Marijuana After the Election

from September 2020 Print Edition

When Beer Came to Milwaukee

As the country is gearing up for the presidential election in November, the parties’ national conventions give us clues for what to expect for the next few years. That begs the question: What place is reserved for cannabis in each party's electoral promises?

Democratic Party: Everything But Legalization

“Democrats will decriminalize marijuana use and reschedule it through executive action on the federal level. We will support legalization of medical marijuana and believe states should be able to make their own decisions about recreational use. [...] All past criminal convictions for cannabis use should be automatically expunged,” reads the first draft of the 2020 Democratic platform, released ahead of the Democratic National Convention.

By promising not only to free the American nation of the criminalization of marijuana but also to legalize medical use, the Democratic Party adopts a more progressive stance than anything they promised in the past. In its 2016 platform, the party only wanted to deschedule marijuana, which means leaving it up to the states. “Those states that want to decriminalize it or provide access to medical marijuana should be able to do so,” it said. While the 2016 platform suggested to “prioritize prevention and treatment over incarceration whenever possible,” the 2020 one states that “no one should be in prison solely because they use drugs,” period.

The Democrats’ new official stance aligns itself with the one that Joe Biden himself adopted on the campaign trail. Despite being historically a staunch opponent of marijuana, Biden softened his stance amidst soaring public support in favor of reforming the nation’s outdated cannabis prohibition laws. However, he always stopped short of supporting the legalization of marijuana.

Descheduling, decriminalizing, legalizing medical and expunging past offenses, which is what Biden and the party now promise to do, is the next best thing after legalization. If the promises made ahead of the election are kept, lives would no longer be destroyed for possessing cannabis, marijuana dispensaries would be legal everywhere, and the weight of federal oppression would be lifted off the budding cannabis industry. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) estimates that, between 2001 and 2010, there were 7,216,000 arrests just for possession.

According to the Democrats’ plan, there might not be recreational marijuana retail stores in every state, but millions of people would be released from prison or have their records wiped clean, letting them return to regular employment and reclaim lost opportunities. Addressing this criminal justice issue, which is a purulent wart on the face Lady Liberty, is the single most important point of any discussion about cannabis reform.

Republican Party: Nothing at All

In June 2020, the Republican Party voted to reuse their 2016 platform for the 2020 election, reflecting the fact that their candidate will once again be incumbent President Donald Trump. That led to a surprising situation where the official Republican platform includes more than 30 unflattering references to the “current president” and “the current administration,” albeit one assumes that someone in GOP will actually read the document and do some editing before Trump gives his acceptances speech.

The official Republican stance on marijuana remains unchanged from 2016, oblivious to the past four years, which have been formative for the young cannabis industry. Even some Republican lawmakers have come around in favor of marijuana during the past term.

As it stands, the Republican platform deplores the fact that, “in many jurisdictions,

marijuana is virtually legalized despite its illegality under federal law,” which they claim is “eroding the progress made over the last three decades against drug abuse.”

While still only a candidate, Trump actually had a rather progressive stance, espousing a more libertarian laissez-faire attitude towards cannabis. He said he’d support the legalization of medical marijuana if it came to his desk and that states should have the right to decide whether they want recreational or not. But, as most things that Trump promised, there seemed to be no substance behind those views: As President, he did not champion cannabis reform, and his 2021 budget proposal even sought to remove existing protections for state-legal medical marijuana programs.

The momentum in favor of cannabis reform was already present before Trump took office, and it carried on throughout his term. The 2018 Farm Bill, a landmark victory for cannabis advocates, was the first piece of legislation federally legalizing the cannabis plant nationwide. Hemp is cannabis with very low tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content, therefore it’s not psychoactive—but it is indistinguishable from marijuana. Now that hemp is fully legal, it has become far more difficult for law enforcement to arrest small-time pot users, as laboratory tests have often become necessary to determine what is legal hemp and what is illegal marijuana. As a result, marijuana-related arrests took a nosedive in the second half of Trump’s presidency. However, the legalization of hemp would have most likely happened under any other leader.

Congress Is What Matters

Ultimately the composition of Congress will determine whether cannabis will be federally legalized or not.

BASED SOLELY ON EACH PARTY’S PLATFORM, IT SEEMS OBVIOUS THAT DEMOCRATS WOULD SEEK PROGRESS WHILE REPUBLICANS WOULD FIGHT AGAINST IT.

Based solely on each party’s platform, it seems obvious that Democrats would seek progress while Republicans would fight against it. This has already been shown by their respective voting records—most recently on July 30, 2020, when voting on the amendment protecting the states’ rights for legal cannabis programs. The amendment passed the House with 254 votes in favor and 163 against. The extremely partisan nature of the topic cannot be any more obvious: Virtually all Republican representatives voted against it, while virtually all Democrats voted in favor of it. Among Wisconsin representatives, every single Republican voted no, every single Democrat voted yes.

The House of Representatives, since it was retaken by Democrats in 2018, has passed several key pieces of legislation that would have already reformed the nation’s drug laws if they hadn’t been stopped by the Republican-dominated Senate. For instance, the House approved the SAFE Banking Act of 2019, which would allow legal cannabis businesses to access banking and financial services instead of being forced to operate only with cash. As usual with marijuana bills, Senate Majority Leader Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell has denied it a vote in the Senate.

This November, Democrats have a chance to win a Senate majority as well as the White House, which would guarantee that the party could enact significant and long-lasting change. While Senate Republicans would still have tools of obstruction, such as the filibuster, Democrats would be able to fight back if they win a minimum of three Senate seats (plus the vice-president). They have the support of Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer—who would take over McConnell’s role as Senate Majority Leader in the case of a Democratic takeover—both of whom are outspoken supporters of marijuana reform.

On November 3, voters will determine who will get the power to set the agenda for the next four years.

Jean-Gabriel Fernandez is a French journalist and graduate from La Sorbonne University. He writes about politics, cannabis and Milwaukee’s rich culture.