Medical marijuana is legal by prescription in 29 states, and legal for recreational use in eight more, in spite the fact that the federal government considers marijuana to be a more dangerous and less effective drug than cocaine, oxycodone, or methamphetamine. Federal rigidity on marijuana is holding back an industry that could have tremendous financial value.
Although experts estimate that marijuana is a $10 billion untapped industry, with potential to boom to $31 billion by 2021, research on cannabinoids is currently limited, due federal restrictions. The National Institute on Drug Abuse allows only one legal facility for cultivating marijuana for research purposes, located at the University of Mississippi. Furthermore, the Department of Justice has been inconsistent in enforcing its policies at the local level, which creates additional complications. While Attorney General Jeff Sessions remains opposed to marijuana, the general consensus among experts is that the trend towards marijuana legalization nationwide will continue to gain momentum. Still, complete federal legalization right now seems unlikely, in spite of popular support at the state level.
At the start of Trump's presidency, the DOJ's bipartisan Cole Memo curbed spending of departmental resources on enforcing federal marijuana law in states where the drug was legal. Sessions later rescinded this memo, leading some to fear the administration would interfere with state regulations. Nonetheless, the direct effects of rescinding this policy are still unclear, due to the variable judgment of individual federal prosecutors. Some federal prosecutors in states like California and Colorado have vowed to operate as they did prior to the rescinding of the Cole Memo, but regulators in Massachusetts have adopted the Trump administration's position. A uniform reaction nationwide seems unlikely. Predictions or descriptions of any kind of forthcoming reaction to the policy shift will be difficult to measure.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), too, has undergone one policy change recently. In August 2016, towards the end of the Obama presidency, it decided to grant new licenses for those who wished to grow research-grade marijuana. But bureaucratic processes are still very slow, and certain applications filed two years ago have still not yielded any outcomes.
Certain pro-marijuana individuals retain their faith in marijuana's potential to do more good than harm, if it were to be released into the mainstream as a medicine. However, before that can become a reality, researchers must be able to conduct more FDA-approved studies than the current regulations will allow.
The percentage of Americans who are pro-marijuana legalization rises each year. In 2017, this percentage exceeded 60%, and 94% of all Americans are in favor of medical marijuana. Marijuana advocates in the States have successful marijuana research projects in countries like Canada, the Netherlands, and Israel to point to. Marijuana advocates see these projects as opportunities to reduce the cost of health-care, create business, and add jobs to the economy. These advocates also tend to point out the highly manageable nature of widespread cannabis research and use, and cite that it is a safer drug than most current pharmaceuticals on the market today.