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Drug Policy Alliance Statement on Amazon Committing to No Longer Test Most Employees for Marijuana and Endorsing the MORE Act
This commitment can and should be the catalyst to a much larger change—ending drug testing for all drugs—that would ensure a more just and equitable future for millions of people.
WASHINGTON
In response to Amazon announcing it will no longer test those of its employees not regulated by the Department of Transportation (DOT) for marijuana, Kassandra Frederique, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), released the following statement:
"As the United States' second largest private employer, Amazon committing to no longer test those of its 1.3 million employees not regulated by DOT for marijuana--and publicly supporting the MORE Act--is a huge step forward in eliminating one of the main ways the drug war has robbed so many of their livelihoods. Drug testing has never provided an accurate indication of a person's ability to perform their job, and yet this incredibly invasive practice has locked out millions of people who use drugs--both licit and illicit--from the workplace.
"We implore Amazon and other employers to let this be the starting point and not the goal post. This change can and should be the catalyst to a much larger move--ending drug testing for all drugs--that would ensure a more just and equitable future for millions of people, especially Black, Brown and Indigenous communities who have been disproportionately impacted by these policies.
"We urge other employers to take note and follow suit, ending this counterproductive practice once and for all. And we urge the House to swiftly pass the MORE Act absent of a harmful provision that was added to exclude federal workers of drug testing protections, so we can roll up our sleeves and get on with the work of passing marijuana justice in the Senate as well."
The Drug Policy Alliance is the nation's leading organization promoting drug policies grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights.
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Platner Calls to 'Take Back American Power' With Rate Freeze, National Infrastructure Fund in Energy Plan
"It is long past time to hearken back to the legacy of the New Deal, to unlock American ingenuity and work ethic to rise to our energy challenges."
May 08, 2026
In his energy policy unveiled Friday, Democratic US Senate candidate Graham Platner in Maine emphasized that political choices over the last several decades undid the robust New Deal-era framework that helped keep household bills down and financed electricity across his state and the country—and that lawmakers can and must shift their priorities in order to help working families afford energy once again.
"What was done by political choice can be undone by political choice," said Platner in the plan. "If we approach our energy challenges with the resources currently reserved for the Pentagon and for billionaire tax breaks, we can meet our energy needs."
The oyster farmer and combat veteran, a political newcomer who is the presumptive Democratic nominee and is running to unseat five-term Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), unveiled a plan under which the US can "Take Back American Power" by replacing "regressive gas and diesel taxes" with his billionaire wealth tax proposal, introduced last month; take aim at Big Oil windfall profits; and prioritize clean energy development instead of "overpriced, dead-end Pentagon pet projects."
The plan is divided into four sections, with the first focusing on slashing energy prices for households across the country and in Maine—where the average family paid $900 more this past winter compared to the previous year to heat and light their home and power their car.
While the federal gas tax is meant to fund the Highway Trust Fund for infrastructure projects, Platner noted that $275 billion general fund dollars have been needed to supplement the fund since 2008. Instead of funding projects with taxes that "hit working-class Mainers that hardest," said Platner, "public goods should be financed by progressive, general revenues" like his proposed 5% tax on wealth over $1 billion.
He expressed support for the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act, introduced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), with a national fund to lower or freeze electricity rates funded by a per-barrel tax equal to 50% of the price difference between current oil prices and those from last year.
"We can cut Wall Street speculators out of the equation, build at scale with union jobs, and lower costs for everyone."
A rate freeze would also be funded by "repurposed federal fossil fuel subsidies and federal energy leases... so that states can support utilities making long-overdue upgrades that create a stronger, better-utilized, and cleaner grid that lowers power bills."
The second section of the plan focuses on funding clean energy projects and replacing the model of "financing energy investments with expensive private equity and high-yield debt" with a National Energy Infrastructure Fund. The fund would issue debt backed by the federal government, working with state agencies to provide "cheap capital directly to utilities, rural electric co-operatives, public energy authorities, and other developers of low-risk clean energy projects."
Combined with permitting reform for clean energy projects, the National Energy Infrastructure Fund would allow for an efficient build-out of transmission lines and offshore wind projects while passing tens of billions of dollars in savings on to ratepayers.
"We can cut Wall Street speculators out of the equation, build at scale with union jobs, and lower costs for everyone," said Platner.
The Senate candidate also proposed strategic fuel reserves for fisheries and farms, modeled on a reserve that hold approximately 1 billion barrels of oil for households across the Northeast in case of a fuel disruption.
Releases from a marine fuel reserve would "be triggered by verified price spikes during fishing seasons," while the stock for farmers, who bear "the brunt of our energy crisis," would be used to insulate the nation's food supply "from price shocks, particularly those caused by arbitrary wars."
The policy proposal was released as President Donald Trump issued his latest violent threat against Iran despite a ceasefire that was reached a month ago in the war the US and Israel started in late February. The average gas price is now above $4.50 per gallon, while 70% of US farmers told the American Farm Bureau Federation last month that the price of fertilizer has gotten so high due to Iran's closing of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for the attacks, that they will not be able to afford all they need for the 2026 planting season.
Platner has taken aim at Collins for her votes against war powers resolutions that would give Congress a check on Trump's authority to attack Iran.
"Mainers can no longer afford Susan Collins, her party, or the crony capitalism that has handed over our essential public infrastructure to oil companies, private equity, and foreign-owned utilities," said Platner. "The solutions are straightforward. They simply require the political will: to end Big Oil’s stranglehold on our energy policy, to slash prices for consumers, and to build the energy of the future."
The Democrat's energy plan also calls for a National Whole Home Repair Program, modeled on a Pennsylvania initiative and scaled to the federal level. The program would partner "with public housing authorities, county-level programs, and local building and construction trades unions to cover the full range of work that would bring old housing into the present."
"Weatherization, electrification, and heat pumps can lower bills by thousands of dollars a year," reads the plan. "The technology exists. The skilled trades exist. What does not exist, for most Mainers, is the upfront capital."
It concludes that "it is long past time to hearken back to the legacy of the New Deal, to unlock American ingenuity and work ethic to rise to our energy challenges."
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'Terrifying Moment in Our Democracy': Virginia Supreme Court Rejects Voter-Approved Redistricting
"Unlike GOP-led states that redrew their congressional maps in backroom deals, Virginia let the people decide," said Sen. Tim Kaine. "But the Virginia Supreme Court has blocked the people's choice."
May 08, 2026
Virginia, one of two states that combated President Donald Trump's gerrymandering campaign by enacting voter-approved congressional districts favoring Democrats, had its new map struck down by the state Supreme Court on Friday.
"On March 6, 2026, the General Assembly of Virginia submitted to Virginia voters a proposed constitutional amendment that authorizes partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts in the commonwealth," notes the court opinion. Voters narrowly approved the proposal, 51.7% to 48.3% last month.
However, the state's high court found that "the legislative process employed to advance this proposal violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia. This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy."
Responding in a Friday statement, Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Don Scott (D-88) said that "we respect the decision of the Supreme Court," while also celebrating that so many Virginians turned to the ballot box to "fight back against the Trump power grab" and pledging to keep up the battle "for a democracy where voters—not politicians—have the final say."
Some leading Democrats were more critical of the Republican-majority state court, which Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said "has chosen to put politics over the rule of law" with a decision that "silences the voices of the millions of Virginians who cast their ballots in every corner of the commonwealth, and... fuels the growing fears across our nation about the state of our democracy."
"Before the court, my office clearly laid out both in filings and oral arguments that this constitutional amendment process and voter ratification occurred in a timely, constitutionally compliant, and legally sound manner," he continued. The court "contorted the plain language of the constitution and code of Virginia to give it a meaning that was never intended, which allowed them to reach the wrong legal conclusion that fit their political agenda. The consequences of their error are grave."
"This court's ruling follows a dangerous trend of tilting power away from the people," Jones added. "My team is carefully reviewing this unprecedented order, and we are evaluating every legal pathway forward to defend the will of the people and protect the integrity of Virginia's elections."
Denouncing the decision as "outrageous and unconscionable," Congressman Eugene Vindman (D-Va.) said that "at the heart of our democracy is the principle that the results of elections ought to be respected, and the Virginia Supreme Court today dealt our democracy a terrible blow."
MoveOn Political Action's chief communications officer, Joel Payne, also called out the court for "silencing and invalidating the votes of 3 million Virginians," the majority of whom "voted to level the playing field against Republican efforts to avoid accountability at the ballot box."
"Once again, the courts have blunted the will of the people, and are giving a green light to President Trump and Republicans’ unprecedented power grab in the midterms," said Payne, whose group had endorsed Virginia's ballot measure.
US Tim Kaine (D-Va.) isn't up for reelection this cycle, but he still stressed the importance of convincing voters to support Democrats, no matter what their congressional maps look like, in the November midterms. As he put it: "Unlike GOP-led states that redrew their congressional maps in backroom deals, Virginia let the people decide. But the Virginia Supreme Court has blocked the people's choice. So we have to campaign and win on their maps. We can do it!"
California is the other state where voters approved a new map for the US House of Representatives in response to Trump pushing Republican leaders in Texas, Missouri, and Florida to redraw districts to help the GOP in the next election. As in Virginia, California's redistricting is being challenged in court. There have also been recent changes to political lines in Ohio and Utah that could help influence control of Congress.
The 4-3 ruling in Virginia—which election expert Dave Wasserman noted is an "enormous setback for Dems" who had hoped to pick up four seats—came just hours after Tennessee Republicans passed a new map targeting the state's only majority-Black district, despite objections in Memphis and across the state. Their move followed the US Supreme Court ruling that gutted the remnants of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) last week, which also led to an ongoing fight over a primary in Louisiana.
Human rights attorney and former Illinois congressional candidate Qasim Rashid said Friday: "So to be sure, US Supreme Court says red states can ignore the will of the people and gerrymander their districts 9-0 in favor of MAGA Republicans. But VA Supreme Court says blue states cannot put the vote to the will of the people and follow through on the people's vote to redistrict."
"Once again, gerrymandering that centers white people is A-OK, but gerrymandering that centers a broad base of voters is not," he added. "Absurd."
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‘An Almost Unthinkable Threat’: Trump Warning That Iran Will ‘Glow’ Sparks Latest Fears of Nuclear Attack
“It again raises urgent questions: Is this president fit to lead and make consequential decisions that impact countless lives?” said the National Iranian-American Council.
May 08, 2026
As he struggles to force Iran’s capitulation, US President Donald Trump issued what seemed to be yet another threat to commit an act of mass destruction against the country through nuclear warfare.
When negotiations have faltered in recent weeks, Trump has on multiple occasions defaulted to genocidal threats—including that the “whole civilization” of Iran would “die,” and that the whole country would be “blown up"—which have only seemed to anger and galvanize his Iranian adversaries rather than make them quake with fear.
While the Trump administration has continued to insist that the ceasefire with Iran was still in effect, the two countries have exchanged significant fire this week.
On Thursday, the US launched what it said were "self-defense" strikes on military facilities it claimed were responsible for attempting to attack three US Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran called the attacks a violation of the ceasefire and said its attacks on US ships were in response to American bombings of Iranian oil tankers the previous day.
Trump told reporters on Thursday that if the ceasefire were truly over, everyone would know. "If there's no ceasefire, you're just going to have to look at one big glow coming out of Iran," he said. "They'd better sign the agreement fast… If they don’t sign, they’re going to have a lot of pain.”
To many observers, this sounded like a threat from Trump to carry out a nuclear holocaust, though it could also be a redux of Trump's threats to attack civilian energy infrastructure, which would still be a war crime.
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, the editor-in-chief of Responsible Statecraft, noted that if it were indeed a nuclear threat, it would be "ironic since the war today supposedly is to prevent Iran from getting... a nuclear weapon."
The National Iranian-American Council (NIAC) said that “threatening to make Iran glow—with nuclear weapons or otherwise—is an almost unthinkable threat to commit a mass war crime against 92 million people. It must never be normalized.”
“It again raises urgent questions: Is this president fit to lead and make consequential decisions that impact countless lives?” the group said. “Would the chain of command refuse unlawful orders to make Iran ‘glow,’ killing millions of people?”
Trump's pledge to wipe out Iranian civilization last month drew widespread condemnation and led dozens of Democratic members of Congress to call for his Cabinet to remove him from office using the powers of the 25th Amendment.
“Our leaders need to interrogate these questions seriously, and not write them off as the ramblings of a madman,” NIAC said. “Trump is the president, and may seek to act on these horrible, contemptible threats. This war needs to end, and so [does] Trump’s horrific threatening of war crimes.”
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