The United States has chosen to regulate the cannabis market with different degrees of public intervention. A style more in line with the individualistic and capitalist values ​​strongly rooted in this society, with a tradition of limited state intervention in the lives of citizens and in the management of public affairs.

The legal and political situation of cannabis in the different states of the US is very varied, despite the fact that the possession and distribution of cannabis is a federal crime under the Controlled Substances Act.

In 10 states the use of cannabis is legal for adults, all of which have previously authorized medicinal cannabis. Washington and Colorado were the pioneer states in regulating it through referendums in 2012, being the first two jurisdictions in the world to do so.

Alaska and Oregon followed in 2014, the year in which cannabis was also legalized in the capital, Washington DC, although shortly afterwards Congress prevented the sale of cannabis in the city.

California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada joined in 2016 and, in early 2018, Vermont became the first state to authorize home possession and cultivation through a law passed in its state Congress.

Other states, while not regulating the adult-use market, have taken important steps toward less punitive cannabis laws. About thirty states have medical cannabis laws. Several have also withdrawn prison sentences for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Each state regulates the particularities of the cannabis market differently, such as domestic cultivation, production and trade licenses, points of sale, cannabis traceability or the taxes that are applied. However, in all cases the regulation adopts a capitalist perspective and minimal interference by administrations in individual decisions.

A trail of legalization that everyone follows

Although it is too early to draw a definitive conclusion, the fact that many states have followed in the footsteps of Washington and Colorado and that none want to go back gives us some idea of ​​the success of these initiatives; initiatives that over time will lead more states to follow in this wake, if Donald Trump does not prevent it while expelling a poor immigrant from the country for eating a cat or a dog.

Currently, cannabis is legal in one in five states, and medical cannabis in three in five. According to a Gallup study from October 2018, 66% of the US population supported the legalization of cannabis use, an opinion that cuts across all regions of the country, age groups and ideological affiliation.

According to the evaluation carried out by the organization Drug Policy Alliance in 2018, states are saving resources, previously invested in enforcing punitive laws against cannabis, now allocating them, for example, in the case of Colorado, to educational programs, school construction or bullying prevention school.

It has also had positive effects on public health, as it allows quality control and traceability of the products consumed. Consumption among younger people and driving under the influence of cannabis, two of the most worrying issues in these processes, do not seem to have increased the statistics in the states where it has been regulated either.

In addition to these positive impacts, the regulation of these markets in the American capitalist context has opened new reflections on the legalization of cannabis and its consequences.

One more rich man poor man story

One of the most relevant has been the inequality in access to the cannabis industry, which is bringing enormous benefits to a new cannabis business class, mostly made up of white men with a comfortable social position, the so-called WASPs. (acronym for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, used to refer to white Americans originating from northern Europe).

In the US, problems are detected in relation to an industry dominated by rich white men (WASP) and difficult access for African Americans and Latinos, the communities most affected by the ban.

It is not precisely the WASP group that has suffered the most from the consequences of punitive policies, quite the opposite, with the African American and Latino population groups of humble origins being the ones that have been most persecuted in a racist and discriminatory manner, so the legalization of cannabis cannot be separated from the injustices committed in the name of the so-called “war on drugs.”

Don Francisco de Quevedo already said it in the 15th century “a powerful knight is a gift of money”. Unfortunately, in this new succulent marijuana market, both recreational and therapeutic, it is the great American priests and investment funds that have been diversifying, for a few years now, their investment portfolios, taking solid positions, both at the national and international. So, as in the whole order of things, the rich are richer and the rest of us may have a little bud so we can make a joint.