The Democratic Lawmaker said that Congress was at “a crossroads” in regards to marijuana reform. There is still uncertainty as to where Donald Trump would land with a proposal for a rescheduling of the drug, which has been at “a standstill” prior his administration.
Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, spoke on Friday at an event with student researchers affiliated with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’s (UNLV) Cannabis Policy Institute—stressing the need to expand research opportunities amid the state legalization movement.
Despite Trump endorsing the Biden administration-initiated push to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) while campaigning for his second term, Titus said that people “don’t know what to expect” from the current administration.
Titus stated that the president had said last month that there would be a decision made within weeks about a rescheduling. However, it is “hard to say” what that means. There’s always a crisis.
She said that “we’re kind of at a crossroads at the federal levels right now,” adding that, while Trump had endorsed the rescheduling, as well as the ballot initiative for Florida legalizing marijuana in 2024, a calculus was at work during the elections.
The candidate at the time understood “the popularity of the topic,” said she. He promised, during his campaign, to deschedule the marijuana or reschedule it or unschedule it.
Titus explained, “He promised many things in that campaign that have not happened. But that is one of them. So we’re not really sure of his future position.”
While the President explicitly supported the change to Schedule III during the campaign, his recent remarks about an impending decision were vaguer. Titus also said that it is unhelpful for the president to have a government with top officials “who are historically anti-cannabis.”
“Everything is kind of stuck,” said the congresswoman. “You have no idea what’s going to happen.”
Titus also joked about how it is unclear what Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will do on marijuana reform. Kennedy has previously advocated legalization of psychedelics and the access to them, but he “has a mind that’s eaten by a bug,” said Titus, in reference to his diagnosis with a parasitic brain worm.
Titus: “The federal Government remains behind” on marijuana. Congress has a mixed record. There’s a lot of legislation, but it’s not moving very fast, and it’s mostly sponsored by Democrats—but not solely.”
This is not an issue that’s just for the fringes. It’s a become a pretty mainstream issue—with many people from both parties saying that they support some legalization,” which has been “reflected in the states,” she said, adding that “as more states pass this through referendum or through their state legislatures, that puts more pressure on members of Congress to get something done at that level.”
Titus also criticised the lack of access to banking for marijuana businesses. She said this makes it harder to control the industry “because you’d have more accountability, more transparency if you used a bank system.”
In her remarks to students, Congresswoman Mina said, “It’s really exciting that you’re doing this work about cannabis, since it wasn’t so long ago people wouldn’t touch it on college campuses.”
They did not want anything to be involved. “They were concerned about the Federal Government coming down, and losing grant funds,” said she. They didn’t realize the potential consequences.
After Titus’s address, a number of undergraduate and graduate student presented their research on cannabis-related issues. The presentations covered a variety of topics, including tax policy, marijuana usage trends, and the relationship between the legal market and illicit markets.
Titus said the debate about hemp regulation, in which conservative legislators have sought to prohibit intoxicating cannabinoids from hemp that was federally legalized by the 2018 Farm Bill signed into law under Trump’s first term.
Congresswoman added her voice to the discussion on reforming psychedelics, pointing out that laws have been relaxed around substances such as Psilocybin.
She replied, “That might be good and all.” It hasn’t even been properly studied.
“Really, I just hope that we don’t jump to that and leave the cannabis behind—and also the animosity towards that because it’s seen as more extreme, I hope, doesn’t have a negative impact on the progress that we’re making for cannabis,” she said. So it’s like a sword with two edges.
Philip Steffan provided the photo.