Weed clearing: Why Trump's cannabis order was necessary

Reclassifying marijuana helps untangle America's jumble of laws

- ERIKA D. SMITH

Trump's executive order may supercharge the US cannabis industry.

(BLOOMBERG)

Twenty-nine years ago, when Bill Clinton was president and the US was still deeply invested in its war on drugs, voters in California approved a ballot measure that made the state the first to legalize cannabis for medical purposes.

Since then, dozens of states have legalized the drug for a variety of uses, creating an unwieldy patchwork of laws and regulations. A multibillion-dollar legal cannabis market has arisen, with specialty cafes and boutique weed shops hawking everything from candy to ointments and attracting investment from venture capitalists and celebrities. In fact, studies show more Americans now regularly use cannabis than regularly drink alcohol.

So, President Donald Trump's decision to sign an executive order reclassifying cannabis as a 'Schedule III' drug (the same category as codeine-spiked Tylenol and ketamine), rather than a 'Schedule I' drug (the same as heroin and LSD), is not only long overdue, it’s a commonsense acknowledgment of reality.

Sure, it came at the behest of a months-long lobbying campaign by the cannabis industry, involving sizeable donations to the president's inauguration and a flood of TV commercials aimed specifically at the White House and Mara-Lago.