The Uncertain Future of Legal Marijuana

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The same election that gave us President Trump also saw four more states legalize recreational marijuana and another four state decriminalize medical marijuana. While those facts may seem unconnected, they aren’t: Trump’s pick for Attorney General, Senator Jeff Sessions, has a long record of treating marijuana use like the worst possible crime. He is an outspoken opponent of any legalization or decriminalization of the drug, and that has people in the 63 percent of the country with some form of legalized cannabis concerned.

Now that Sessions has been confirmed by a Senate committee, and his approval by the Senate at large seems likely, he has some serious hurdles to overcome in order to go after legal marijuana. Suing all the states that have legalized the drug would be a huge and perhaps impossible task. But he could go after them one at a time, which would make the process easier, but still time-consuming and expensive.

But there is also growing Congressional support for legal marijuana, with the official announcement of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus expected early in the new legislative session. The caucus’s goal, is to maintain legalized marijuana in the states where it is already legal, and to help reform the industry, because there are problems with it.

Headed by California representative Dana Rohrabacher and Oregon representative Earl Blumenauer, the caucus has been unofficially announced but hasn’t yet met. Seattle Congressman Adam Smith also intends to join the caucus, and representatives from both sides of the aisle have expressed an interest in being involved.

There are signs that legal marijuana is gaining acceptance in Congress. The Rohrbacher-Farr amendment, a budgetary amendment that prevents the Department of Justice from spending money to interfere with state medical cannabis laws, was first introduced in 2003. It passed for the first time in 2014, and got even more support in 2015.

Marijuana is a growing industry that is already contributing to the economies of states like Washington, Colorado, and Oregon, where it has been legal for a few years now.

“We need Congress to do everything we can to try to protect states’ rights,” Smith told The Stranger. “I am concerned [about] Sessions in particular, given what he thinks—there is certainly concern with what Sessions could do.”

The next few years could be an intense fight over legalization, something that the bulk of Americans seem to either support or just not care about. With increasing acceptance among the people and elected officials, it seems like going after legal marijuana would be a waste of time, if not a political mistake, but only time will tell.