Volume 14, Issue 1

In 2014, Congress removed industrial hemp with a concentration of ≥0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) dry weight from the definition of marijuana in the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Hemp production was authorized in a limited pilot program until 2018, when Congress passed the Agricultural Improvement Act (Farm Bill) that expanded the program to anyone licensed to produce hemp by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) or by a USDA-approved State or Indian tribe. Hemp’s greatest value is in two of its 80-plus molecules: cannabidiol (CBD) and THC. These molecules, present in all forms of Cannabis sativa L. (cannabis), including hemp, have medicinal and recreational uses. By removing hemp from the CSA, the Farm Bill altered the legal status of hemp’s extracts, including CBD and THC. In 2018, Epidiolex ® , the world’s first and only CBD-based medicine, was approved in the U.S. The drug was placed in Schedule V of the CSA to comply with an international drug treaty requiring control of cannabis and all its extracts. In April 2020, Epidiolex was removed from the CSA schedules. This occurred, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), because with a THC content below 0.3%, Epidiolex no longer met the Farm Bill’s criteria as a controlled substance. This review discusses the Farm Bill’s hemp provisions and how they have affected the legal status of hemp derivatives CBD and THC. The review also discusses a loophole in the Farm Bill that decriminalizes the production of marijuana by negligent hemp farmers. In passing, we discuss how lobbying by the hemp/CBD industry influenced passage of the Farm Bill.

The objective of the paper is to understand the impact of the COVID-19 focusing event that resulted in a distinctive response by the Federal government. The paper focuses on the rapid deregulation that occurred in the opioid use disorder treatments. We frame the narrative using primarily the economic literature on deregulation during a crisis. The temporary deregulation has significantly increased access to treatment and medications and allows for the discovering of a different equilibrium. We also suggest other deregulations that need to be considered. In this paper, we suggest that the provisional deregulations should be made permanent to improve the outcome of the patients who abuse opioids.

Using data from New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Prince George’s County, MD; and Louisville, KY, we examine trends in racial disparities in the enforcement of misdemeanor marijuana possessionbefore and after marijuana reforms. In these jurisdictions, we find that changes to marijuana enforcement were associated with reductions in arrest rates for Black, Hispanic, and White people, though the rate of decline varied by jurisdiction. Black people were arrested at the highest rates in relation to their proportion of the population. In three of the four jurisdictions where issuing criminal citations was an enforcement option, racial/ethnic disparities in arrest rates increased post-reforms; legalization and the option to issue a civil citation were associated with reductions in racial/ethnic disparities. Trends in this study provide policymakers with information to implement effective reforms that target racial disparities in marijuana possession arrests.