Changing Tides: Increasing support for marijuana

As of January 1, 2015, 23 states and Washington D.C. have laws legalizing medical marijuana to some degree and 4 states have legalized marijuana for recreational use (Colorado, Washington, Alaska, and Oregon). As you can see, marijuana is becoming more accepted by the nation due to the abundant amount of data supporting its medical benefits. It is interesting to note the increasing number of people who support legalizing marijuana and the declining number of people who oppose its legalization.

Changing Tides

The Democratic and Republican parties may have a difficult time agreeing on issues but both have increased their acceptance of the legalization of marijuana. This will promote the effective legalization of marijuana on a federal level.

On December 11th, 2014, the House of Representatives and Senate reached a bipartisan agreement on a spending bill. One of the provisions in the bill was defunding DEA enforcement in states where marijuana is legal. This will enable businesses in those states to grow without interference. Americans for Safe Access claims that under the Obama Administration, they have spent $300 million on enforcement in states that have legalized marijuana. Patients and medical marijuana providers will no longer fear federal prosecution.

Outlook

Marijuana is currently classified as a schedule I drug, Schedule I substances are those that meet the following criteria:

• The drug or substance has a high potential for abuse.
• The drug or substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
• There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or substance under medical supervision

Cocaine, methamphetamine, and OxyContin are some of the drugs categories as a Schedule II substance. This means that marijuana is more dangerous that Meth…something is off here.

In late October, United States District Judge Kimberly Mueller of the Eastern District of California, listened to testimonies during a five day evidentiary hearing to determine if the Schedule I dangerous drug classification imposed on the cannabis plant by the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1970 is unconstitutional.

Judge Mueller is expected to deliver her decision in early 2015. Technial420 expects that she will be in favor of cannabis NOT being a Schedule I substance. The reason why we are confident of this is because:

1. On the third day of the hearing, both federal prosecutors and the defense agreed that cannabis has medicinal benefits. This completely contradicts the definition of a Schedule I substance.
2. Research has shown that cannabis has medical benefits. GW Pharmaceutical (GWPH: NASDAQ) manufactures the first cannabis-derived prescription drug that is sold in over 25 countries!
3. Medical experts such as Dr. Sanjay Gupta have stated that marijuana has medical benefits.

http://www.plunkettresearch.com/sports-recreation-leisure-market-research/industry-statistics

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/10/24/the-marijuana-industry-could-be-bigger-than-the-nfl-by-2020/

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-marijuana-experiment-a-tale-of-two-drug-wars-20140103

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/03/11/its-no-toke-colorado-pulls-in-millions-in-marijuana-tax-revenue/

http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/20/news/economy/marijuana-taxes-colorado/index.html

http://www.mainstreet.com/article/congress-passes-major-medical-marijuana-reform-before-holidays

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Schedule+I+drug

http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2014/12/12/congress-ends-war-on-medical-marijuana/

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Michael Berger is Managing Partner of StoneBridge Partners, LLC and Founder of Technical420.com. Prior to entering the cannabis industry, Michael was an Equity Research Analyst at Raymond James Financial covering the Energy Sector. Michael has been featured in publications such as The Street, Bloomberg, US Money News, and hosts various cannabis events across North America.

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