Politics
GOP Congressman Says States Should Be Able To Legalize Marijuana, Even If He Prefers ‘Medical Margaritas’
A Republican congressman who President Donald Trump is campaigning to defeat in a primary election next month says states should be able to decide whether they want to legalize marijuana without federal interference.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said in a new interview with The Cincinnati Enquirer that while he doesn’t “do recreational marijuana” and personally prefers “medicinal margaritas,” he does support scaling back the war on cannabis.
“I support anybody making their own decision,” the congressman said. “And the state of Kentucky should be deciding the marijuana laws for the state of Kentucky, not the federal government.”
The journalist doing the interview found a curious way into the marijuana issue by first noting that Massie has referred to his off-the-grid homestead property in Kentucky as “the Shire,” a nod to the home of the hobbits in the Lord of the Rings series. She then noted that “hobbits smoke a lot of pipe-weed” before pivoting to the cannabis query.
Massie, for his part, has long supported cannabis reform—telling Marijuana Moment in a 2018 interview that failing to advance marijuana legalization has been a “huge missed opportunity for Republicans.”
During his time in office, the congressman has championed legislation to legalize industrial hemp and protect the Second Amendment gun rights of marijuana consumers.
Massie told Fox News in 2019 that rescheduling cannabis is good politics.
“The first party that does this—and I don’t understand why either party won’t do it—is going instantly gain 10 points in the general poll on which party versus the other,” he said at the time.
While the congressman has supported amendments to protect state marijuana from federal interference, he did vote against a cannabis legalization bill on the House floor, saying that it “creates new marijuana crimes” for not complying with new regulations the legislation sought to create.
Meanwhile, Massie has drawn Trump’s anger by pushing for release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein and for opposing key legislative initiatives such as spending bills.
The president has endorsed his primary challenger, Ed Gallrein, in the May 19 election.
