According to this article, on Wednesday the 14th of July, there’s going to be a draft released by the Senate of a bill that will federally legalize marijuana. If you’re interested in all the political stuff surrounding in, you can go ahead and read the article. But if you’re more curious about what that’s going to mean, I can break it down for you right now.
For a little over a year now, I’ve been working at a medical marijuana dispensary. I live in Pennsylvania, which is one of the 36 states in America that has legalized weed at the medical level. In that number, there are 19 states that have weed legal at a recreational level. So basically, the majority of the country has access to weed in a medical sense or (if they’re real lucky) recreationally. Medical marijuana is a tricky thing. First, you have to meet with a qualifying physician and tell him or her why you need the medical marijuana. If you qualify, you then have to pay money (in PA it’s $50) to the Department of Health, and then they send you a little driver’s license looking thing that allows you to go to dispensaries and get weed. That process gets done once a year. If you’re lucky enough to have recreational weed, it pretty much gets treated like alcohol. You’ve got to be 21 to buy it, but if you have a medical card and are under 21, you’re all set – plus, you typically skip a line and get a discount.
So, what would weed being legal at a federal level mean? First of all, you wouldn’t have to worry about possession (unless you’re under 21 of course), and it would also allow people to cross state lines with weed. Right now, if someone buys medical weed completely legally in one state, it becomes illegal the second a state border gets crossed. DUI laws will still be in place, and they’ll most likely be way stricter than make scientific sense. Your best bet there is to say that you haven’t consumed anything in 72 hours. The biggest problem with recreational weed is that they are going to tax the fuck out of it. It’s going to be ridiculously expensive, but you can probably get it for way cheaper if you have a medical card – just an idea for you.
I feel like that’s a decent bit of explanation on what’s up with weed now and what could come if this bill ends up passing all the right channels and stuff (is it obvious I’m not totally clear on how laws get made). The reality of the situation is, though, that it’s going to take a shit ton of time for everything to get worked out, and even if this law gets made in the next few years, you’re still going to be looking at a ton of time for everything to get set up in the proper ways. My guess is that we’re still at minimum five years away from weed being truly accessible.
So in the meantime, go grab some Sunday Scaries. CBD is legal everywhere, so you don’t have to worry about hiding it. Not to mention you can get many of the effects that you’re looking for from weed by simply popping a Sunday Scaries.
Use code “BE CHILL” for 25% off.
