Biggest Enemies of Cannabis Industry – Big Pharma Isn’t The Only One!

There are numerous ways where individuals unfavorably impact society in general. We will look at some of the biggest enemies of cannabis legalization within a recent period. Why is marijuana illegal, and how would we be able to beat the biggest enemies of the cannabis industry? 

We’re answering those critical inquiries in this article, uncovering adversaries of marijuana who profit from marijuana laws and are a lot of liable for getting countless pot-smokers captured, terminated, or otherwise assaulted every year. 

enemies of cannabis industry
[Image-1: Industries who tend to lose much more if marijuana is globally legalized]

The last decade has been a game-transformer for the legal weed industry, with various states approving the usage of cannabis for recreational and therapeutic uses. Bringing cannabis and cannabis products to the mass market has involved various scientific advancements. 

Instead of the minimum utilization of this herb, growers are presently creating oils for vaping, capsules, edible gummies, and more. As we push ahead into a new period of marijuana consumption, it will be interesting to perceive how the marijuana industry’s adversaries discourage the way of cannabis legalization. Here are a couple of factors that could radically reshape the cannabis industry. 

Through their smarmy agendas and shortsighted actions, some individuals stop medical marijuana entrance to many chronically sick patients. Moreover, they’ve hindered many new medical marijuana business infrastructures in communities the nation over; they stop creating a vast number of new occupations for the medical marijuana industry. 

Introduction: Biggest Enemies of the Cannabis Legalization

Contents

The pro-cannabis development has made some fantastic progress since the Controlled Substances Act became law in 1970. On account of the brave efforts of activists since then, open acknowledgment is currently at an all-time high. For an age coming old enough now in history, cannabis will probably be considered a standard piece of life. 

Even though science has exposed every justification for placing cannabis on Schedule 1 Controlled Substances, every effort to reverse Federal prohibition has failed. Until this point in time, the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment is the principal enactment that has approached. 

The current policy for arranging illegal (and most legal) drugs is outdated, flawed, and unscientific. Organized by the federal CSA (Controlled Substances Act) of 1970, the Schedule of Controlled Substances puts marijuana in the most prohibitory Schedule I class, which is reserved for drugs with “high potential for abuse,” “no currently accepted medical use” and “lack of accepted safety.”

scheduled drugs
[Image-2: Federal Controlled Substances Schedules]

A long way from legalization, it limited DEA authority by removing spending appropriations significant to enforce federal marijuana laws in regulation states, which empowered the cannabis industry to prosper without DEA interference. 

Getting Approval for Cannabis Research

How about we go over all the barriers that you have to pass before receiving permission for doing cannabis research.

To contemplate the health damages or benefits of the cannabis plant requires various approvals from the federal government. We should perceive what number of loops were required before the science should be possible. 

  1. Initially, anybody that needs to research cannabis must present an investigational New Drug Application to the FDA. 
  2. After that, the researcher needs to get cannabis to examine, so they ask the National Institute for Drug Abuse and request a letter of authorization to obtain for cannabis research. 
  3. They should then apply for a DEA enrollment and site licensure before conducting examines involving cannabis or any subordinate. 
  4. Then the researcher applies to the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. 
  5. The FDA professes to be committed to encouraging the improvement of cannabis-related drug products – and research resources to demand a Pre-Investigational New Drug Application. 

FDA Won’t Approve Cannabis Research — Easily

Because clearly, the 5th step in this process is where you hit the block wall. The FDA has 30 days to evaluate your application – given that you make it this far – to guarantee your research does not present unreasonable dangers. The FDA won’t let the research begin until it gives a “safe to proceed” sanction. The researcher can then get marijuana from Mississippi, where you can find the primary source of cannabis.

FDA considers cannabis as a schedule 1 substance because: 

  • It’s highly potential for abuse; 
  • No acknowledged medical usage; 
  • Absence of accepted safety parameters for use under medical watch. 

The more research published on cannabis, the more bogus the scheduling of cannabis is – and the stigma allowing it to be illegal would blur away into our silly past when we had faith in legends. 

So it’s not illegal to contemplate it – but cannabis’ prohibition, because it is a schedule 1 controlled substance, makes research unthinkable. That is one of the many causes of why the stigma against cannabis is broad and pervasive. Even though your neighbor may detest the smell of marijuana and think awful individuals use it – individuals accept all sorts of fantasies. We bring up our youngsters on it with dreams of Santa Claus, the tooth pixie, the Easter rabbit, and anything Disney makes. 

We need to accept lies, need fantasy weddings, and have the option to smell something, point to the individuals smoking it, listen to jazz and jam bands, and disclose to them they are awful and off-base, it’s utterly foolish. 

History: Timeline of Cannabis Legalization

American pilgrims were once urged to grow and cultivate cannabis for hemp, but it all changed when people noticed its more “therapeutic” benefits. History Flashback investigates historical discovered film of all kinds—newsreels, instructional movies, even cartoons—to give us a brief look into how much things have turned and how much has remained the same. 

Regardless of the decade, one thing never shows signs of change: guardians will always be concerned about the influence it has on their kids. In the 1950s, access to cars turned out to be significantly more common for American youngsters. It gave them a kind of unimaginable freedom compared to past generations. 

That newfound autonomy carried with it all-new allurements, and their folks blew a gasket. For a lot of those petrified guardians, marijuana became enemy number one. In the 1930s, prohibition was revoked in the Great Depression. Some civil servants were looking for marijuana that the Mexican and dark communities were mostly using. 

They painted the drug—and the communities who were using it—as a danger to the effectively disabled country and started banning it. Twenty-nine states had banned weed by 1931, and in 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act came, mainly addressing the herb illegal in the USA. 

President Franklin Roosevelt Signs The 1937 Marijuana Tax Act

Franklin Roosevelt signing marijuana law

In 1930, there was a congregational hearing on the marijuana law called the Ranch bill. Which carefully prohibited the cultivation and use of all cannabis. Also, there was an unknown distinction between industrial hemp and marijuana. 

Numerous senators voting to boycott marijuana had no clue it was also hemp and were stunned and disappointed when they discovered they restricted their cherished profitable hemp. The FBN further proceeded in controlling the Mexican migration using a similar excuse. 

Some lawmakers offered over the top expressions like “Marijuana could transform a normal man into a vicious psychopathic killer in only weeks.” Harry J. Anslinger also said that cannabis smoking had increased among young American students causing them to be vulnerable addicts leading to insanity and self-destruction. 

President Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s opinion on reefer supported Anslingers’ argument. However, the American Medical Association restricted the thought. They emphasized the many amazing medical benefits of the whole cannabis Sativa family. 

Despite the substantial medical opposition, nothing changed the politicians’ musings, and On April 14, 1937, the marijuana charge act bill was brought to Congress and marked into law by President Roosevelt. The newly acknowledged marijuana charge bill called for ALL cannabis to be a schedule 1 controlled substance. 

Who Are The Biggest Enemies of the Cannabis Industry?

Five leading organizations would love for cannabis to be still illegal. 

1 – Big Pharma Companies

Initially, pharmaceutical organizations, for example, Purdue Pharma and Abbott Laboratories, producers of highly addictive painkillers Oxycontin and Vicodin, are fighting hard to keep marijuana illegal on a federal level in the USA. They have financed research performed by against cannabis gatherings of scholastics and piped money to bunches that intensely contradict legal cannabis. 

2 – Alcohol Industries

Alcohol producers follow immediately. With the rising consumption of cannabis, the consumption of alcohol is slowly decreasing. For bunches of individuals, they consider cannabis to be a substitute for alcohol. Therefore in 2010, California Beer and Beverage Distributors channeled 10 000 USD to the political action committee (Public Safety First) before individuals voting in a California ballot for legalizing marijuana. In this way, cannabis remained illegal in California. 

3 – Police Departments

Local police offices are subject to federal funding from the “war of drugs.” If the cannabis industry gets legal on a federal level, the funding will drop. It would prompt occupation cuts and officers’ excusal. 

Changes concerning drugs and controlled substances could influence the number of persons captured, convicted, and condemned, thereby potentially decreasing demand for correctional facilities to keep them. 

4 – Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)

The CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) is the most apparent for-profit prison organizations globally. 

The more inmates in their facility, the more money the CCA makes. They have spent about $1 million every year on lobbying to keep the demand for correctional facilities to house those convicted.

5 – Drug Testing Laboratories

In this fragment, we center around the North American drug testing industry, which makes approximately $3 billion yearly testing urine, blood, and hair. 

The pegheads approach with the assistance of a powerful lobbying organization, the “Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association (DATIA).” However, don’t let the name fool you. Alcohol testing is just a tiny fraction of the industry’s profits because workplace drug testing and other drug test screens center mostly target marijuana. 

Drug testing disproportionately influences weed users because THC metabolites and other marijuana follow to remain in the body and are detectable for an extended period than hard drugs and alcohol. 

Robert DuPont drives the drug testing industry, a ruling-class specialist who has long benefited from the drug war. Besides, his last name makes one marvel about his hereditary or financial connections to one of the world’s most notorious organizations and bloodlines. An organization said by late marijuana activist Jack Herer to be partially liable for Congress making cannabis illegal in 1937

Biggest Enemies of the Cannabis Industry

Aside from that, they stop countless duty revenue from coming into states and stop the projected billions of dollars from deals and assessments away from states. It could have gone toward building new schools, educating kids, and the general population about the responsibilities of marijuana usage and other proactive resources and programs that would positively serve their communities. 

These ten biggest enemies of cannabis legalization aren’t merely adversaries, and they represent an imminent danger to our citizens and our country overall. To them, their wound belief system and political plan cause an immediate weight upon the masses through ‘blow-back.’ 

The massive number of genuinely sick patients who need this medicine to endure; these marijuana opponents are a danger to their lives. There is indeed nothing more pressing than to guarantee that these enemies of marijuana enactment are called out so we can realize who exactly are the ones affecting, seemingly, one of the most critical issues within the recent picture. 

  1. David Frum (Political commentator)
  2. Chuck Rosenberg (Former Acting Administrator of DEA)
  3. Jeff Sessions (Senator, Alabama)
  4. Gil Kerlikowske (Former drug czar)
  5. Michele Leonhart (DEA Administrator)
  6. Nancy Grace (HLN television host)
  7. Melinda Haag (California’s US Attorney)
  8. Kevin Sabet (Director at Drug Policy Institute)
  9. Patrick Kennedy (Former Congressman)
  10. Bill O’Reilly (Fox News TV host)
  11. Sheldon Adelson (CEO at Las Vegas Sands)
  12. Mel Sembler (Founder at Straight)
  13. Benjamin B. Wagner (California’s US Attorney)
  14. John Lovell (Lobbyist at California Narcotic Officers’ Association)
  15. Mitt Romney (United States Senator)

Arguments of The Opponents of Marijuana Legalization

Herer’s renowned book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, says the DuPont Corporation, which has a long history of manufacturing chemicals and other products destructive to people and the earth, subtly campaigned Congress to make the cannabis plant illegal! 

Drug testing team promoter Robert DuPont is one of the most pernicious liars about marijuana, and probably the biggest promoter of drug testing and the use of mental drugs. He composed an article titled “Why marijuana is the most hazardous drug.” The report is peppered with artificial “facts.” Still, it ignores the fact that marijuana never killed anybody, while pharmaceutical drugs and the alcohol-related death rate is considerably high in a single year. 

One of the cannabis opponents, DEA head, Chuck Rosenberg, using intentionally misleading comments on cannabis, saying, “What bothers me is the notion that marijuana is also medicinal – because it’s not, we can have an intellectually genuine discussion about whether we should legalize something awful and perilous, but don’t call it medicine – that is a joke.” After this statement, some people even wanted the DEA chief to resign.

Countering Negative Perceptions of Marijuana

The cannabis industry is in a difficult task when it comes to negative perceptions. The “Reefer Madness” crusade was a cunning and fruitful showcase of plan-driven propaganda, and the mental impact from it lingers profound within many. Besides, the war on drugs has been going on for decades. In the interim, many dug in interests were formed committed to keeping cannabis illegal. 

Those interests are dispersed all through our society, from pharmaceutical lobbyists to the liquor industry. Although the cannabis industry may be winning against those interests, it is still a fight that cannabis promoters may lose. It is necessary for everyone in the industry to continue fighting for legal cannabis because disinformation and propaganda are powerful forces in the period of “fake news.” 

Legalizing Can Be Beneficial, But Far From The Complete Solution

The other problem, however—that ethnic minorities continue to be captured and incarcerated for cannabis—is a political problem. Legalizing cannabis is the solution. When Washington, DC, legalized marijuana in 2014, Black individuals’ capture rate fell by more than 99%. 

On the other note, the remaining captures were related to underage possession, unlicensed cultivation, and street-level (drug?) trades. Even with that staggering drop, Black individuals remain multiple times more likely than white individuals to be captured. 

Insights from numerous other states recount a similar story. Fortunately, legalizing cannabis decreases the number of individuals, of all foundations, forced into law enforcement experiences. The terrible thing that bothers people is police behavior, which remains pretty much the same even after the legalization. Because the war on weed isn’t these days, and never has been, about weed. 

It’s about war!

Will Cannabis Be Ever Fully Legal in the USA?

There are many efforts to legalize cannabis these days, yet some industry activists and pundits have recommended that much could turn out badly. Some believe that if recreational-marijuana initiatives pass in California, Nevada, Maine, Arizona, and Massachusetts, it could wind up kicking medical marijuana drugstore out of business. 

The argument here is that if recreational weed gets legal for grown-ups, then the impulse to see a doctor for a medical marijuana medicine just isn’t there. It could be time- and money-saving to visit a recreational-marijuana dispensary and purchase cannabis if a patient has a recognized illness that can be assisted by cannabis within a specific state. 

The other problem here with recreational cannabis is having a tremendous market potential than medical cannabis. Thus, some big players may jump in and endeavor to corner the market. Think about those enormous corporations push out smaller players, especially within the medical cannabis space. In that case, it could be increasingly difficult, and costly, for pediatric patients to gain access to cannabis-based products endorsed by a doctor. 

Conducting Business in The Cannabis Industry

From one viewpoint, having big corporations in the cannabis industry wouldn’t be awful for everyone involved. Since big business often has deep pockets, extension and hiring would almost certainly be more comfortable. 

Keep in mind; most banks aren’t dealing with cannabis-based businesses because they are afraid of federal prosecution for money laundering. It wouldn’t be an issue if big corporations were running the recreational-marijuana markets in pivotal states like California. 

Final Verdict

Times are little different in this year of 2020, and more and more states are currently completely legalizing cannabis, which allows hemp to be grown and turn out to be more mainstream. Hemp CBD oil is becoming one of the most strong characteristic treatments for malignancy, chronic pain, arthritis, tension, and such a great deal more. 

For instance, CBD oil can be purchased in all 50 states, whether your state has legalized cannabis or not. Hemp clothing and seeds are also entirely legal to purchase along with all hemp products. 

It isn’t surprising that the office uses its administrative capacity to discredit and stigmatize the cannabis industry, given that it has a great deal to gain from keeping cannabis illegal. We, as a whole, naturally battle for self-conservation. But there is a way to work together, and positive media introduction of quality brands oversaw by great teams doing useful things both socially and financially. 

Cannabis businesses need to work day and night to counter negative perceptions because, despite late achievement, the foes of cannabis have not and won’t stop.

Hopefully, the war on marijuana will be over soon!

Let us bid adieu and raise a toast to cannabis legalization.

You can join social networks and forums made for marijuana lovers to interact, socialize, and bring much-needed awareness about the advantages of cannabis.

Learn more about Cannabis Social Network right here!

References

  • https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1666927/
  • https://www.nytimes.com/1978/01/13/archives/marijuana-tied-to-brain-change-in-monkey-tests.html
  • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK425757/
  • https://time.com/4107603/dea-medical-marijuana-joke-2/
  • https://www.fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/fda-and-cannabis-research-and-drug-approval-process

Author
Christopher Andrews
I am Christopher Andrew, the owner of 420 Expert Adviser. I have been in cannabis cultivation for more than ten years, and I'm sharing my experience with you guys using this blog!

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