What Biden means for cannabis

In some ways, cannabis won the 2020 general elections. Legalization measures won with healthy majorities in five separate states. The Biden-Harris platform was also the most progressive on cannabis than any other major party candidate in history. So what should we expect in the next four years?“It’s not going to be as exciting as people hope, unfortunately,” Founder and President of Americans for Safe Access Steph Sherer said on The Cannabis Enigma podcast.It’s not likely that Democrats will have full control of the Congress, without which it would be difficult to enact broad reforms.“There's policies they can change, but as far as legalizing medical cannabis, they're going to need Congress to do that,” Sherer explained, and “even with a Democratic senate majority, that still may be a tough haul.”The vast majority of Americans across the political spectrum support legalizing medical cannabis, polls have shown, and the majority of states have followed suit and legalized it. So why is cannabis still a partisan issue in national politics?Most people don’t vote for cannabis on the national ticket, Sherer said, which makes pressuring representatives on the federal level a difficult task.There is one idea for a major change that advocacy groups are pushing for, however: the creation of an Office of Medical Cannabis, a federal agency to oversee and coordinate medical cannabis policy among all other federal agencies.The Cannabis Enigma podcast is a co-production of The Cannigma and Americans for Safe Access. Edited, mixed, and produced by Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man. Music by Desca.