It Is Long Past Time To Legalize Marijuana Federally

All people convicted of federal marijuana possession offenses have been pardoned (as have all such people in many U.S. states) and the federal government is not longer prosecuting mere marijuana possession.

Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana at the state level. Sixteen more states have legalized medical but not recreational marijuana. Only thirteen states have not legalized either medical or recreational marijuana. The only state which voted for Biden where even medical use of a marijuana remains illegal is Wisconsin (and Wisconsin was almost a perfect 50-50 split between Biden and Trump).

Majorities of the American people have favored legalization for at least a dozen years. At this point, 69% of all Americans, 84% of Democrats, and 52% of Republicans support legalizing marijuana.

Yet, marijuana is still a Schedule I controlled substance for which the official government position is that it has no legitimate medicinal uses, contrary to the position taken by three-quarters of U.S. states and plenty of medical research.

Our political system is too slow to adapt, because it is so hard to pass federal laws in our perennially gridlocked political system. 

All three charts are via CNN.

Federal legalization wouldn't prevent backward regressive states like Oklahoma that are full of misguided and morally suspect people from continuing to make marijuana illegal. Today, Oklahoma voters defeated a statewide measure to legalized recreational marijuana by a margin of 63% to 37%.