Following roughly two straight decades of political progress for cannabis in the United States – with nary an election cycle seeming to pass without a statewide marijuana ballot measure winning somewhere in the country – activists now must pivot from opening up new markets to maintaining the legal ones already won.
Case in point: The Marijuana Policy Project sent an email to supporters on Friday pleading for donations to fight at least five high-profile attempts in different states to impose new restrictions on cannabis companies or to otherwise roll back political victories won by the broader legalization movement.
“After years of hard-fought victories to decriminalize and legalize medical and adult-use cannabis, we’re now seeing a troubling surge of attempts to overturn the will of the people and roll back reforms in multiple states,” MPP wrote to supporters.
The national nonprofit, which has spearheaded marijuana political campaigns since its founding almost 30 years ago, cited five legislative bills currently under consideration in Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Nebraska and South Dakota as “just a handful of the numerous troubling legislative developments” that have popped up in statehouses in recent years.
In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer threw her weight behind a plan to raise cannabis taxes, which industry insiders argue would decimate the trade.
In Montana, lawmakers are considering a bill that would establish a new $200-per-year fee for individuals who want to legally purchase and possess marijuana.
In Nebraska, which just legalized medical marijuana, cannabis opponents introduced a bill to prohibit both smokable flower and THC-infused edibles.
In Ohio, lawmakers have a bill before them to raise cannabis tax rates and cap product potency, which industry members again say would be a major hurdle.
And in South Dakota, lawmakers introduced a bill to repeal the entire medical marijuana industry, which was legalized in 2020 via ballot measure.
Those are far from the only such examples across the country that marijuana proponents are busy fending off. And the trend underscores the political reality that not only has marijuana legalization not been accomplished, but that all of the progress made since 1996 – when California became the first state to give medical marijuana the legal thumbs up – could still be in jeopardy.
The political backlash has been fueled in large part by the burgeoning intoxicating hemp industry, which generally operates without any of the state-level guardrails that have been established to keep marijuana businesses in check.
What that means is political engagement isn’t just a leisure time activity for industry members. Rather, it could be fundamental to the survival of every single cannabis company in the United States, especially since many live and die by state or even municipal regulations, which are far easier to change than federal law.
At least five states are currently considering significant changes that could hamper their legal industries. Read More
