When it comes to marijuana, the drug war is quickly turning into a rout, with prohibition in broad retreat. Look no further than the surrender of the America\u2019s closest geographical neighbors, Mexico and Canada. Both have opened the doors to recreational cannabis in the past year \u2014\u00a0and it\u2019s already having a downstream impact on the U.S.<\/p>\n
The most obvious impact is that it\u2019s getting harder for federal officials to combat the case for legalizing recreational use. Canada was the first G7 country to legalize the plant,\u00a0opening up its market on October 17, 2018<\/a>, and the sky hasn\u2019t fallen in since. Other European countries are also likely to follow suit within the next decade, according to Marijuana Policy Project\u2019s Deputy Director Matt Schweich.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a steadily growing sense among global leaders that marijuana prohibition is a misguided policy,\u201d Schweich says. \u201cCanada and Mexico moving forward certainly increases the pressure on the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n Already 11 states have legalized recreational use, with\u00a0the state of Illinois being the latest<\/a>. It was the second to do so by legislative action,\u00a0following Vermont<\/a>. Previously it had taken ballot initiatives to drag legislators toward the predominant public view.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the odd fact that almost half the states that have changed their cannabis laws share a border with Canada (Michigan, Alaska, Washington, Vermont and Maine). Because their actions predated Canada\u2019s move, it\u2019s possible to consider Canada originally bowed to pressure from U.S. states, but it appears the pendulum could now swing back.<\/p>\n To the south, marijuana use in Mexico resides in a legal gray area. A series of court cases over the past four years culminated in\u00a0a Supreme Court ruling in October<\/a> that sets the stage for legal weed. The court\u2019s ruling determined that Mexicans have a binding right to grow and consume cannabis, and gave the country\u2019s legislature the task of writing the new law. The journey\u2019s not over in Mexico; a legislative fix\u00a0must be produced by October 2019<\/a>\u00a0and that poses its own issues.<\/p>\n In both cases, the policy reversals mark the success of the popular will and the failure of drug prohibition.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat fuels all this debate about drugs in Mexico is exhaustion from the War on Drugs,\u201d says Tony Payan, Director of the Mexico Center of the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. \u201c[Andr\u00e9s Manuel] Lopez Obrador rode that exhaustion to the Mexican presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n Driving the change in Mexico is an odd legal construct called \u201camparo,\u201d which Payan describes as a cross between an injunction and an annulment. It allows any citizen or entity to stop the government from enforcing the law against them, provided they have a proper excuse.<\/p>\n Amparos against prosecution for smoking marijuana for medicinal reasons had succeeded on numerous occasions, but then this summer, actor Gael Garcia Bernal pressed a very public amparo to use recreational marijuana \u2014\u00a0and won<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe court essentially told him he could have one cigarette of marijuana for recreational purposes per day,\u201d Payan chuckles. \u201cThey were very specific.\u201d<\/p>\n However, while the courts have sided against prohibition, a legislative fix could be a long time in coming. First off, Mexico\u2019s President Lopez has many more pressing concerns. Beyond that, Lopez\u2019s political party, Morena, might have trouble moving legalization due to its \u201cFaustian bargain\u201d with the country\u2019s evangelicals.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are not a huge force in Mexico, but they\u2019re substantial and important enough that they can influence policy,\u201d Payan says. \u201cAnd the evangelicals are not likely to approve of this.\u201d<\/p>\n Given the miles Mexico still has to travel on the road to legalization, Schweich feels there\u2019s nearly as much pressure on the U.S. government as from the Southwestern states to legalize cannabis as from Mexico, as\u00a0Texas<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Arizona<\/a>\u00a0increasingly push for legal cannabis.<\/p>\n But Schweich says that U.S. citizens aren\u2019t looking to legalize cannabis just because other countries are doing so.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cResearch tells us that most people want to end marijuana prohibition for other reasons,\u201d says Schweich. \u201cNamely that marijuana prohibition is a waste of law enforcement resources and that marijuana arrests disrupt and even ruin the lives of otherwise law-abiding adults.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, the greatest pressure may not be from other countries or recreational users but commercial concerns as companies struggle with the disconnect between federal and state laws.<\/p>\n \u201cCanadian companies, for example, don\u2019t have to worry so much about issues with banking and taxes, which create headaches for cannabis operators in the U.S.,\u201d Schweich says. \u201cThe inability to deduct business expenses from their tax liability puts a strain on liquid capital and business investments. Federal law also prevents the legal movement of cannabis across state lines. It\u2019s clear that federal law is limiting U.S. cannabis companies\u2019 growth in key ways.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, so much money is pouring into Canada, they can\u2019t even make use of all of it there.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing a lot of U.S.-based companies that are going public in Canada and these Canadian companies are flush with cash. They have more cash than they can reasonably deploy within Canada,\u201d says David Abernathy, vice president for data and government affairs for Arcview, a cannabis consulting firm. \u201cSo they\u2019re looking at international markets. They\u2019re investing in acquiring U.S. companies as well as looking at infrastructure for export to Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth noting that the California recreational market alone\u00a0is larger<\/a>\u00a0than Canada. So it\u2019s easy to overstate the advantage of a head start. However, the regulatory hoops created for American companies can only hinder their efforts as interest in cannabis grows.<\/p>\n \u201cSome U.S. cannabis companies are already operating in multiple states, which potentially gives them greater market access than their Canadian counterparts,\u201d Schweich notes. \u201cBeing able to tap into U.S. consumers could be a decisive factor in which companies end up becoming the dominant players in the global cannabis economy.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong>\u00a0do you think America is leading on cannabis policy?<\/p>\n The post America\u2019s Neighbors Apply Peer Pressure on U.S. Cannabis Policy<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
When it comes to marijuana, the drug war is quickly turning into a rout, with prohibition in broad retreat. Look no further than the surrender of the America\u2019s closest geographical neighbors, Mexico and Canada. Both have opened the doors to recreational cannabis in the past year \u2014\u00a0and it\u2019s already havingContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":349,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,50,687,265,1118,81,356,2951],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37054"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/349"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37055,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37054\/revisions\/37055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: America\u2019s Neighbors Apply Peer Pressure on U.S. Cannabis Policy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"