marijuana laws

Video 1:

federally weed is still illegal but in individual states it is legal, how can this happen?

shouldnt there be an issue with preemption, the two laws conflict with eachother. Federal law is supreme law so it should overrule state law.

But with cannabis preemption is not the focus. the tenth amendment says the federal government cannot require states to do certain things. or force them or “commandeer’”. the fed government cant force states to arrest cannabis sellers that are following that states personal laws regarding it.

but the state cant block the federal government from punishing people either

but the federal government doesnt have the resources or the will to enforce weed laws rn.

This current situation is very interesting when you keep in mind the controlled subtance act. president nixon signed this act that divided drugs into categories for petential abuse and medical value. He placed weed HIGH on the list next to cocaine, after ignoring doctors findings that the weed is not very dangerous.

the fed government was uncompromising

the states started to decriminalize it due the the shafer report claiming it wasnt very dangerous

then california legalized it medically. colorado and washington first to legalize recreationally/commercially

state law is only preepmted by the csa if it is physically impossible to comply with both state and federal law. marijuana laws have been carefully crafted in order to not directly go against the federal governments law

it is still risky because many day to day activities especially in regards to a business are regulated federally

banks are hesitant to get involved due to the chance of biz getting shut down.

280E says drugs traffickers(technically including marijuana businesses) can not deduct ordinary business expenses from taxes, such as salaries and rent, from taxes

cannabis companies cant take advantage of bankruptcy

Video 2 - is marijuana legalization inevitable in the US?

There is a lot of complicated sentiment surrounding the legalization of marijuana, surprisingly every motion to legalize it passed in the 2020 election

15states and DC have legalized weed for recreational use and 36 permit use for medical reasons

8 republican senators represent weed legalized states

the democratic house of representatives just passed the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement Act or MORE act

it would legalize marijuana federally and put in sweeping reforms

marijuana is one of the few truly bi partisan issues in America right now

wide number of medicinal uses

120-year-old history of recreational use, migrants adopted it as a recreational use, this is an issue because this minority group was being demonized in media. This led to a widespread marijuana ban for non-medical use

the first federal law in 1937 called the Marihuana tax act required anyone growing and selling marijuana to register with the government and pay a small tax

allowed federal government to know everyone involved in the marijuana trade