Thanks as always to Pirate’s Cove for the Rule Five links!  Also, check out my latest gun article on Glibertarians.com!

It seems Accidental Libertarian President may strike again; President Trump has said he is open to the Imperial legalization of marijuana.  Excerpt:

President Donald Trump said he likely will support a congressional effort to end the federal ban on marijuana, a major step that would reshape the pot industry and end the threat of a Justice Department crackdown.

Trump’s remarks put him sharply at odds with Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the issue. The bill in question, pushed by a bipartisan coalition, would allow states to go forward with legalization unencumbered by threats of federal prosecution.

Trump made his comments to a gaggle of reporters Friday morning just before he boarded a helicopter on his way to the G-7 summit in Canada. His remarks came the day after the bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed its measure.

One of the lead sponsors is Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), who is aligned with Trump on several issues but recently has tangled with the administration over the Justice Department’s threatened crackdowns on marijuana.

“I support Sen. Gardner,” Trump said when asked about the bill. “I know exactly what he’s doing. We’re looking at it. But I probably will end up supporting that, yes.”

The legislative proposal, which is also championed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), would reshape the legal landscape for marijuana.

Here in Colorado, of course, recreational marijuana has been legal at the state level for some time, and the world as we know it hasn’t come to an end.  In point of fact, such a legalization would just return to the state the Imperial law was in before 1937.

But it’s the political aspects of this move that are interesting.  Legalizing pot will likely gain the President a significant number of millennial votes; it will bump up his approval with the slowly-growing libertarian wing of the GOP and with Libertarian party members, many of whom may cross over to vote GOP, especially given the LP’s penchant for picking lousy candidates.

President Trump may be doing this for political reasons, but it’s the right move for other reasons; maybe this is just the first step to dismantling the nation’s insane War on Drugs and all of the liberty-infringing policies that go with it.