Deep in the Hateful Heart of Texas
I’m joining Stone Slade for a tale of Texas today, which will be based on story from High Times:
THE SCOOP
“The 2022 Texas State Republican Convention was held last week between June 16-18 for the first time in-person since 2018.” There, the party released the 40-page document called the “Report of the Permanent 2022 Platform & Resolutions Committee” and I wish I’d had a little more time to go through this because there is some truly appalling stuff in here.
…altogether, there are 275 platform planks, or principal policies of the Republican party, to address a multitude of agenda topics.
After a quick scan, I identified ideas that are against:
Democracy and therefore seditious (it says Joe Biden is not the President);
Environmental protection;
Social equity and fair opportunities for underserved communities;
Health-care distributed to all Texans;
Women’s rights (it rejects the Equal Rights Amendment! and women's rights and freedom to have control over their own bodies
Sanctity of all families to make their own decisions about their children (past, present, and future);
Diversity of any kind including the ancient slander that “Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice” (WWJD?)
Division of church and state (but Pro-"Original Intent of the Constitution"... really?)
The United Nations …
BUT by golly those holy-rollers are pro-gun, pro-Christian nation, pro-Trump Insurrection … what the hell is in the water down there?
“Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke posted on Twitter about the “extreme agenda” among these planks as: “... abolish abortion, defund public schools, take away health care, repeal gun laws, deny voting rights, reject marijuana legalization.”
THE DEEPER DIVE
Closer to our hearts at The American Cannabis Report, “The Report of the Permanent 2022 Platform & Resolutions Committee policy list briefly addresses cannabis, marijuana, and hemp.
“It only mentions cannabis once, which is described as “Cannabis Classification: Congress should remove cannabis from the list of Schedule 1 and move to Schedule 2.”
Well that’s a non-starter – pushing cannabis to Schedule 2 would only serve up the entire industry to Big Pharma on a silver platter. Ironically, I believe Joe Biden has also suggested this, in one of the very few mentions of what he would actually DO with cannabis.
So both of you go back under your rocks. Your ideas are useless.
The Texas Republican platform “also uses the term marijuana as well. “Marijuana Remains Illegal: Oppose the legalization of recreational marijuana and offer opportunities for drug treatment before penalties for its illegal possession, use, or distribution.”
So the party is against free trade, against job creation, against innovation, against catching up with the vast majority of Americans who favor legalization... the list of the lunacy of Prohibition is endless.
Seems the Texas Republicans are willing to make a statement about cannabis’ utilitarian cousin, hemp, saying “Reduce Business Regulations: We believe that the following businesses should be minimally regulated at all levels,” which among a list of 14 laws in question, it states “Use of hemp as an agricultural commodity.”
THE LAST WORD
No mention of psychoactive Delta-8 derived from that “agricultural commodity”, so I guess they should have a plank protecting gas station operators to be able to sell unregulated drugs that may be laced with chemicals and get people high.
Oh right, they can already do that.
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Photo by Christopher Moon: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-leather-boots-on-brown-dried-leaves-9948748/
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