Earlier this week, Election Day delivered several storylines for the cannabis industry. One of those narratives included the 73% of voters in Philadelphia, who cast their support for Question 1, a non-binding city charter amendment that called on the Pennsylvania Republican-controlled Legislature and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf to pass a law decriminalizing, regulating and taxing the sale of adult-use cannabis.
Pennsylvania is one of the states we’re watching for legalization next year. Three bills are on the table, each one offering a slightly different twist on reform.
The will of Philadelphia voters this week was echoed in a new Gallup Poll released Thursday that saw 68% of Americans supporting cannabis legalization.
Those margins of support aren’t necessarily new. Cannabis legalization has been one of the most popular political platforms for several years now, and the wave of medical and adult-use markets coming online bears out that truth. But the sheer landslide-level figures of these polls show that the momentum isn’t slowing down—if anything, it’s picking up speed.
This week, too, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a new report that shines a light on the different ways President Joe Biden could unilaterally grant the wishes of the electorate. The report focuses its aim on executive orders urging action from conciliatory agency officials, like those running the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration. (The FDA remains without a formally appointed commissioner.)
Will Biden take the CRS up on this gambit? Crazier things have happened.
- Eric Sandy, Digital Editor
