The landscape for cannabis in the United States continues to shift on multiple fronts, with recent developments spanning state tax relief, federal enforcement, and congressional roadblocks to reform.
The political rivalry between President Donald Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom has dominated headlines this year, most recently over the issue of congressional redistricting, also known as gerrymandering.
A massive fistfight broke out on the floor of the Mexican Senate on August 27 as lawmakers clashed over whether the United States should step in to confront Mexico’s drug cartels. The chaos in Mexico comes just as President Donald Trump is preparing to make news of his own. With a single announcemen
The Wall Street Journal and CNN reported August 8 that President Donald Trump said privately at a fundraiser that he was open to reclassifying cannabis under federal law, a move that could have far-reaching implications for the legal industry, the illicit market, national drug policy, and electoral
The Texas Senate on August 1 passed a bill that would ban all intoxicating hemp-derived THC products, reviving legislation that Governor Greg Abbott vetoed earlier this summer. The move adds pressure to the Texas House and raises new questions about the future of the state’s fast-expanding and large
When President Richard Nixon told the nation on June 17, 1971, that drug abuse was “public enemy number one,” he formally launched the War on Drugs and cemented cannabis in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
As cannabis use became more common in the late 1970s, the backlash grew even stronger. A political and religious conservative resurgence was underway after years of liberal ascendancy. That wave would soon bring former California Governor Ronald Reagan to the White House.
In the years that followed President Richard Nixon’s crackdown on pot and eventual resignation, state and local governments began to push the envelope to reform cannabis laws.
Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight boxing champion known as “Iron Mike,” is calling on President Donald Trump to make good on a campaign promise to reclassify cannabis under federal law.
This seven-part series chronicles the milestones, backlash, and unintended consequences that have shaped the war on cannabis from the 1960s to the present day.
California’s legal cannabis industry is under mounting pressure, and in early June, state lawmakers and the governor appeared poised to help. A bill to freeze the state’s cannabis excise tax at 15% sailed through the State Assembly with a unanimous 74-0 vote. The governor’s office backed the plan. A
For much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, American physicians freely prescribed cannabis to treat a wide range of ailments. But by the mid-twentieth century, federal officials were laying the groundwork for a sweeping criminal crackdown. Cannabis would ultimately be classified as a Schedu
Cara Brown McCormick
Shawn Griffiths
