With the 2020 election all but certain to send 74-year-old President Donald Trump packing, the real question involves how many more states will approve recreational marijuana, a multibillion dollar industry, rapidly generating untold billions in tax revenue. Montana, New Jersey, South Dakota, Arizona and Mississippi, all get their chance today to join 11 other states, including California, Oregon, Washington State, Colorado, etc. to join the ranks of recreational cannabis use. California got the ball rolling Nov. 5, 1996, passing Prop 215 the so-called “Compassionate Use Act,” enabling physicians to writes prescriptions for medical marijuana use. It’s beyond ironic, that most of the underage population in California obtained prescription for marijuana use since there’s no age restriction when it comes to using the drug. Recreational laws require age 21 before legal use.
When you consider it’s 24 years since Prop 215 passed the California ballot process, the state has a lot of experience promoting the widespread use of cannabis products, including smokable, edible and vaporizing products, together with CBD analgesic creams, ointments and elixirs, all which claim medicinal value. Despite fierce opposition from the alcoholic beverage industry, marijuana products have found their nitch on American shelves for better-or-worse. Marijuana users swear by its medicinal and recreational effects, dismissing adverse effects including intoxication, dependence, addiction, toxic reactions like anxiety attacks and paranoia. Chronic marijuana use impacts learning, memory, retention and cognitive functioning in general, not something generally helpful in educational settings. Yet compassionate use laws have been in effect for years in at least 34 states.
Focusing on the presidential election has taken voters eyes off important ballot measures like legalizing recreational marijuana. Marijuana is still classified as a Schedule 2 narcotic buy the Drug Enforcement Agency [DEA]. While states have moved ahead with medical and recreational use laws, the federal government hasn’t changed marijuana on a federal level, still making it illegal. No matter how large the medical and recreational marijuana industries, they’re not allowed to use the national banking system to process transactions. Running a cash-and-carry business makes it far less traceable for local, state and federal authorities. Yet that hasn’t stopped medicinal or recreational weed use from flourishing as profitable businesses. Federal authorities haven’t revised the 1971 Controlled Substances Act, forming the DEA and regulating various drugs currently in use.
When you consider the number of incarcerated prisoners in state and federal prisons for non-violent drug offenses, it makes perfect sense to de-criminalize and legalize cannabis use. Most users don’t consider it a dangerous drug like heroin or cocaine, even though the DEA considers it in the same category. Neither 58-year-old former President Barack Obama nor 74-year-old president Donald Trump initiated changes to the Controlled Substance Act to reclassify marijuana so that business could use the national and international banking systems to run businesses. Keeping marijuana-related businesses cash-and-carry is a detriment to the industry looking for more legitimacy as more states continue to approve medicinal and recreational use. Whether weed has any beneficial effect on medical conditions or a recreational alternative to alcohol is anyone’s guess.
National trends during the recession of states running out of cash have pushed legislature to approve anything the generates more revenue. Colorado and Washington State were among the first states to pass recreational marijuana laws. Collecting $1 billion in Colorado and $400 million in Washington State from tax revenue, legalizing weed has paid big dividends. Whether states are conservative or liberal, there’s no political bias when it comes to cold hard cash. California has 24 years of data proving the medicinal and recreational pot use in the nation’s most populous state has not caused significantly more mishaps. Whether you can measure a loss on standardized test scores for marijuana use would require double-blind studies, studying the effect of marijuana on standardized test performances. While it’s easy to guess that pot use wouldn’t help, only data-driven research can tell the story.
Whatever lingering doubts remain about the dangers-or-risks of chronic or occasional marijuana use, states are only focused today on revenue enhancement. Whether weed contributes to learning problems, juvenile delinquency, car accidents or other types of adult crimes is anyone’s guess. Marijuana’s psycho-active ingredient THC creates dependency, possible addiction and has mood-and-cognitive-altering effects. Common sense should tell legislatures that adding THC to the mix of normal intoxicating chemicals can’t, on balance, be good for the health, safety and well-being of adolescents and adults. At the same time, past criminal laws have been a disaster for the criminal justice system, stockpiling bodies in state prisons costing taxpayers untold millions is also not good for society. For every dollar collected by states on medicinal or recreational pot, they should sponsor research into ifs effects.
