“If the industry we created now argues that THC is safe in a dispensary but dangerous in a liquor store, voters and policymakers will reasonably conclude we were never serious.”
By Aaron Smith, Third Rail Advisory
Chris Lindsey and I both spent years at the Marijuana Policy Project before going on to help build the legal cannabis industry. I strongly disagree with the support he voiced in a recent Marijuana Moment op-ed for the pending federal hemp ban, both from a principled policy perspective and as a political strategy.
Start with where we agree: we need parity. Having one set of laws for hemp-derived THC and another for the identical molecule derived from marijuana is untenable and absurd policy. But the answer is not to push one product back into the darkness of prohibition. The cannabis industry should use this moment to advance federal regulations that work for marijuana and hemp alike.
For decades, reformers have made one central case: Cannabis and its active compounds are far safer than alcohol and many over-the-counter drugs, and the law should treat them accordingly. If the industry we created now argues that THC is safe in a dispensary but dangerous in a liquor
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