The legalization of cannabis at the federal level will not take place in the foreseeable future

Ever since California passed the Compassionate Use Act in 1996, there have always been people who insist that state legalization is just around the corner. As more states decriminalized and then regulated cannabis, the number of people who believe that state legalization is imminent has grown exponentially.

When Joe Biden recently won the presidency, it seemed a foregone conclusion in many quarters that cannabis be removed from the Controlled Substances Act. These beliefs were fueled in large part by the myriad of bills in the limbo of Congress that would have done anything from decriminalizing to fully legalizing cannabis.

Of course, none of this actually happened. And it’s not going to be that fast. While I hate being a pessimist, for now this is just the reality (as I said before the 2020 elections). Today I explain why.

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First and foremost, it shouldn’t have surprised anyone that President Biden didn’t care about cannabis. When we rated Biden for cannabis well before the 2020 election, we gave him a D. Even Trump got a D +. And in the year or so since the 2020 election, Biden has made it pretty clear that he has no intention of moving forward on the cannabis issue – his White House has even cleaned up employees who had previously used cannabis.

Second, none of the proposed cannabis laws has made great strides in the period since the 2020 elections. And even if the legislation makes it through the House of Representatives, it still has to settle the Senate, where the Democrats have a de facto majority, largely dependent on the vote of a West Virginia man who appears to be breaking with the Democrats, whenever he can.

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Third, while it is possible for some Republicans to vote for (or even introduce) a cannabis law, the opposition can even come from the Democrats. Yes, you read that right. Powerful voices within the Democratic Party, such as Senator Cory Booker, have stated that they will not support federal laws that do not contain comprehensive social justice reforms. One bill that is going through the House but does not have the full support of all Democrats is DOA. On the other hand, if such a bill includes the sweeping social justice reforms called for by progressive Democrats, there’s a pretty good chance zero Republicans would support it.

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Fourth, we can now almost expect the Democrats to lose one or both houses of Congress next year. Her majority in the House of Representatives is small and in the Senate is based only on Vice President Kamala Harris being able to cast a tie vote. We have just seen state and local elections across the country where the Democrats were largely swept away. Most notably, a Republican won the Virginia gubernatorial race without tight margins. Progressive local candidates lost to moderate Democrats and even Republicans everywhere. And even in New Jersey, where Democrat Phil Murphy managed to keep his governor job, it was an extremely close race.

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All of this means that if the Democrats fail to change what appears to be a major political change, they will lose the Senate and probably even the House of Representatives. This would practically guarantee that cannabis legalization would not take place for at least a few more years.

I am not saying that legalization is impossible. There are still many people who think that this can happen without an act of Congress. But possibilities and probabilities are two very different stories. With COVID-19, taxes, school problems etc. I just don’t see the Biden administration prioritizing cannabis problems. And if the Democrats lose one of the Houses of Congress, that ship will officially have left.

I’ve been wrong in the past and I hope I’m wrong on this point. But unfortunately I don’t think so.

Griffen Thorne is an attorney with Harris Bricken, a law firm with attorneys in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Barcelona, ​​and Beijing.

This story was originally published on the Canna Law Blog and was republished with permission.