Comedians, cannabis companies push new marijuana legalisation campaign
BIG CANNABIS companies are backing a new, celebrity-infused campaign to enlist marijuana users to pressure members of the United States Congress to legalise pot nationwide.
Federal legalisation has advanced somewhat but still faces strong headwinds on Capitol Hill. The ‘Cannabis in Common’ initiative launched Tuesday aims to change that.
A website makes it easier for supporters email or call their congressional representatives and push for making marijuana legal. State-licensed pot companies also plan to email their customers, put up posters in shops, add information to their apps and otherwise encourage consumers to get involved.
“Legalising cannabis is long past due, and if we make enough noise, we can make it happen,” actor Seth Rogen, co-founder of a cannabis company and enthusiastic user of the drug, says in a kick-off video. Comedian Sarah Silverman voices another, animated promo.
Eighteen states and Washington, DC, have legalised recreational adult use of marijuana and a voterapproved measure in a 19th state, South Dakota, is undergoing a court challenge. More than twothirds of states allow medical marijuana.
But pot remains illegal under federal law to possess, use or sell, so many banks don’t want anything to do with money from the cannabis industry, fearing it could expose them to federal legal trouble.
That conflict has left many legal growers and sellers in a dilemma, shutting them out of everyday financial services like opening a bank account or obtaining a credit card. It also has forced many businesses to operate only in cash, making them ripe targets for crime.
Pro-legalisation groups have mounted state and federal campaigns for years, and advocates are split about “Cannabis in Common”, which isn’t focused on any particular piece of legislation. Organisers say it breaks ground by extensively involving major industry players and mobilising their customers.
“We just feel there’s a larger, untapped group of individuals that we would love to see weigh in,” said Steve Hawkins, CEO of the US Cannabis Council, an industry-led coalition organising the campaign with HeadCount, a voter registration group. The council declined to disclose the cost.
While cannabis companies have done individual lobbying, this new effort “reaches across all the peccadilloes that every weed interest brings to the table” in hopes of getting past the patchwork of state legislation, said Jeremy Unruh, a senior vicepresident of PharmCann Inc, which has dispensaries in six states.
More than two dozen companies have signed on, including the vaping brand Pax and such publicly traded corporations as Canopy Growth, Curaleaf Holdings and Cronos Group.
Some non-profit, prolegalisation groups are joining the effort. But at least one, the Drug Policy Alliance, sees the campaign as overly corporate and not dedicated enough to expunging past marijuana convictions and helping communities and people who have borne the brunt of pot arrests.
“For us, it’s not j ust about getting federal legalisation over the finish line,” says Maritza Perez of the alliance, which convened the non-profit-focused Marijuana Justice Coalition in 2018 to push for legalisation coupled with other reforms. “We have a very specific constituency that we are fighting for, and that’s people who have been impacted by prohibition.”
A proposal to decriminalise marijuana, expunge federal pot convictions and direct pot tax money to communities beleaguered by the “war on drugs” passed the House last year. The measure was reintroduced in this year’s new Congress and recently passed a key committee again.
US President Joe Biden has said he supports decriminalising marijuana and expunging past pot use convictions, but he hasn’t embraced federally legalising the drug.
A Gallup poll released last week found 68 per cent of Americans favour legalisation, including 83 per cent of Democrats, 71 per cent of independents and 50 per cent of Republicans. The survey of 823 adults had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Pointing to such polls, the new campaign casts legalisation as an issue that crosses political divides and has new potential in the Democratic-led Congress.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) in July became the chamber’s first leader to back legalising marijuana, pledging to “make this a priority in the Senate”.
And legalisation advocates hope to have a champion in Vice President Kamala Harris, who said before her election that making pot legal at the federal level is the “smart thing to do”.
But legalisation opponents also think congressional politics are on their side. “It’s still a non-starter,” says Kevin Sabet, a former Obama administration official who now leads a group called Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
It’s not clear that all Senate Democrats would vote for marijuana legalisation, let alone find enough Republican supporters to avoid a filibuster. Congress is otherwise occupied with massive legislation on social services and climate change ahead of next year’s midterm elections.