Waka Flocka Flame wants to run for president: "F*** the Congress"
Latest“The first thing I’ll do when I get in office is legalize marijuana.”
The campaign promise — one you can believe he would deliver — comes from Atlanta-based rapper Waka Flocka Flame.
The 28-year-old artist announced his White House bid in Rolling Stone on the 420 holiday, although he probably isn’t serious (The Hill points out that he’s seven years short of the age requirement and hasn’t filed the election paperwork).
He put out a patriotic campaign video with details of his platform (and some blunt rolling):
One of the top issues on his agenda is education. “We gonna teach the kids more reality skills and they gotta learn my lyrics before they get out of school, or else they f***ing fail,” he said. “Then they gotta start from third grade all over again from twelfth.”
The campaign is using the hashtag #WakaForAmerica. If elected, he might have a hard time striking a deal with Congress, but that doesn’t seem to be bothering him.
“F*** the Congress,” he said in the video. “I am Congress. I’m president.”
DEA chief’s ouster offers a chance for a fresh voice on marijuana
The nation’s top drug cop will step down next month amid criticism over a prostitution scandal involving federal agents.
Michele Leonhart, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), isn’t leaving because of her views on marijuana, but activists are hoping to seize on the opportunity to replace her with someone who is more 420 friendly.
“Hopefully this is a sign that the Reefer Madness era is coming to an end at the DEA,” Mason Tvert, the director of communications at the Marijuana Policy Project, told Bloomberg Politics.
Marijuana is legal for recreational use in four states and for medical use in half the country, but it’s still illegal on the federal level. Judging by weight, weed made up 91 percent of the major illicit drugs seized by the DEA in 2013 — so the agency devotes significant time and resources to rooting out cannabis.
Leonhart may have lagged behind President Obama when it came to marijuana policy. She reportedly told a group of sheriffs in 2014 that she was frustrated with his decision to allow states such as Colorado and Washington to experiment with legalization.
Ohio governor John Kasich “totally opposed” to marijuana legalization
Ohio could be one of the next states to legalize marijuana, but Republican Gov. John Kasich isn’t onboard.
“I’m totally opposed to it, because it is a scourge in this country,” he told conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday.
Kasich, who is considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, did not say definitively if he would act to shut down legalized weed in his state. “I probably would not,” he told Hewitt, citing the rights of states to enact their own laws. “I’d have to give it some thought.”
Mediate has the clip here.
Ted Hesson was formerly the immigration editor at Fusion, covering the issue from Washington, D.C. He also writes about drug laws and (occasionally) baseball. On the side: guitars, urban biking, and fiction.