Drug Watch: Weed Lobby’s Dangerous Wins
“This year’s midterm ballot measures to legalize marijuana in five different states are more evidence of the weed lobby’s progress,” argues Mark Haskins in The Federalist. But “today, many of the arguments of the pro-marijuana movement” — such as the claim that it is no worse than alcohol — “have been proven wrong.” New studies “show previously unknown adverse effects” on “adolescent brains.” And children show up in “emergency rooms suffering from THC toxicity from marijuana products taken from parents and older siblings.” If “the government really cares about a generation facing sinking grades, mental health problems, and a bleak future,” “the only thing to do is step up . . . and keep marijuana on the controlled substance list until reasonable people can recognize the harm done.”
Right: Manchin’s 2024 Trouble
Just a week into the midterms, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin “already has a challenger” to his 2024 re-election bid, notes Katie Pavlich on The Hill: Republican Rep. Alex Mooney announced his campaign for the seat Tuesday. “Manchin publicly criticized President Biden for recently gleefully announcing” plans to shut down coal plants, but his words “rang hollow” as he voted for the De-Inflation Act – “The Green New Deal with a Different Title.” Indeed, the IRA is the most “significant” piece of climate legislation in history, according to Forbes, and will accelerate the country’s transition away from coal. Shortly after Manchin’s vote, his approval rating in West Virginia “dropped precipitously.”
Crypto-Biz: Why FTX Watchdogs Didn’t Bark
“In the news surrounding the collapse of FTX, many media outlets have been rather slow to ask a simple question,” laments Creators’ Ben Shapiro: “Why didn’t anyone notice that Sam Bankman-Fried was one of the most obvious frauds in the industry. All along?” Maybe it was because of the $40 million he dropped in the midterms to support Democrats, as well as “$5.2 million to then-candidate Joe Biden during the 2020 election cycle.” Or how the SBF invoked “effective altruism” — “a philosophy where leftists try to use capitalism to get rich and then throw the money at the front” — to cover up their scam. This helped the SBF win over government representatives who would “rewrite the statutes” in his favor. The fault lies with the regulators “who do not protect the public at all” but instead “attack” with “bluewashing” scammers like Bernie Madoff and SBF.
The experts: Brittney Griner’s harrowing ordeal
Russian penal colonies, like the one WNBA star Brittney Griner has been sentenced to, “are far more brutal than American prisons,” reports Emma Camp at Reason. “With the possibility of a prisoner exchange looking increasingly unlikely, Griner could well spend nearly a decade in a Russian penal colony,” where he “will likely be singled out for special abuse” because he is “open.” a gay American.” He faces “outrageous conditions” as the colonies are “dominated by constant physical and sexual abuse” and prisoners are subjected to hard physical labor and lack of medical care. “Although the US State Department still classifies Griner as illegally detained and previously appeared to that she was going to swap prisoners, hope for the former WNBA player’s actual release anytime soon is bleak.”
A look at China: Hong Kong now high risk
“Hong Kong leaders would like the world to think the financial center is back to normal as it reopens to international business,” but warn L. Gordon Crovitz and Mark L. Clifford of The Wall Street Journal, “business is far from normal.” there because “Beijing’s 2020 National Security Law” allows “the Chinese Communist Party to trample Hong Kong’s free society and market.” They were two US board members at Next Digital, which has been shut down for publishing the pro-liberation Apple Daily, “paying its shareholders equity”. Beware: “The law’s vague offenses could apply to anyone who poses a risk to the Chinese Communist Party’s perception of national security. The most vulnerable are some 1,260 American companies with offices in Hong Kong.
— Compiled by the Post Editorial Board
