Right after officially receiving the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump is already creating rifts between himself and the party platform. Trump has said that he supports medical cannabis “100 percent” and has signaled that, if elected, he would allow states to implement their own laws without federal interference.

“The progress made over the last three decades against drug abuse is eroding, whether for cultural reasons or for lack of national leadership,” the 2016 GOP platform states. “In many jurisdictions, marijuana is virtually legalized despite its illegality under federal law. At the other end of the drug spectrum, heroin use nearly doubled from 2003 to 2013, while deaths from heroin have quadrupled. All this highlights the continuing conflicts and contradictions in public attitudes and public policy toward illegal substances. Congress and a new administration should consider the longrange implications of these trends for public health and safety and prepare to deal with the problematic consequences.”

As previously reported, the GOP Platform Committee recently shut-down attempts from delegates to create amendments in the platform that would allow support for medical cannabis and a stark evaluation of the current state of the drug war in America.

Last Wednesday, Trump appeared on Fox News, and seemed surprised to learn that the GOP platform took an opposition stance on medical marijuana. The candidate described the platform report as “largely a Trump platform,” but when interviewer Bret Baier confronts Trump about the lack of support for marijuana legalization or even medical cannabis, Trump could only shrug in response, along with a muttered, “OK”.

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