During a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience MMA Show featuring John Rallo, Matt Serra, and Din Thomas, the conversation took an intriguing turn toward weed legalization when Rogan expressed enthusiasm about potential policy changes under the Trump administration.
“There’s some talk about Trump legalizing m**ijuana now. That would be amazing,” Rogan stated during the podcast. Rogan’s excitement stems from the peculiar situation many Americans find themselves in regarding such laws. “I mean, it kind of feels like it is legal right now,” he observed, pointing to the patchwork of state-level legalization that has created a confusing legal environment across the country.
Rogan also expressed frustration with the slow pace of federal reform: “I can’t believe we’re still dealing with this. I mean, I would have thought by the time I just turned 58. I would have thought by the time I’m 58, we would have figured this out, right?”
The conversation then went into the economic forces that may be slowing legalization efforts. “It would take the place of so many different pharmaceutical d**gs and that’s a big part of the problem. The other part of the problem is the alcohol industry,” Rogan noted.
Din Thomas agreed, pointing out that the alcohol industry has conducted studies and actively lobbies against m**ijuana legalization because they understand the potential impact on their market share. “They know and they lobby. They work on it hard. They do not want m**ijuana becoming legalized in the whole nation,” Thomas said.
The group acknowledged that alcohol presents greater health risks than m**ijuana, with Rogan stating simply, “Alcohol is way worse.”
One of the most compelling arguments presented during the discussion focused on how prohibition empowers criminal organizations. Rogan referenced John Norris, a former California game warden who wrote “Hidden War.” He described how illegal m**ijuana cultivation has created dangerous situations in national forests.
“The real big problem is who’s selling if it’s illegal, the cartel, right?” Rogan explained, detailing how cartels establish sophisticated growing operations deep in public lands, complete with armed guards and advanced equipment.
According to Norris’s research that Rogan cited, as much as 80% of m**ijuana in illegal markets comes from these cartel operations, which use dangerous pesticides and herbicides banned on American farms.
