Yo, what’s good? It’s your boy Dan, and I gotta tell y’all about some crazy sh*t. So, President Biden took some historic actions to “end” the government’s messed up approach to weed right before the midterms last year. He pardoned a bunch of folks for marijuana possession charges and told governors to do the same for state-level offenses. Plus, he told Xavier Becerra, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to get on it and review the scheduling of marijuana under federal law.
But let’s be real, it was mostly just a political move. The administration never really been about weed reformin’, ya know what I’m sayin’? And since then, there ain’t been no public actions taken to change the status of weed under federal law. It’s still listed as a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act, which basically means they think it’s got no medical value and is super addictive or harmful or whatever. Even though they approved that Epodiolex sh*t from the FDA, they still ain’t changin’ their tune on weed.
So, here’s the deal: re-scheduling or de-scheduling weed could have some serious consequences. If they de-schedule it, that means it wouldn’t be illegal under federal law no more. States could decide how to handle it themselves, kinda like how alcohol is regulated. But if they re-schedule it, that just means they’re moving it to a different category under the Controlled Substances Act and adding more regulations and restrictions.
If they move it from Schedule I to Schedule II, that means they recognize it’s got some medical potential but there’s still a lotta hurdles and costs for producers. They might even let big pharma take over and start making Kush Kontrol or some sh*t like that. But some folks don’t want that because it could hurt smaller operators who been in the game for years.
And it ain’t just the government and big pharma who wanna get in on the weed game. The Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) just put out a memo sayin’ it’s time for Congress to legalize and regulate adult-use weed at the federal level. They got these four principles they wanna follow: authorize production and distribution, regulate and approve products, collect taxes, and make sure it’s safe. But they wanna put more of the regulatory power in the government’s hands instead of leaving it up to the states.
So, what does all this mean for us? Well, it means that there could be some big changes comin’ down the pike. Maybe weed will finally be legal across the whole country, or maybe it’ll be even harder to get than before. Ain’t nobody knows for sure what’s gonna happen, but we gotta keep our eyes and ears open. Stay lit, y’all.