Cannabis Law, Politics and Culture

This course is an introduction to the legal, political, and cultural issues raised by the cannabis industry in the United States. The class examines important legal questions that have emerged regarding the cannabis industry in the United States, beginning with a historical analysis of the laws of prohibition and transitioning to the threshold constitutional questions of legality and access to medicine, to questions of authority and regulation by the various federal agencies, and finally wrapping up with a thorough review of nuanced structural inefficiencies in the legacy system, like outsized tax liabilities and limited access to traditional bankruptcy protection. The course will review the learning outcomes through a case study of the largest cannabis SPAC transaction to date and round out the semester by surveying how historically disenfranchised populations are faring in the "green economy". The analysis of this sophisticated and occasionally inconsistent legal patchwork of states laws and federal policy will be divided into: Seventy percent (70%) focus on the national federal policy (Controlled Substances Act, Cole Memorandum, FDA, DEA, NIDA), the various states laws (36 states, 4 territories legalized medical cannabis) and international treaties (UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961). Special attention will be paid to New York's laws and opportunities; Fifteen percent (15%) focus on the future politics of the industry through proposed legislation, e.g., the STATES, SAFE, and MORE Acts, and how the disparate enforcement policy of the last three (3) presidential administrations have led to the conflict between and among the states; and Fifteen percent (15%) focus on the vocational role of lawyers in the cannabis industry, and the social justice implications of new laws and old economic exclusions on historically disenfranchised populations.

Grading and Method of Evaluation:
Letter grade, Final Exam. Corporations is a recommended prerequisite.