Legalization of Marijuana?... Not Yet
- Jacob Singer
- Feb 20, 2019
- 3 min read
Jacob Singer
The midterm election of 2018 was one for the history books. Yet, beyond the Democrats taking a majority in the house, 3 new states voted in favor of legalizing medicinal or recreational marijuana. With the recent ballot measures being approved, it brings the total amount of states that have medical or recreational marijuana legalized up to 33 states.
With this new shift in opinion toward what the Federal Government calls a “schedule 1” drug, it would be reasonable to assume that the federal government will start to reconsider the current laws on marijuana. Yet, for years no research or any medical studies have been conducted by the Federal Government to discover the true effects of marijuana. But what is surprising is that two years ago, federal research was approved to test for the medical effects of marijuana and nothing has been started. While it might seem surprising, the public sector has been historically slow in assimilation into new norms.
Two years ago, the Drug Enforcement Administration had a medical research study on marijuana federally approved. Right away they started to receive applicants to conduct the research, but to this day no progress has been made. According to Sadie Gurman of the Wall Street Journal, there have been 26 applicants in the past two years, none of which has been accepted or denied, instead have been left waiting. The fault lies with the Department of Justice. For the DEA to accept an applicant for the research, the Justice Department must approve them first. With Jeff Sessions leading the department up until a few weeks ago, the department has not even looked at the applicants. Since Session has now left the post, “applicants are worried that the research process will be further slowed” (Gurman).
Innovation in the Federal Government has never been a fast process. The main reason for that and the leading cause of this stall from the Department of Justice is politics. The Federal Government, especially the agencies and departments, have become a war zone for politics. Each party wants to kill what the other party created while in power. Even though high officials in the Department are against the idea of legalized marijuana, Senators Orrin Hatch(R) and Kamala Harris(D) have urged officials to at least act on the applications.
Aside from consumers, federal legalization of marijuana or an increase in federal regulation on the issue will greatly help large businesses in the industry. There is currently no national market for marijuana due to the lack of federal laws and regulations which discourages business to expand to multiple states. The difficulty of establishing a multi-state business lies in the issues with banking, shipping across state lines, and tax burdens.
Larger marijuana companies would greatly benefit if there was one set of laws to follow instead of each state having their own. While this would benefit larger companies, it would threaten the smaller marijuana businesses. Federal regulation on marijuana will allow for the creation of large marijuana businesses that can expand into every state and will be a large source of competition for smaller single state stores. Furthermore, due to marijuana currently being such a limited industry, federal regulation could create monopolies in the industry. Once federal regulation is put into place, large companies will move into the market and wipe away smaller businesses, costing people jobs and costing states tax revenue.
Looking torward to the next few years, it will be interesting to watch the Justice Department as they decide whether to choose an applicant to begin marijuana research. With political ideology and protection of small business at stake, whatever decision that is made will be a tough one.
Sources
Gurman, Sadie. “Marijuana-Research Applications Go Nowhere at Justice Department.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 8 Sept. 2018, www.wsj.com/articles/marijuana-research-applications-go-nowhere-at-justice-department-1536404401.
Joseph, Andrew. “DEA Wanted New Suppliers of Marijuana for Research. Nothing Has Changed.” STAT, STAT, 26 July 2018, www.statnews.com/2018/07/27/dea-new-marijuana-suppliers-for-research/.
Lopez, German. “Marijuana Is Illegal under Federal Law Even in States That Legalize It.” Vox.com, Vox Media, 14 Nov. 2018, www.vox.com/identities/2018/8/20/17938372/marijuana-legalization-federal-prohibition-drug-scheduling-system.
Zapotosky, Matt, and Devlin Barrett. “Justice Department at Odds with DEA on Marijuana Research, MS-13.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 15 Aug. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-department-at-odds-with-dea-on-marijuana-research-ms-13/2017/08/15/ffa12cd4-7eb9-11e7-a669-b400c5c7e1cc_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.034c311cf36b.
Brochstein, Alan. “6 Multi-State Medical Cannabis Companies to Watch in 2017.” New Cannabis Ventures, 27 Apr. 2018, www.newcannabisventures.com/6-multi-state-medical-cannabis-companies-to-watch-in-2017/.
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