Bill Weld: Cannabis Should Be a States' Rights Issue
The federal government could legalize marijuana in the [next five years](https://cheddar.com/videos/bill-weld-dominoes-are-falling-to-legalize-weed), said the former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld. Though, he said states should be able to decide the issue for themselves.
"Once you can do research on it, the arguments against it are going to be increasingly slim," said Weld on Thursday in an interview with Cheddar.
There are 29 states that allow medicinal use of cannabis, and nine states that have legalized recreational use of marijuana.
"We'd like to see cannabis descheduled as a Class I narcotic in Washington so that states would be free to do what they want," said Weld. "Right now there's a rub between federal and state law enforcement."
Weld and the former House Speaker John Boehner joined the board of the cannabis producer Acreage Holdings last week.
Boehner had long been an opponent of legal marijuana, but Weld said his new colleague changed his mind because the public's perception of the drug had changed.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/bill-weld-joins-acreage-board).
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
