Marijuana Consumers Are Under Attack In Multiple States, And It’s Time To Fight Back (Op-Ed)

“Now is not the time to become complacent, nor is it a time to presume that marijuana will somehow legalize itself.”

By Paul Armentano, NORML

Seventy percent of Americans, including majorities of Democratic and Republican voters, say that marijuana should be legal for adults. Yet this legislative session, lawmakers from both parties are placing cannabis consumers in their crosshairs.

In Republican-led states like Montana, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota, lawmakers are seeking to either repeal or significantly roll back voter-approved legalization laws. In Democrat-led states like California, Maryland, Michigan and New Jersey, lawmakers are seeking to undermine existing legalization markets by drastically hiking marijuana-related taxes.

In all cases, elected officials are treating cannabis consumers as targets, not constituents.

These concerted attacks on state-legal marijuana markets are an explicit reminder that the war on cannabis and its consumers remains ongoing and, in some cases, is escalating. Our opponents haven’t gone away; in many cases they’ve simply regrouped and tweaked their strategies–such as by advocating for arbitrary THC potency caps or calling for new criminal penalties for consumers who don’t obtain their cannabis from state-licensed dispensaries.

Those who oppose legalization have also become bolder and more cynical in their tactics. No longer convinced that they can win the hearts and minds of voters, they are now frequently seeking to remove them from the equation altogether.

Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers in South Dakota sought to repeal the state’s voter-initiated medical cannabis access law, despite 70 percent of voters having approved it. The effort failed, but only by a single vote.

In Nebraska, lawmakers are also considering legislation to roll back that state’s voter-approved medical marijuana law and the state’s Republican attorney general has urged lawmakers to ignore the election results altogether.

In Ohio, GOP lawmakers in the Senate recently approved legislation to rescind many of the legalization provisions approved by voters in 2023. Changes advanced by lawmakers include limiting home-cultivation rights, imposing THC potency limits and creating new crimes for adults who share cannabis with one another or who purchase cannabis products from out of state.

In Texas, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued several cities, including Dallas, for implementing voter-approved ordinances decriminalizing marijuana possession. As a result, local lawmakers in various municipalities–including Lockhart and Bastrop–are ignoring voters’ decisions to rethink their marijuana policies rather than face potential litigation.

And in Idaho, where the governor just signed mandatory minimum penalties into law for low-level marijuana possession, lawmakers are pushing for a constitutional amendment forbidding voters from weighing in on any future ballot measure to legalize marijuana.

But attacks on cannabis consumers are not limited solely to traditionally red states. Currently, several Democratic governors are pushing to balance their budget deficits on the backs of consumers.

For instance, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) has proposed raising New Jersey marijuana-related taxes nearly five-fold. A Maryland budget proposal seeks to nearly double the special sales tax consumers’ pay on retail marijuana purchases. These proposed increases, if enacted, will not only lighten consumers’ wallets, but they will also hurt state-licensed businesses.

As lawmakers push marijuana prices artificially higher, many consumers will exit the legal market and begin patronizing the unregulated marketplace, thereby undermining one of the primary goals of legalization.

Regardless of whether one lives in a red or blue state, or in a jurisdiction where cannabis is legal or illicit, it’s time for the cannabis community to stand up and assert itself. Cannabis consumers are neither criminals nor ATM machines. They are hard-working responsible adults. And they vote.

Now is not the time to become complacent, nor is it a time to presume that marijuana will somehow legalize itself. Change only occurs when advocates agitate for it, and when elected officials fear political consequences for failing to abide by voters’ demands.

Those who support legalizing marijuana are not part of the ideological fringe; we are the majority. It’s time for us to act like it and for lawmakers to treat cannabis consumers with the respect they deserve.

Paul Armentano is the Deputy Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. NORML’s state-by-state guide to pending marijuana legislation is available from its Take Action Center.

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Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.