Druggies Vote Too

After having spent a significant portion of my life at the intersection of I-70 and I-75 (where, until recently, marijuana was not legal but still used), I chose to go to college in rural Michigan (where marijuana has been both legal and used for quite some time).

The difference was striking.

In Ohio, billboards are normal. They advertise McDonald’s burgers and fries, employment at trucking companies, and the second coming of Christ. In Michigan, it seems as though every billboard advertises weed. (RELATED: It’s Apparently ‘Racist’ to Protect Children From Parental Drug Use)

The differences, of course, transcend billboard variety, and in a world where marijuana consumption neither affected society nor ruined lives, I might care as much for it as I do for alcohol (I don’t drink as a rule, but I don’t mind if other people do so long as they don’t bother me).

As it happens, we don’t live in that world — as much as the Biden administration would like us to. Marijuana both is addictive and has significant social impacts. (One study discovered that legalized marijuana was associated with a 17 percent increase in substance disorder, a 35 percent increase in chronic homelessness, and a 13 percent increase in arrests.) Far less importantly, the wafting stench of marijuana on city streets is simply disgusting. (READ MORE: Progressives’ Deadly Hypocrisy on ‘Harm Reduction’)

You might think that, as a society, we could just agree that drugs are a bad idea. But the Biden administration has decided otherwise. This week, it announced it would recognize medical uses of marijuana — because, after all, it’s not quite as addictive as other drugs on the market. The decision won’t legalize marijuana nationwide, but it will become easier to purchase and sell it for “medical” purposes.

Most people have been talked into legalizing medical marijuana. The problem with the government doing so is that legal recreational marijuana usually follows (and it does so very quickly). It’s a slippery slope that ends in stinking cities with a growing homeless population. So why does the Biden administration do it?

This isn’t about making sure that little bags full of white powder found at the White House don’t turn into conservative memes. It’s about the druggie vote.

Just like the billions of dollars of student debt Joe Biden has been slowly but surely forgiving (even after the U.S. Supreme Court told him not to), it’s a measure intended to buy votes. It’s a bit pernicious, and it might just work. (READ MORE: The Best Kind of Hippie: A Classy One)

First, it’s a change that’s widely popular. Recently, Pew Research found that 90 percent of Americans think medical marijuana should be legal. Second, according to the same poll, younger Americans and Democrat voters are far more likely to support legalizing the drug outright.

For the Biden administration, this is an easy way to pander to the base without causing too much controversy — something Biden’s campaign managers love (and need).

This article is an excerpt from The American Spectator’s Spectator P.M. newsletter. Subscribe today to read future letters from our staff!