Nationalize the Weed Industry
Today is 4/20, so we’re indulging in some speculation: What if we didn’t just legalize marijuana but put the cannabis industry under public ownership — and hired the victims of prohibition to run it?
Marijuana is well on its way to federal legalization, but what will the industry look like? (Matteo Paganelli / Unsplash)
“As president,” Joe Biden says in an October 2020 ad his campaign never bothered to remove from YouTube, “I’ll work to reform the criminal justice system, improve community policing, decriminalize marijuana, and automatically expunge prior marijuana convictions.” Looking straight at the camera, he ends the short spot: “I’m Joe Biden, and that’s my commitment to you.”
Biden has been president for well over a year and has yet to make good on his commitment. Nonviolent drug offenders are still getting locked up.
Sooner or later, though, there’s no doubt marijuana will be federally legal. It’s already recreationally legal in eighteen states and medically legal in another thirty-seven. The question I find myself thinking about on this 4/20 is, what kind of legal marijuana industry do we want?
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