{"id":7254,"date":"2017-03-04T01:13:18","date_gmt":"2017-03-04T01:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com?p=2556520&amp;preview_id=2556520"},"modified":"2017-03-04T01:13:18","modified_gmt":"2017-03-04T01:13:18","slug":"trump-administration-desire-to-separate-recreational-weed-from-medical-is-impractical-at-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/trump-administration-desire-to-separate-recreational-weed-from-medical-is-impractical-at-best\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration desire to separate recreational weed from medical is impractical at best"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/trump-administration-desire-to-separate-recreational-weed-from-medical-is-impractical-at-best\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"row\" id=\"sticky-outer\">\n<div class=\"large-11 small-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta-date\">Published: Mar 3, 2017, 2:49 pm \u2022 Updated: Mar 3, 2017, 3:26 pm<span class=\"single-comments-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/03\/03\/trump-administration-marijuana-policy-recreational-medical\/74852\/#disqus_thread\" class=\"commentsNameLink\" \/><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <strong>Jennifer Kaplan<\/strong>, <em> Bloomberg<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When it comes to marijuana, medical is good, recreational is bad, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/02\/23\/sean-spicer-marijuana-medical-recreational-trump-administration\/74255\/\">according to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer<\/a>. At the Green Man Cannabis store in Denver, the difference is no wider than the space between cash registers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe markets here are nearly indistinguishable,\u201d said Christian Hageseth, Green Man\u2019s chief executive officer, referring to Colorado. \u201cThere are a few people who are either just selling into the recreational market or a few selling medically, but most of us are selling both.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If adopted, the distinction between medical and recreational cannabis, which Spicer made last week, could become a headache for regulators and a killer for businesses. Criminalizing the recreational market, legal in eight states and Washington, D.C., would mean the loss of about $33 billion over the next five years without accounting for possible gains in medical use, according to Bloomberg calculations based on Arcview Market Research data.<\/p>\n<p>In Colorado, with more than 25,000 people directly employed in the cannabis industry, making recreational pot illegal could cut jobs by as many as 18,000, Hageseth said.<\/p>\n<p>The Bloomberg Intelligence Global Cannabis Index dropped 9.8 percent between Spicer\u2019s Feb. 23 comments and the close of trading Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Spicer\u2019s comments really signaled a deep misunderstanding within the administration about how marijuana policy is regulated and implemented at the state level,\u201d said John Hudak, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution. \u201cThere are dramatic regulatory differences from state to state. The comments from the podium were overly simplistic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump separated medical from recreational marijuana during his campaign. He said he was \u201c100 percent\u201d in favor of the former, while calling the latter a \u201cbad\u201d experiment. Regardless, he said, it should be decided by the states.<\/p>\n<p>Cannabis is legal for both recreational and medical use in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maine, Alaska, and Washington, D.C., and approved in 20 additional states for medical purposes only, but marijuana is not legal for any purpose under federal law. And while Spicer\u2019s comments \u2014 and Trump\u2019s campaign comments \u2014 seem to show that the administration was open to medicinal marijuana, Attorney General Jeff Sessions may have different ideas.<\/p>\n<p>Sessions, who has the power to crack down on the marijuana industry, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/02\/28\/jeff-sessions-marijuana-legalization-to-nations-ags\/74535\/\">indicated to a conference of attorneys general in Washington on Tuesday<\/a> that he\u2019d do away with the Obama administration\u2019s hands-off strategy on state legislation.<\/p>\n<p>Law-enforcement officers need to address growing illegal drug use, including heroin and marijuana, and the arguments that pot helps cure opiate abuse or has other medicinal properties are \u201cdesperate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGive me a break,\u201d Sessions said. \u201cI doubt that\u2019s true. Maybe science will prove I\u2019m wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/03\/01\/sessions-marijuana-opioid-research\/74584\/\">Cannabis has therapeutic effects<\/a> to treat chronic pain, muscle spasms related to multiple sclerosis, and nausea from chemotherapy, according by a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/01\/12\/marijuana-research-review-united-states-health-benefits-risks-future\/71204\/\">Jan. 12 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine<\/a> that reviewed 10,000 scientific abstracts since 1999. The study also found potential respiratory and mental health risks.<\/p>\n<p>Cannabis is considered a Schedule 1 drug, meaning that the Drug Enforcement Administration sees no medicinal properties in the substance and classifies it as highly addictive. Pot industry participants and outside experts are questioning the logic behind a split that considers medical marijuana a states\u2019 rights issue and recreational a matter for federal regulation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe the product has hundreds of medical applications, positive ones, but this delineation is an artificial one given how Schedule 1 works,\u201d said Adrian Sedlin, founder and CEO of Canndescent, a cannabis producer in Southern California. \u201cThere\u2019s no basis to allow medical, but not allow recreational, under current law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>States where both types of weed are legal have parallel regulatory frameworks. Though there are separate licenses, many producers do both. So a crackdown on weed growers under Spicer\u2019s framework could mean wiping out half a company\u2019s inventory while leaving the other half untouched.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just bizarre to think that the DEA could come to a place like in Aurora and raid one half of a store but not the other,\u201d said Allen St. Pierre, board member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, referring to the Denver suburb. \u201cSo this delineation that they put out there just adds a greater level of confusion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some producers found comfort in Spicer\u2019s acceptance of medical marijuana. Nick Vita, CEO of Columbia Care, which is licensed to operate about 20 medical dispensaries in nine states, said that it\u2019s a good change and that the differentiation is warranted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very important because they are two very different missions and types of activities,\u201d Vita said.<\/p>\n<p>In Colorado, where both kinds of marijuana have been legal the longest, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2015\/11\/18\/colorado-medical-marijuana-patients-legalization\/44031\/\">medical sales have fallen as recreational weed increased<\/a>. At Hageseth\u2019s two stores, for example, medical business declined about 60 percent from this time last year. Since the same products are available, consumers are skipping the hassle of getting a prescription and simply using the recreational pot to soothe themselves, he said. If the Trump administration follows through, the trend could reverse \u2014 boosting the medicinal market higher than anticipated.<\/p>\n<p>Hageseth said he\u2019s building a marijuana growing facility and starting a franchise business. But Spicer\u2019s offhand comments already caused anxiety among some of Green Man Cannabis\u2019 investors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve had two people say they\u2019re not moving forward until this is resolved,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re all on a train together that\u2019s picking up speed and all of a sudden it\u2019s stopped and we\u2019re waiting to see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Bloomberg\u2019s Chris Strohm and Jack Kaskey contributed.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .row --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to marijuana, medical is good, recreational is bad, according to Spicer and Sessions. But the reality is more complicated than that. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6811,6813,77,5667,56,9,5019,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[6816,6818,2655,5673,2636,5022],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7254"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}