The Future of Cannabis Following the Republican Sweep

Written by Deb Tharp, activist and political consultant. 

We were on the cusp of full federal recognition of medical cannabis. So, it comes as no surprise that ultra-conservative politicians are directly undermining efforts to reform federal cannabis policy. Let’s face it, overwhelming public demand for legalization has never been an obstacle for big government prohibitionists.

President Trump has made a campaign promise to leave this up to the states and there’s a strong liberty-focused contingent of the Republican party that supports state legal markets. Still,  I doubt the veracity of President Trump’s promise to leave cannabis reform to the states because we are already facing an all-front attack against cannabis legalization.

• The House Appropriations Committee amended the CJS appropriations bill to block funding for cannabis rescheduling or de-scheduling (Section 623) I checked. It’s still there. How will the Justice Department move rescheduling forward without funding?
• The same committee also added an amendment to allow federal enforcement against state legal cannabis activity that violates 21 U.S.C. 860. To paraphrase, the feds could enforce against any person or business distributing, possessing with intent to distribute, or manufacturing a controlled substance in or on, or within one thousand feet of, a public or private elementary, vocational, or secondary school or a public or private college, junior college, or university, or a playground, or housing facility owned by a public housing authority, or within 100 feet of a public or private youth center, public swimming pool, or video arcade facility. I checked, it’s still there. This definition includes delivering cannabis to private homes near any of these locations. Can you imagine? What about current state legal cannabis businesses that only had a 600 foot buffer zone rather than 1,000?
• SCOTUS has overturned regulatory deference following HHS’s use of a new test for currently acceptable medical use in its cannabis rescheduling recommendation. Conservatives will be interpreting both the ability to reschedule and should they allow it, the regulations for Schedule 3. They have already expressed interest in federal track and trace along with production limits to meet international treaty obligations.
• The House Committee on Agriculture proposed a Farm Bill amendment to redefine hemp in a way that recriminalizes hemp-derived intoxicating cannabinoids. Hemp is probably DOA soon, although rumors of a Massie agricultural appointment may mean there’s still some hope for hemp.

We also have to realize that while President Trump has openly supported cannabis now, his VP isn’t necessarily a fan. Furthermore, President Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, but the Heritage Foundation has called the shots in Republican administrations many times before.

Specifically, for this administration, the Heritage Foundation is recommending that the feds:

• “Use applicable federal laws to bring federal charges against criminals when local jurisdictions wrongfully allow them to evade responsibility for their conduct,” and
• “Where warranted and proper under federal law, initiate legal action against local officials—including District Attorneys—who deny American citizens the ‘equal protection of the laws’ by refusing to prosecute criminal offenses in their jurisdictions.”

The foundation also advised that the feds “revitalize the DOJ’s use of the array of statutory tools that exist for dealing with the threat of criminal organizations.”

Among their recommendations for this “revitalization”:

• “Rigorously prosecute as much interstate drug activity as possible, including simple possession of distributable quantities,” because “recent efforts to create the impression that drug possession crimes are not serious offenses has contributed to the explosion of criminal organization activities in the United States,” and
• “Aggressively deploy the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which Congress expressly created to empower the Department of Justice to treat patterns of intrastate level crimes…” and
• “Use existing tools while it works with Congress to develop new tools.”

There’s absolutely no argument that opiates are the purported target of these recommendations. But cannabis has invariably been caught up in these dragnets. It’s an easy and lucrative enforcement target.