Tag Archives: former Speaker of the House John Boehner

This Would Not Be A Good Thing For America

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On Sunday, Townhall posted an article about the MORE Act. This Act will federally legalize marijuana throughout the country.

The article reports:

If passed, the MORE Act will federally legalize marijuana throughout the country. Despite failed efforts to advance this bill in the past, a Democratic majority in Congress and control of the Presidency now portend a high likelihood that this Act could pass. While marijuana advocates, lobbyists, and legislators push this bill, the MORE Act’s statutory shortcomings pose an immediate and dangerous threat to the regulatory power of states and localities. If passed, the MORE Act could wipe out state and local laws prohibiting and criminalizing marijuana, leaving states and localities unable to address local concerns about marijuana issues.

The article concludes:

As written, the MORE Act poses an immediate threat to state and local marijuana laws because it establishes myriad federal social services programs, taxation systems, expungement programs, commercial licensing systems, and grant and trust fund programs. With all of these wide-ranging federal programs, the MORE Act creates a federal framework and regulatory scheme that could imply congressional intent to preempt state and local marijuana laws. And according to Roberts, Supreme Court precedent provides for preemption of conflicting state and local laws when federal acts create federal regulatory systems of this nature.

In sum, the MORE Act poses a major threat to state and local regulatory power and removes the issue of marijuana policy from democratic debate at the state and local level. Congress must act immediately to expressly address, in the MORE Act itself, whether it intends to reserve to the states the power to regulate marijuana. Without the inclusion of an express statutory provision, the states, localities, and the People will be left powerless to address marijuana policy concerns in their local area.

Marijuana is not as benign as we are being told. When used by teenagers, it negatively impacts their social development and their ambition. I am not going to argue whether or not it is a gateway drug–but I know that the marijuana users I have come in contract with have gone on to other drugs. I have also personally seen marijuana totally ruin a young person’s future. I don’t think legalizing it is a good idea.

It is interesting to me that one of the voices currently supporting the legalization of marijuana is former Speaker of the House John Boehner. During his time as Speaker, John Boehner opposed the legalization of marijuana, but since leaving Congress he has joined the marijuana industry in a consulting capacity. I suspect he is doing some serious lobbying for the passage of the MORE Act. That is sad.

Following The Money

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We have reached the point where very few of our representatives and so-called public servants in Washington have defining principles. If you want to know why a politician can change his stand drastically on an issue in a short period of time, all you have to do is look for the shift in the political winds or follow the money. It is not by chance that many Congressmen enter Congress as middle-class Americans and are millionaires within five years. The latest example of money vs. principles is the former Speaker of the House John Boehner. On Friday, Front Page Magazine posted an article about some of former Representative Boehner’s financial interests.

The article reports:

All that’s left is for Boehner to join the roster of ‘ex-racists’ touting Biden. When the slimy ex-speaker calls Biden a “good guy”, that’s not an endorsement anyone would want.

And when Biden quipped that he “loved” Boehner, that’s almost as bad.

What’s there to love? Let’s forget the booze and go right to the pot.

While Boehner can be found addressing the Bank of Montreal, the Edison Electric Institute (an electric company lobby), and a Portland life insurance company offering services to the “ultra-affluent” for pay, he’s better known for going to pot.

Boehner, who had opposed drugs as an elected official, received the high honor of heading up the National Cannabis Roundtable to lobby for drug legalization. The former House Speaker came by the position naturally since he was already on the board of Acreage Holdings.

Acreage Holdings has one of the biggest marijuana operations in America. As Democrats began to legalize drugs in select states, companies were formed to get in on the action. But despite all the hype, the marijuana business was a disaster. 

Legalizing and taxing pot just meant users buying cheap ‘illegal’ pot from drug dealers.

Acreage tried opening operations everywhere only to pull back. The marijuana company suffered $286 million in net losses in 2020. But there was some good news. 

Canopy Growth, a Canadian company, controlled by Constellation Brands, a liquor company which owns everything from Svedka Vodka to Robert Mondavi, has a deal to buy Acreage on the condition that marijuana is federally legalized in the United States.

And the only way that could happen is with a Democrat in the White House.

As one headline bluntly put it, “Canopy Growth Is Headed to $0 Without a Biden Victory”.

The article notes the financial windfall for Boehner if marijuana becomes legal federally:

Boehner had 625,000 shares of Acreage at the time the article was written and it noted that, “if his former colleagues in Congress help make marijuana federally legal, he’d be eligible to receive Canopy shares worth about $16 million.”

A New York Times article wrote that, “Boehner’s pro-weed epiphany coincides with the prospect of a payday as high as $20 million.”

That’s a lot of money. And to collect all that drug money, Boehner needs Republicans to lose.

Who was Boehner going to back in the election? Not the Trump administration which had tossed Obama’s pro-marijuana Cole memo which had been used to build a new drug industry.

And not Republicans who aren’t friendly enough to his new drug industry friends.

I am not someone who wants to see marijuana legalized. The marijuana of today is not the marijuana of the 1960’s, and we don’t know enough about the long-term effects. I also don’t think we need another chemical available that impacts brain function either short term or long term.