The US cannabis industry has a troubled past. Federal law still classifies it as a schedule 1 substance, meaning it has a high potential for abuse and no recognized medicinal purpose, even in 2023. Drug prohibition was one of President Richard Nixon’s top goals in 1969, and as a result, the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which established a drug scheduling system, was passed.
Congress at the time opposed Nixon and his attorney general John Mitchell’s decision to list marijuana as a schedule one substance. They established the Shafer Commission, whose job it was to research marijuana and present a report, in an effort to persuade them. However,
The commission’s conclusions, which were based on a two-year study of marijuana users, found that the substance did not have the adverse consequences that were feared, such as decreased motivation or increased violence. However, Nixon and Mitchell added marijuana to the same Schedule One narcotic list as heroin, LSD, and ecstasy.
The Shafer Commission’s report was widely publicized and received attention. Between 1973 and 1978, a dozen states decriminalized marijuana, thus making possession of up to an ounce of the drug the same as a parking infraction. This was made possible by activists who took it upon themselves to advocate for the decriminalization of the substance at the state level. Decriminalization, however, came to an abrupt end in 1978 as a result of parental resistance.
In the late 1990s the attitude of the general population about marijuana usage started to change. For the first time in history of USA California become first state to legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes in the year 1996, while Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana for adult-use purposes for the first time in 2012. Just six states (Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Wyoming) currently see marijuana use as completely illegal in their state, despite a significant movement in public opinion in favour of decriminalizing and legalizing the substance. The remaining states have either legalized marijuana for adult recreational use or medicinal usage.
The contradiction between federal and state regulations still presents difficulties for cannabis enterprises that are lawfully functioning at the state level, despite shifting attitudes and legal frameworks. The inability to get loans and have access to banking services is one of the main problems facing companies. Federal law still views anybody operating a cannabis company that complies with state regulations as a criminal. This implies that banks, especially those that are state-chartered, run the possibility of federal authorities finding that the financial institutions are breaking the legislation against money laundering. As a consequence, multimillion dollar industry is forced to run as mostly cash-only operations.
The Justice Department’s 2013 release of the Cole Memorandum, often known as the Cole Memorandum, was a key turning point for the cannabis business. The memorandum established a list of requirements for states running recreational and medicinal cannabis programs, including avoiding product diversion to the illicit market and guarding against access by minors and other vulnerable groups. Did you know the Department of Justice has a policy under which it would not enforce the federal marijuana laws in states that could achieve these requirements.
In January 2018 the Attorney General Jeff Sessions revoked the Cole Memorandum, during that time President of US was Donald Trump. Due to revocation every single U.S. attorney in every state still adheres to the Cole memorandum’s criteria years after it was repealed because it was a sensible policy and it was impractical to enforce federal law in the manner that Trump administration officials had promised to do.
President Joseph Biden is now 2023 working on measures to change American marijuana legislation. It’s fascinating to note that the US federal government saw the potential of marijuana already in 1998 and sought for a patent, which it eventually got in 2003.
