What’s Next For Marijuana Policy?

Happy Friday! There’s probably a metaphor somewhere in the fact that the business of the State Department briefing paused momentarily on Thursday when spokesman Matthew Miller noticed a “rather large” cockroach behind one reporter’s head. “No insecticide or roach-icide in the briefing room,” he urged.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• The Supreme Court issued a 7-2 decision on Thursday upholding the mandatory repatriation tax—a one-time tax on unrealized gains for individual investors who own at least a ten percent share of a foreign company—included in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion that it is constitutional for Congress to tax income an entity has earned, even if that income was never given to its shareholders or other investors. Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented, arguing that taxpayers must receive gains in order for those gains to be considered taxable income. The court released three other decisions on Thursday: one upholding the conviction of a woman who claimed the expert witness in her case was prejudicially expansive in his testimony; a Fourth Amendment case in which the court held that someone could claim prejudicial prosecution even if there was probable cause for another charge; and one that affirmed someone can still claim retaliatory arrest even if there was probable cause for arrest, in which the high court vacated a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision.
• Outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is set to become the next secretary-general of NATO in October, after his only opponent, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, withdrew his candidacy for the position on Thursday. Rutte—who has the unanimous backing of NATO member countries after Hungary withdrew its objection this week—will replace former Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg in the position. Stoltenberg has occupied the role since 2014. 
• Wildfires burned a total of 23,000 acres and killed at least two people in southern New Mexico this week. Thunderstorms in the region on Thursday were expected to help temper the blaze, but local authorities warned that the intense storms could lead to additional hazards as the fires continued to be uncontained. “Large hail, torrential rainfall, flash flooding, and damaging winds are possible from these storms,” the Albuquerque National Weather Service said Wednesday. “Extremely dangerous burn scar flooding has also impacted the Ruidoso area.”
• A seven-member U.S. congressional delegation on Thursday met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi—who was elected to a third term as premier earlier this month—after meeting with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, the day prior. The bipartisan delegation—led by House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas and which included former Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California—drew criticism from Chinese Communist Party officials for visiting the religious leader Beijing considers a Tibetan separatist. 
• The Biden administration announced Thursday that it will prioritize the delivery of Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine, above other countries that ordered the systems from the United States. The administration didn’t disclose which countries would now face delays but said the decision would have no effect on weapons deliveries to Israel or Taiwan. “The broader message here to Russia is clear,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Thursday. “If you think you’re going to be able to be able to outlast Ukraine, and if you think you’re going to be able to outlast those of us who are supporting Ukraine, you’re just flat-out wrong.”
• The Manhattan District Attorney’s office on Thursday reportedly dismissed criminal trespassing charges brought against 30 Columbia University students who were arrested after breaking into and temporarily occupying an academic building during anti-Israel protests this spring. Manhattan prosecutors—led by district attorney Alvin Bragg, who successfully brought felony charges against former President Donald Trump—made the case in favor of dropping charges against the student activists who broke into the college’s Hamilton Hall, citing their lack of prior criminal record and pending discipline from the academic institution. 
• Iconic Canadian actor Donald Sutherland passed away Thursday at the age of 88, his son, actor Kiefer Sutherland, announced. The elder Sutherland acted for seven decades, in films and TV series as diverse as M*A*S*H and The Hunger Games trilogy. “Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly,” his son wrote yesterday. “He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that. A life well lived.”

Introducing Dispatch Faith

There have been a lot of announcements from us here at Dispatch HQ in recent weeks, but we’re particularly excited about the news we’re revealing today: Dispatch Faith, a newsletter that will bring The Dispatch’s sober, analytical approach to the religious domain. Curated by managing editor Michael Reneau, Dispatch Faith will follow a familiar format: a rundown of important religion news, followed by a thoughtful main item written by leading writers and thinkers of various faith traditions. Karen Swallow Prior will kick things off this weekend with an essay about what English literature taught her about Christian Nationalism.

We don’t see Dispatch Faith as a newsletter version of those “Coexist” bumper stickers you sometimes see on the road. We don’t intend to flatten out the real and substantive differences between believers of different faiths. Nor do we want this newsletter to only cater to one branch of one faith, or drive away those who profess no religious faith. Instead, we want this newsletter to help readers of all sorts better understand religion in general and maybe even some religions in particular—and how they influence politics, policy, and culture writ large.

Those of you who were subscribed to The French Press will automatically receive the first few editions of Dispatch Faith, but you can click here to make sure you’re subscribed before we send the first newsletter. See you on Sunday morning!

What’s Going On With Weed? 

The country is a much different place than it was in 2009 when a leaked video of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps taking a hit from a marijuana pipe was enough for Kellogg’s cereal to terminate a sponsorship deal with him. 

Long considered taboo, marijuana use has gone mainstream over the last decade. Recent Gallup polling found that half of American adults have tried weed at some point—up from 38 percent in 2014—and that almost one in five currently smoke marijuana regularly. Support for legalizing the substance has also increased, with 57 percent of Americans supporting legalizing cannabis for recreational use according to the Pew Research Center. But with increased usage comes concerns about the drug’s health effects—on both a personal and societal level.

As the cultural tides have shifted on the issue of weed, and on the “War on Drugs” more broadly, several states have moved to change laws and policies to match—with sometimes complicated or unexpected knock-on effects. This week, Maryland became one of several states looking to undo past criminal consequences for cannabis possession, joining nine other states in pardoning crimes, as well as eleven more that went one step further by …

As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,782-word story on the state of marijuana legalization is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Worth Your Time

• Is activism broken? “Activists are why we have the Civil Rights Acts and the Voting Rights Act,” our own Sarah Isgur wrote in the New York Times. “Seatbelt laws that swept the country. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. The assault weapons ban in 1994. Campaign finance reform in 2002. But in recent years, activists seem to have become more impulsive and impatient, demanding swift action on big problems without the kind of compromise and incremental work that creates real and lasting change. … So I have a plea for activists on the left and on the right, many of whom I don’t agree with: You have enormous power, more than you may realize. If you master the art of impulse control and play a longer game to put pressure on Congress to get solidly crafted, consensus legislation, you may have a better chance at achieving lasting change on issues like gun control, religious liberty, and immigration.”
• Market-liberal ideas seem to be going out of vogue, Samuel Gregg argued in Law & Liberty. “Not only have tariffs become the White House’s bipartisan trade policy of preference since 2017, but Republicans and Democrats alike have made it clear that any downsizing of the entitlement programs that constitute the bulk of U.S. government spending is off the political table,” he wrote. Still, market liberals have seen worse. “In [World War I]’s wake came crippling inflation, crushing national debts, a global economy riddled with tariffs, a Bolshevik regime in Moscow committed to radical economic collectivism, and nationalist movements whose anti-capitalism was as intense as their anti-Semitism. … Advancing market liberalism today likewise requires the incorporation of free market ideas into a more comprehensive narrative about a wider revival of America and other Western countries. But however market liberals go about this, there is one obligation of which they cannot lose sight: that concerns their duty to tell the truth, however hard it may be for policymakers and people more generally to hear it.”

Presented Without Comment 

Former President Donald Trump, on President Joe Biden ahead of next week’s debate: 

I assume he will be somebody who will be a worthy debater. I don’t want to underestimate him.

Also Presented Without Comment 

The Hill: Vermont Republican Apologizes After Caught Repeatedly Pouring Water Into Colleague’s Bag

Vermont state Rep. Mary Morrissey (R) publicly apologized Monday for her “disrespectful conduct” toward a Democratic colleague after reports suggested she was responsible for repeatedly pouring water into state Rep. Jim Carroll’s tote bag over the course of five months.

Also Also Presented Without Comment

New York Times: Monkeys in Puerto Rico Got Nicer After Hurricane Maria

In the Zeitgeist

Canadian actor Donald Sutherland—whose appearances on the big screen spanned seven decades—passed away on Thursday at the age of 88. Commemorated with the Order of Canada—the country’s second-highest honor—Sutherland had seemingly endless range, equally able to be unsettling, comedic, heartrending, or warm. Check out some of his greatest performances below: 

Toeing the Company Line

• In the newsletters: Will examined the potential for state-level AI regulation to hamper innovation in the industry, The Collision broke down how Trump and Biden’s legal woes could be spotlighted at next week’s debate, and Nick looked at why Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign seems to be circling the drain.
• On the podcasts: Sarah and David break down the latest round of SCOTUS opinions on Advisory Opinions, while Sarah, Jonah, and Mike preview the upcoming presidential debate and Trump’s veepstakes on The Dispatch Podcast.
• On the site: Dan Currell explains what’s going wrong with the FAFSA process and Kevin pens an … unconventional candidate profile of Aaron Dimmock, the Republican trying to unseat Rep. Matt Gaetz in Florida.