The Green Mountain State is making history, becoming the first state to legalize marijuana, not through a popular vote, but by legislation.
But the mayor of the Vermont’s capital city Montpelier told Cheddar that things need to change on the federal level.
“I think it’s just appalling, the use of federal crime resources to be chasing marijuana use,” John Hollar said. “I think it’s really ironic that this is coming from a Republican administration that purports to support states’ rights. But when it comes to marijuana, it decides that this is something it’s going to deal with at a federal level...I hope it gets overturned by Congress or reconsidered by the Attorney General.”
His comments refer to Attorney General Jeff Sessions who recently rescinded an Obama-era law that allows states to regulate marijuana without federal interference.
Under its new law, Vermont residents can carry up to an ounce of marijuana for personal, recreational use and grow, though commercial sales are still prohibited.
Some members of Congress are fighting Sessions’ efforts with the REFER Act. The proposed bill, introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), aims to protect states, and people in those states, that allow the use of cannabis.
Health experts have slammed the U.S. decision to hog nearly the entire global supply of remdesivir, the only drug licensed so far to treat COVID-19.
Dr. Anthony Fauci says the U.S. is “going in the wrong direction” with coronavirus cases surging in some regions, and that's putting the entire country at risk.
The European Union has announced it will reopen its borders to travelers from 14 countries, but most Americans have been refused entry for at least another two weeks due to soaring coronavirus infections in the U.S.
Jerome Powell says the outlook for the U.S. economy is "extraordinarily uncertain."
Health departments around the U.S. that are using contact tracers to contain coronavirus outbreaks are scrambling to bolster their ranks.
The Supreme Court has struck down a Louisiana law regulating abortion clinics, reasserting a commitment to abortion rights over fierce opposition from dissenting conservative justices in the first big abortion case of the Trump era.
Stocks closed sharply lower on Wall Street as the number of confirmed new coronavirus cases in the U.S. hit an all-time high.
The House of Representatives has passed a Washington, DC statehood bill. The bill is unlikely to make it through the senate as republicans oppose adding more representatives, likely democrat, to congress.
Ja'Ron K. Smith, deputy assistant to President Trump, talks White House progress on police reform and how the president is working to uplift Black and Brown communities.
Texas and Florida clamped down on bars again Friday, and the White House coronavirus task force, led by Vice President Pence, held its first briefing in nearly two months.
