Spring ‘21: Evolving Law
To Plant a Seed:
THE RAPIDLY GROWING
CANNABIS INDUSTRY by CHAD BLACKHAM
Despite cannabis remaining illegal under federal law and being classified as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, U.S. legal cannabis sales exceeded $15 billion in 2020 alone, and the industry has already created 300,000 new jobs in the U.S. Given the continuing federal prohibition of cannabis, a natural question arises: “how can a new, federally illegal industry emerge so quickly?”
The first notable piece of legislative reform occurred when California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996, making California the first state in the union to permit the use of medical cannabis. Since then, 35 states, including Ohio, have enacted similar laws or legalized recreational cannabis use. Despite being a Schedule I drug, recent years have seen the federal government largely adopting a policy of nonintervention with regard to state cannabis regimes. During the Obama administration, Deputy Attorneys General David Ogden and James Cole promulgated a department-wide policy of non-interference with
The cannabis industry’s growth is also notable in that it reverses a nearly century-long trend in American culture of stigmatizing cannabis usage, both politically and socially. As a consequence, the industry is also more tightly regulated than most and faces unique hurdles pertaining to compliance. 46 | Columbus Bar L aw yers Quarterly Spring 2021
