President Donald Trump said he “probably will end up supporting” the states’ rights marijuana bill proposed by U.S. Sens. Cory Gardner, R-CO, and Elizabeth Warren, D-MA.
Both senators introduced the STATES Act -- Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States -- on Thursday.
The bill would amend the Controlled Substance Act so that any person acting in compliance with state or tribal law would no longer see most of the act’s provisions apply to them. It would also exclude industrial hemp from the federal definition of “marihuana” (the U.S. government’s term for marijuana) but would keep intact prohibitions on allowing people under age 18 to work in the industry and exchanging marijuana at transportation safety facilities.
The bill also contains language that says that financial transactions involving legal marijuana do not amount to trafficking or an unlawful transaction.
Asked by the White House pool about the bill as he was about to depart to Quebec for the G-7 summit, Trump didn’t explicitly give the measure his blessing but hinted that he’d support it.
“I really do, I support Senator Gardner. I know exactly what he’s doing. We’re looking at it, but I probably will end up supporting that, yes,” Trump said.
Gardner said at a Thursday news conference announcing the new measure he’d spoken with President Donald Trump several times about it, including on Thursday before the two senators introduced it.
“As the president said in a conversation with me, we can’t go backward, we can only go forward,” Gardner said. “The ketchup’s not going back into the bottle, as the old saying goes.”
