Is marijuana legal in the United States?

Current federal legality status illegal Cannabis in the United States is currently illegal on a federal level, although some states have legalized marijuana for adult use or medical purposes.

In the United States, marijuana is illegal on a federal level for any purpose, be it adult use or medicinal. Cannabis is listed as a “Schedule I” controlled substance, meaning it is classified as having a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use.

However, despite marijuana’s illegal status federally, the majority of states in the US have legalized cannabis for medicinal or adult use. In 2013, the Justice Department said it would not sue to block laws legalizing cannabis at the state level as long as states enact regulations that curtail underage sales, interstate trafficking, illegal cartel and gang activity, and excessive cannabis-related accidents and violence.

This tenuous “trust but verify” policy has largely remained in place, with the federal government generally declining to devote resources toward enforcing federal laws in legal states.

Marijuana legality in the United States: A brief introduction to federal weed laws

The federal government first criminalized marijuana in the 1930s with the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, and cannabis activity remains a federal crime today.

Modern federal marijuana law is codified under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which sought to update the Marihuana Tax Act. Since then, marijuana has remained a “Schedule I” controlled substance, meaning it sits at the top of the list of dangerous drugs alongside heroin and LSD, and that scientists deem it to have a high potential for abuse and no medical use.

Prohibition proponents have maintained cannabis as a high potential for abuse and no medical value. They allege cannabis is a “gateway drug” to harder drug use and that allowing cannabis encourages teen use of the drug.

Legalization supporters counter that marijuana has no lethal overdose and is not physically addictive. Unlike alcohol, marijuana withdrawal is mild and medically benign. The gateway theory has also been disproved in many studies. And legalization has not led to increased teen use, according to federal surveys.

There’s also a racist component to prohibition: pot drug laws first targeted Mexican-Americans in the West in the 1930s. By the 1970s, President Nixon used drug laws to lock up political enemies on the left, including minorities and college students, and to deny them the right to vote. Today, Blacks are four times more likely as whites to be arrested for cannabis.

Types of weed legalization

Drug policy reform can occur across a spectrum of policies, and it can sit alongside aspects of other policies.

Most broadly, these are the most common categories of cannabis policy reform: