will assuredly get Mace and Gaetz the cable news attention they crave, but Congress should study the failures in states such as California, Colorado, and New York and reject their initiative. Legalizing pot doesn’t pay.
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