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Home Health and Social Policy How Progressives Went to Pot
11

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HOW PROGRESSIVES WENT TO POT

In libertarian America, causes like legalizing weed are the easy part. Reforms
to constrain capitalism or enlarge social solidarity are far harder—and far more
essential.

by Robert Kuttner

January 16, 2024

5:15 AM

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Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo

Nikko Griffin, left, and Tyra Patterson urge Ohio voters to legalize
recreational marijuana, in the parking lot of the Hamilton County Board of
Elections during early in-person voting in Cincinnati, November 2, 2023.



An FDA report, which the government tried to cover up, has just attested to what
everyone has known for decades. Marijuana has a variety of valuable medical
uses. Yet because it is not quite legal, it is not federally approved for
medical purposes except under stringent restrictions, and it is still classified
in federal law as a Schedule I drug, a category for drugs with no medical uses
and a high potential for abuse.

But the FDA, in a report released last Friday, found that marijuana does have
important medical uses and that abuses are “less common and less harmful” than
with other abused drugs. The Department of Health and Human Services proposed
that it be revised to Schedule III, with other prescription drugs. However, the
Drug Enforcement Administration is still stuck in the Reefer Madness era, when
marijuana was viewed as a highly dangerous “gateway drug.” The DEA has opposed
reclassification.

That’s why the August report was kept secret until now. It took a Freedom of
Information request to pry it loose. It remains to be seen how the White House
will reconcile the views of the DEA and FDA. President Biden recently issued
blanket pardons for violations of federal and D.C. law for simple possession and
use of marijuana. Practically nobody goes to jail for using or selling small
amounts of pot nowadays, but marijuana is still in limbo—legal under the laws of
38 states but illegal under federal law.

More from Robert Kuttner



Back in the day, when my tribe was working to expand civil rights, promote
unionized labor, and end the Vietnam War, a young lawyer named Keith Stroup
founded an organization called NORML, the National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws. Several decades later, Stroup has won, sort of.

Meanwhile, our efforts on civil rights have been substantially reversed. The
United States is no longer in Vietnam, except ironically as a trading partner
with the communist regime that won the war. But the U.S. keeps getting entangled
in other police-the-world mishaps. Billionaires rule, as never before. And
cannabis is commercialized.

At the time, I was sympathetic to NORML’s efforts, though it wasn’t a personal
priority. Marijuana was less hazardous than alcohol, but millions of people were
either in jail or risking arrest for possessing or selling small amounts.
(According to the ACLU, there were 8.2 million marijuana arrests between 2001
and 2010.) Yet compared to other more important causes, I couldn’t imagine
dedicating my life to pot legalization, as Stroup has done.

Today’s quasi-legal marijuana is not quite what NORML hoped for. And the news
lately has been filled with contradictory reports about marijuana.

The FDA finally supports legalization. But precisely because marijuana still
exists in a legal limbo, nobody certifies the potency of the weed that is widely
available in the pot shops in states where recreational use is legal, which have
sprouted, well, like weeds. And this, unfortunately, lends credence to the
Reefer Madness view.

The commercial-scale marijuana that is grown for sale today is many times more
powerful than the street weed of my youth. As the THC content of cannabis has
steadily increased and it has been ever easier to get, there are reputable
reports of marijuana triggering psychotic episodes.

> When it comes to marijuana, what we have now is the worst of both worlds:
> unregulated weed being taken over by capitalists, while medical uses are still
> stymied.

Meanwhile, weed has become just one more product for a capitalist system to
exploit. More and more local pot shops are owned by large-scale entrepreneurs,
and several cannabis companies are listed on stock exchanges. And like with
practically every industry in our system, companies have consolidated into
ever-bigger conglomerates. However, unlike alcohol, nobody certifies what’s in
the stuff.

This isn’t quite the world that the hippie promoters of decriminalization were
imagining.



Stroup and NORML are still at it. I sent Stroup an email to ask what he thought
of the far-from-perfect reform that has ensued. I did not hear back.

Let’s face it: In libertarian America, causes that resist government interfering
with our private lives—pot legalization, reproductive rights, the freedom to
love or marry who we want—are pushing on an open door. Causes that require
social spending or limits on capitalist excess are far more arduous to win.

The ’60s were one part social justice and one part sex, drugs, and rock ’n’
roll. Guess which one took over the larger culture?

Indeed, other progressive demands for local control, such as the school reform
movement of that era, have now been captured by libertarian capitalists, as in
the promotion of school vouchers.

When it comes to marijuana, what we have now is the worst of both worlds:
unregulated weed being taken over by capitalists, while medical uses are still
stymied. So let’s do it right. Make recreational and medical use of marijuana
fully legal, and have the FDA certify potency and license sale. And then, could
we please move on to more urgent causes?

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Health & Social Policy cannabis Food and Drug Administration DEA corporate power
Joe Biden


ROBERT KUTTNER

Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and
professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School.

Read more by Robert Kuttner
 * Twitter
 * Website

January 16, 2024

5:15 AM

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