2022: A Radical Retrospective
Originally published in Weed World Magazine issue 162 (Jan 2023)
Well, another year has passed in the ‘legal’ cannabis space, and while there is plenty to celebrate. There has also been a lot to commiserate about in the last 12 months.
As I cannot cover the entire year and its multitude of events, I'll instead be taking a look at some of the stories that I feel deserve a little more context, commentary, and criticism.
2022 was another year that saw mass investment into the cannabis space boosting its profile and increasing global awareness of the humble cannabis plant and its by-products. However, it was also the year that saw an estimated 500,000 people ripped off in ‘the world’s biggest cannabis scam’ when the online ‘Medical Cannabis’ investment company Juicy Fields abruptly shut up shop1
In many ways, 2022 will go down as the year of so-called ‘legal THC’ or the year of the synthetic cannabinoid. Last year saw an explosion in the availability of so-called ‘hemp-derived’ chemically converted synthetic and partially synthetic cannabinoids such as Delta 8, Delta 10, HHC, and THCP etc.
This increase in popularity has been driven for the most part by the continued federal criminalisation of Delta 9 THC in the US and the poorly designed, unscientific, and highly exploitable loopholes in the current legislation. It does make you question why society is so scared of allowing naturally occurring and derived THC.
2022 saw adult-use sales in many of the older more well-established ‘legal’ states begin to decline for the first time since they ‘legalised.’ Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and California all saw a marked reduction in sales and thus tax revenue2. Industry pundits are claiming the slowdown in sales in these states is due to a 'return to pre-pandemic sales levels.’
However, I cannot help but feel the rise in availability, popularity, and ubiquity of ‘legal’ synthetic cannabinoids across the US is impacting traditional sales. I also believe that it speaks to the growing discontent and resentment of those cannabis-consuming populations and the systems they’re forced to live under.
This loss of revenue has sparked the drafting of at least one new bill in Oregon aimed at protecting the ‘legal cannabis industrial complex’ and criminalising anyone trying to operate outside of its cronyistic corrupt capitalistic system.
Meanwhile, Illinois ended the year with record-breaking sales of $1.5 billion3 yet the state only has one blacked owned dispensary.4 This is a continuing disparity that scales up nationally in the US ‘legal’ cannabis industry with just 2% of US cannabis businesses are black-owned 5 in 2022.
In a country where black, ethnic, and religious minorities have been historically disproportionately over-policed and criminalised under cannabis prohibition this is fundamentally unfair, unjust, and unethical. Especially when studies consistently show that all races consume drugs at a similar rate.
Last year saw many more US states announce and enacted the expungement of tens of thousands more individual criminal records for low-level cannabis offences. US President Joe Biden also announced a federal pardon that allegedly pardoned 6,500 individuals prosecuted for simple cannabis possession at the federal level. Although this number has been contested it would still leave an estimated 3,000+ people incarcerated federally for ‘more serious’ cannabis offences.
So despite the total number of cannabis conviction expungements in ‘legal’ US states hitting nearly 2 million in 20226. There are still an estimated 30,000 individuals incarcerated in state prisons according to The Last Prisoner Project6 and many more face arrest and prosecution daily in the states that haven’t already ‘legalised’ cannabis.
Another victory to celebrate is the addition of three more US states to the list that have now ‘legalised’ the adult use of cannabis. (Rhode Island, Maryland, and Missouri) Making the total now 21, officially passing the threshold where, because of population density, more US citizens now have access to ‘legal’ cannabis than don’t.
However, there were three more states that for whatever reason voted down their cannabis initiatives. All three are traditionally more conservative states and their legislative proposals lacked such basic provisions as expungement and home cultivation, so perhaps that explains the voter's hesitance.
New York briefly became the new frontier of cannabis ‘legalisation’ as loopholes in its ‘legalisation’ legislation allowed for ‘membership’ and ‘gifting’ models to operate for a substantial part of the year without being harassed or raided. However, New York's new Mayor Eric Adams ended the year by pledging to weed out and shut down ALL unlicensed dispensaries and shops ahead of the official launch of ‘legal’ adult-use sales.
The US Senate once again failed to pass the ‘SAFE Banking Act’ leaving ‘legal’ US cannabis businesses without access to banking services and vulnerable to robbery and federal asset seizure. However, the US government was able to sign the ‘Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act.’ Which is claimed to force the DEA and FDA to create mechanisms of registering and regulating the ‘legal’ production of so-called ‘medical marijuana’ and cannabis-derived drugs.
This is something that I fear will only lead to a further co-option of cannabis in 2023 and beyond by big pharma and other established industries that would be hurt by the ubiquitous availability of cannabis and its by-products.
Last year saw a record amount of medical research being conducted with cannabis around the world. While this is a win and something to be celebrated, it is also a double-edged sword. As I fear the data will be used to fortify the fraudulent claim and argument that there is any fundamental difference between cannabis that is prescribed or provided by medical professionals and the cannabis cultivated by the patients themselves. (well, other than it being irradiated when it's prescribed in the UK)
Thailand shocked the world in June last year by announcing that it was ‘legalising’ all parts of the cannabis plant except extracts containing more than 0.2% THC which would remain illegal. The law change allows for the personal cultivation of up to 6 cannabis plants at home ‘for medicinal purposes only’ and the consumption of cannabis and its derivatives in food and drinks containing less than 0.2% THC.
The move was hyped by the country’s health minister Anutin Charnvirakul who pledged to give away a million cannabis plants to celebrate the removal of cannabis from the country's drug list. However, it is unclear if this pledge has been kept.
In November following increasing internal pressure from concerned rival politicians, local authorities, and prohibitionists to re-criminalise cannabis. The Thai government decided to outlaw the smoking of so-called ‘recreational’ cannabis inside business premises and the sale of cannabis flowers online, via vending machines, and in hostels. As well as cannabis flowers themselves have once again been designated a controlled substance, and are now subject to restrictions.
Another positive to celebrate is the alleged release of an estimated 3000 prisoners detained for cannabis offences on the same day the country went ‘legal’ 7. Although the public smoking of cannabis still being considered a criminal ‘nuisance offence’ punishable by up to 3 months in prison, I imagine that many more than that could risk being incarcerated until formal regulations and protections are enacted by the government.
A new draft bill is currently stuck in the country’s parliament that is intended to outline how cannabis will be regulated. Although I cannot see how they will be able to rationally figure this out while so desperately grasping the antiquated artificial false binary notion that the consumption of cannabis is either ‘medicinal’ or ‘recreational’.
2022 finally saw some movement in European cannabis reform with Germany, Czechia (former Czech Republic), Luxembourg, and Ireland all drafting bills to relax current laws around the possession of cannabis for personal use. There does seem to be a slowing of momentum in Germany which means we’re likely to see more countries push for decriminalisation before it's able to launch its adult-use market.
Meanwhile, in Spain, authorities claimed to have stopped 32 tonnes of cannabis in its ‘largest ever seizure’8 and also to have destroyed an estimated 415,000 low-THC cannabis plants or so-called ‘hemp’ found in ‘Europe’s biggest cannabis plantation9.’
As Halloween approached the usual anti-cannabis propaganda began to proliferate with sensational fear-mongering news stories across America and the UK. Headlines proclaiming that ‘drug dealers’ are trying to ‘spike’ your kids by ‘lacing’ their sweets with cannabis became rampant.
The year ended with US WNBA player Britteny Griner being released in exchange for the ‘merchant of death’ Victor Bout, a Russian arms dealer and the inspiration behind the Nicolas Cage movie ‘Lord of War.’
While I am relieved that another human being is no longer incarcerated, I am confused as to why the US government couldn’t help out another US citizen, Marc Fogel, who remains incarcerated in Russia for effectively the same offence today.
So what can we expect from 2023? Well, I predict another year full of corporate profiteering while people remain incarcerated in cages in the vast majority of countries. The UK’s prescription system will continue to fail and mislead its patients with bullshit like ‘Indica’ or ‘Sativa’ and THC vs CBD. While NHS access will remain but a fevered pipe dream of the desperate masses.
There’ll likely be little progress in the UK and Europe due to political incompetence, neo-liberal dogma, and the conflictory vested interests of the vastly wealthy capitalists that dominate discourse and debate in the region.
The perpetuation of social media censorship of the cannabis culture and our lifestyle may begin to dissipate in 2023, well, in a few ‘legal’ regions as other platforms may follow Google’s lead on CBD advertising, but ultimately the vast majority of the community will remain in the dark.
I foresee the continuation and escalation of many of the same issues that have and will always plague the ‘legal’ cannabis industry. The steadfast and defiant legacy market will remain an ever-present and persistently painful thorn in the side of the ‘legal’ industry this year and beyond.
The unceasing patenting and corporate medicalisation of cannabis and its constituents will persist but not prevail as more consumers will decide to access cannabis and grow it for themselves regardless of their local laws.
Expect another 12 months of broken political promises, hollow lip service, and issue placation. We’re likely to see even more hyper-wealthy individuals, celebrities, musicians, and disingenuous individuals continue to try and cash in on the green rush. All the while those most disadvantaged by the legacy of cannabis prohibition remain unable to participate in the exclusive corporate gorging and asset stripping of the cannabis culture.
There will be further signs that the promised freedom of cannabis ‘legalisation’ simply isn’t materializing for the vast majority of those criminalised, demonised, and disenfranchised by the draconian, racist, and classist war on cannabis.
Ultimately, it is my sincere hope that this will be the year the majority of the cannabis community finally realizes that ‘cannabis legalisation’ isn’t the liberation from oppression and the cessation of prohibition we were led to believe it was. We must remember that ‘legalisation’ was always meant to be the first step, not the last.
Written for Weed World Magazine By Simpa
