Akerman Cannabis Practice Chair Jonathan Robbins shared this thoughts with Law360 in a recent article examining the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' recommendation that marijuana be moved from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. While lowering marijuana to Schedule III drug would be a considerable shift in federal policy, Robbins noted it would still leave cannabis in limbo in the 38 states that have legalized it in some form.
"You would have the dilemma that you still have: states violating the CSA, because if they keep doing business as usual, they're still violating federal law," Robbins told Law360.
"That aspect of it doesn't necessarily give me this huge sense of comfort that banks will open doors and security exchanges will let everyone in," Robbins added. "You'll still have operators who can't honestly represent that they're not violating federal law."
In a separate Law360 article discussing what states may be next to legalize cannabis, Robbins said he is cautiously optimistic that Florida voters will soon get to vote on the matter. The Florida Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on whether a measure to legalize cannabis via constitutional amendment can appear on the ballot in November.
"I think the sponsor of this bill tried to learn as much as they could [from] what happened in 2021 and tried to keep the language pretty streamlined," Robbins told the publication.