35 Green Souls In Congress .. PT 2 🥦🥦
In our previous blog, we spotlighted 35 sitting members of Congress who continue to champion adult-use cannabis reform. These leaders have written, co-sponsored, and voted for transformative legislation, often at political cost. Yet despite their collective action, federal legalization remains stalled. The system is slow not by accident—but by design. And while millions of Americans suffer from outdated cannabis laws, the wealth generated by legalization is flowing into the hands of families never touched by the War on Drugs.
This Part 2 blog exposes the machinery that keeps federal reform in limbo. We trace how reformers have been blocked, examine the unequal ownership of cannabis profits, and return to the origins of prohibition—to the cold, calculating propaganda machine built by Harry Anslinger and propped up by his powerful allies.
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🔒 How the 35 Reformers Were Stalled
Despite multiple victories in the House—including the passage of the MORE Act in 2020 and again in 2022—efforts to legalize cannabis at the federal level have died in the Senate.
The biggest obstacles?
1. Senate Filibuster & Lack of Republican Support
Most cannabis reform bills require 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. With only a few Republicans in support, bills like the MORE Act or CAOA (Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act) are doomed to stall.
2. Committee Chair Bottlenecks
Even if a bill has majority support, it can be blocked by the Senate Judiciary Committee or Appropriations Committee, often led by those who have remained staunchly anti-cannabis.
3. Presidential Inaction
Historically, U.S. presidents have had the power to shift public opinion and apply executive pressure to move cannabis reform forward—yet most have chosen to reinforce prohibition:
Ronald Reagan: Declared a "war on drugs" and escalated cannabis criminalization. Under his administration, penalties increased and public campaigns equated cannabis with hard drugs.
Bill Clinton: Maintained prohibition policies and oversaw the rapid expansion of incarceration for nonviolent drug offenses. Famously said he didn’t inhale, yet his administration used cannabis arrests to fuel mass incarceration.
George W. Bush (Jr.): Prioritized law enforcement over harm reduction. His administration blocked research and increased DEA raids on dispensaries, especially in California.
Donald Trump: Publicly stated cannabis legalization should be left to states but appointed Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, who reversed Obama-era protections (Cole Memo) and threatened crackdowns on legal states.
Joe Biden: Campaigned on modest cannabis reform but has yet to push federal legalization. While he issued pardons for some federal cannabis convictions, his administration has been slow to support bold legislative change.
In every era, presidential inaction or hostility has delayed progress, reinforcing a system rooted in outdated stigma rather than science or equity.
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🏦 Who's Winning the Legal Weed Game?
While reform is blocked on Capitol Hill, legal cannabis dispensaries are opening across America. But ownership and access remain dramatically unequal.
Dispensaries by the Numbers:
As of 2024, there are over 14,000 dispensaries across the U.S.
Less than 2% of dispensaries are Black-owned, despite Black Americans being 4x more likely to be arrested for cannabis.
Latino ownership is similarly underrepresented.
Why?
Startup Costs: Opening a dispensary requires $250,000 to $2 million in capital.
Application Fees: In some states, just applying for a license costs $10,000 to $60,000, often non-refundable.
Zoning Laws: These disproportionately exclude people from urban communities due to "drug-free zones," redlining, or gentrified city planning.
Access to Banking: Without federal legality, most cannabis operators can't get loans. This affects minority entrepreneurs more harshly.
The Cultivation License Game:
Average cost to acquire a cultivation license: $300,000 to $1 million+, not including land, security, and startup infrastructure.
In states like New York and California, there are complex tiered licensing systems that favor multi-state operators (MSOs) with deep pockets.
Social Equity Programs, while well-intended, often fail due to:
Delayed rollouts
Legal challenges
Lack of capital access
Over-regulation
Bottom Line: The people profiting from cannabis today are often wealthy, white-owned corporations or families with no ties to incarceration, while those most harmed by the War on Drugs struggle just to get in the door.
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🔎 Who Was Harry Anslinger?
Harry Anslinger was the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics, appointed in 1930. He served until 1962 and laid the foundation for modern cannabis prohibition with racism and propaganda as his primary tools.
Anslinger's Racist Rhetoric
"Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men."
"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers."
Claimed that cannabis use led to insanity, rape, and violence—especially among minorities.
The Two Powerful Allies Behind Him:
1. William Randolph Hearst (Media Tycoon)
Hearst owned massive newspaper empires and ran sensational, racist stories about cannabis.
Helped demonize marijuana to protect his timber interests, which were threatened by hemp.
Headlines like "Marihuana Makes Fiends of Boys in 30 Days!" were common in his papers.
2. Andrew Mellon (Secretary of the Treasury)
Mellon was Anslinger's uncle-in-law and his biggest political backer.
Mellon had heavy investments in DuPont, which saw hemp as a threat to synthetic nylon.
Mellon ensured Anslinger had full control over drug policy enforcement.
Together, these three men criminalized cannabis to protect profits and reinforce racial hierarchy.
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⏱️ From Anslinger to Hoover: The Origins of Modern Policing
J. Edgar Hoover
The first Director of the FBI, serving from 1935 to 1972.
Worked with Anslinger to identify "subversives," especially within Black communities.
Launched COINTELPRO, a counterintelligence program designed to infiltrate and destroy political movements.
The Link to the Black Panthers
Hoover called the Black Panther Party "the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States."
COINTELPRO targeted the Panthers with wiretaps, informants, false arrests, and raids.
Cannabis charges were often used as a tool to arrest and harass Black leaders.
The DEA is Born
In 1973, President Richard Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Nixon famously said: “The real problem is the Blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to.”
The DEA absorbed Anslinger’s racist framework, modernized it, and intensified it.
> “You want to know what this was really all about? The Nixon campaign in 1968... we knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or Black... but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and the Blacks with heroin... we could arrest their leaders, raid their homes... and vilify them night after night on the evening news.” — John Ehrlichman, Nixon’s domestic policy advisor (1994 interview)
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✅ Closing Thought: We’re Still Fighting Anslinger’s War
The War on Drugs was never about safety. It was about targeting minorities, silencing resistance, and preserving economic empires built on oppression.
Today, 35 brave members of Congress are trying to rewrite that history. But they’re fighting a machine built by men who weaponized race and fear to control America.
If we want justice in cannabis, we must:
Fight for equity, not just access
Support candidates who call out these systems
Demand action from local and federal officials
Educate others on this buried history
Until the system is rebuilt, legalization will remain a business for the powerful, and prohibition will remain a tool of oppression.
Change begins with truth. And truth demands we name the architects of injustice.
Anslinger. Mellon. Hearst. Hoover. Nixon. DEA.
This is the lineage we’re fighting.
And still—we rise.
#ChangeTheNarrative #CannabisJustice #StewartsPassion
2 comments
We must educate and stand tall. That lineage runs deep.
Awesome Article homie always a deep dive!!💚🙏