The Debate

Is Legal Pot Only Good for Business?

marijuana that should give us pause. Today’s weed is often 10 times stronger than the stuff of 20 or 30 years ago. More and more mental health problems are linked to today’s high-potency marijuana—a British study finds schizophrenia risk quintuples among regular users.

This tells me we need a policy of discouragement and treatment—not glamorization and commercialization.

But as a former Obama appointee, I can’t think of something less progressive than what has gone on in legalized states today.

Take Illinois, for example. They tried to prioritize people of color in the marijuana license process. The result? Only 3 percent of the applicants made the first cut, including someone being paid $4 million through mega-firm KPMG to grade the actual applicants. Perhaps he will sell one of the products made by marijuana giant Cronos, who just hired a former Big Pharma exec to lead its company. Or perhaps he will sell some of Big Tobacco’s pot products—after all, Altria Philip Morris has put more than $2 billion into the pot industry. Not much social justice-ing going on. To make matters worse, some in Congress want to double down on these policies. With wildfires raging in the West, an out-of-control pandemic and unprecedented economic hardships, leadership in Congress has scheduled a vote on the MORE Act, which would federally legalize and commercialize marijuana.

“Altria Philip Morris has put more than $2 billion into the pot industry.”