Imagine an alternate universe in which drug lord Pablo Escobar, aka “The King of Cocaine,” had been publicly contributing to U.S. politicians and political campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s. The very same politicians and campaigns that may have been sympathetic to legalizing cocaine and related business interests at the federal level.
You’d automatically think, “Hey, that’s illegal!”
Now swap out Escobar for some of the largest organizations and trade associations in the marijuana business and his white piles of cocaine for bushels of little green marijuana buds.
The conclusion should be the same. Namely, if it’s illegal for a cocaine distributor to hire a Washington, D.C., lobbyist and make contributions to politicians or their PACs on a federal level in order to advance legislation that would make what they are doing legal, then it should be equally illegal for the marijuana industry to do so.
In fact, it would be money laundering—possibly even bribery. Those in the industry refer to funneling illicit marijuana money through political donations to sanitize its shady origins as “weed–washing.” According to the Money Laundering Control Act of 1986, money laundering is defined as a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. § 1956 and 1957, as it involves knowingly using or attempting to use financial transactions to move, finance, or report illicit funds.
Those last two words, illicitfunds, are the important ones. This includes transactions that involve property derived from unlawful activities, such as selling controlled substances such as drugs. After all, until there exists a federally compliant marijuana enterprise, marijuana is still classified as a Schedule 1 prohibited substance at the federal level — the same classification given to drugs such as heroin, LSD, bath salts, and even peyote.
Contributions such as these also violate campaign finance rules, as campaigns are clearly prohibited from accepting contributions from certain types of organizations and individuals. Namely, illegal ones. Considering that the marijuana black market is still responsible for 70-80% of all marijuana sold in legalized states such as California, where marijuana was decriminalized in 2018, there’s no way to guarantee the money is even clean at the state level.
Large marijuana-focused cannabis companies such as Cresco Labs, Trulieve, and marijuana trade associations, including the National Cannabis Roundtable and U.S. Cannabis Council, have repeatedly lobbied and donated at the federal level without consequences. According to OpenSecrets.org, the National Cannabis Roundtable has spent $311,000 in Lobby expenditures so far in 2024, the U.S. Cannabis Council $250,000, while Cresco Labs is at $820,000 for the year and is well on its way to surpassing its 2023 spend of $920,000. Collectively, the industry has contributed millions of dollars to federal politicians — including the current Democratic Presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Despite the clear illegality of “weed-washing,” federal politicians seem to completely overlook these serious federal offenses. Violations of the federal money laundering statute usually result in severe penalties, including fines of up to $500,000 and possibly 20 years in federal prison, while corporations face similar fines and additional civil penalties. While one man was convicted of “weed-washing” several million dollars in 2023, none of these legal consequences seem to apply to the larger marijuana industry giants.
This begs the question — if Pablo Escobar were alive today and tried doing this with money made from his cocaine business, how quickly do you think the feds would prosecute the illegality of these actions and call a crime a crime?
One wonders what will happen when the enforcement of campaign finance and lobbying rules shines an uncomfortable spotlight on the politicians who have carelessly waded into the murky waters of the marijuana industry without a thought to the possibility of threats lurking just below the surface.
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Perhaps politicians merely considered the existence of the more frightening-looking cocaine sharks and dismissed, out-of-hand, the less obvious but equally dangerous creatures in the drug-filled waters.
Only time will tell.
Tiffany Marie Brannon is a political strategist and the writer and host of the TMB Problems podcast.
Politicians are benefitting from so-called “weed washing,” which involves Marijuana companies funding political campaigns without federal legal ramifications. Read More