Marijuana

NY Times - More than two-thirds of Americans think the United States should legalize marijuana. Support has grown consistently in the last few decades, and there’s no reason to think it will wane anytime soon. And yet efforts to legalize the drug have largely been limited to state governments — 24 of which (plus Washington, D.C.) have made recreational use legal. On the federal side, there have been only very modest policy moves by the last few administrations when it comes to cannabis. Now, finally — as the contributing Opinion writer Maia Szalavitz writes in a guest essay published today — the Biden administration has taken the biggest step yet toward a more common-sense policy on marijuana. On May 16, the Justice Department announced it would move forward with reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug, from its long status as Schedule I. Though this won’t make the drug legal in the eyes of the federal government, it does open up more opportunities for researching the medical benefits of it, and for more open business in states where it’s already legal to use.It’s not legalization, but it’s a start. In her essay, Szalavitz makes a convincing case for why this is an important opportunity not just to consider the federal legalization of marijuana but also, more importantly, to think about how we intend to regulate it.