A green wave — Tuesday's election and the future of cannabis reform

Wow.

Even for those who expected a blue wave, Tuesday night was stunning and delivered a monumental shift for the prospects of cannabis reform. We are incredibly excited about the opportunity this presents to end cannabis prohibition once and for all over the next few years. 

Over the coming weeks, we will have major announcements about the new initiatives we are planning to leverage this new political landscape.   

We will also have more detailed analysis in the coming days about key states and how this election changes the playing field. But for now, with the smoke still rising from the meteor that just hit the political landscape, we write to you with a quick overview of where things stand.

At the federal level, as you are no doubt aware, the Dems have taken comfortable control of both the U.S. House and Senate, which could open the door for a de-scheduling bill with legs in the coming cycle, or to a more permanent framework for at least some hemp-derived products. 

There is also potential for movement on the hemp issue in a lame duck session while Republicans remain in control.

In the states, political leadership has either shifted or changed entirely in a reform-friendly direction in a long list of prohibition states including Texas, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Georgia.

In a number of those states, robust hemp-derived cannabinoid markets await congressional action (or inaction) to either extend or further codify some version of the “hemp loophole,” or to allow it to close in December. This would drive millions of people back into the illicit market for their cannabinoids, likely reversing the multi-year downward trend in cannabis arrests in those states.

And while we believe that public health and safety require that these products be better regulated than they have been, we also believe that whatever Congress does, we will have a tremendous opportunity to institute durable legal and regulated cannabinoid markets in those states. 

On the ballot initiative front, Idaho voters soundly rejected HJR 4 by a margin of 66%-34%. HJR4 was an initiative referred to the ballot by the state legislature asking voters to give up their right to reform the state’s drug laws via a future ballot initiative. A 66-34 defeat isn’t just a loss — it’s more of a shellacking. In a state where simple possession carries up to a year in jail and a second offense can become a felony, asking voters to give up their rights to ever fix that was a massive miscalculation. This result could very well open the door to a successful reform initiative in the next cycle, which is something that we hope to explore with allies on the ground there.

And in Massachusetts, in a beating that looked more like a snuff film, voters vehemently rejected Smart Approaches to Marijuana’s direct attack on the existing legal market there, crushing Question 8 by a 75%-25% margin, the most lopsided defeat of any statewide initiative on any ballot in the country.

Thanks so much, Project SAM, for providing the best platform we could ask for to demonstrate that voters overwhelmingly prefer regulation to prohibition. That is going to significantly strengthen our case as we seek to legalize adult-use in currently prohibitionist states in the coming cycle.

We’re going to have much more to say about all of this as we continue to digest these results over the coming days, along with some very exciting announcements in the coming weeks.

Thanks to every one of you who voted in this historic election. The world has changed, and the end of cannabis prohibition has never been closer.

Adam J. Smith
Executive Director