The stigma around medical marijuana has sharply declined in recent years, and now legal recreational use is available in more than 20 states. Ohio joined the latter group just weeks ago.
Lee Hannah, a professor of political science at Wright State University, recently co-authored the book Green Rush: The Rise of Medical Marijuana in the United States. He spoke with WYSO’s Jerry Kenney about the book, which looks at the de-stigmatization of marijuana and the policies around it that still need to be ironed out.
Hanna co-authored his book with Daniel J. Mallinson, associate professor of public policy and administration at Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Lee Hannah: This book is written really about how medical marijuana came online.
It starts in 1996, in California. Now it's in 38 states here in 2024. It came to Ohio in 2016.
"While marijuana is not really a gateway drug, medical marijuana is a gateway policy."
What we do in this book is we use this model called the policy process model, but we essentially write about how over time it became de-stigmatized in a lot of ways, as certain populations of patients came forward and got into activism for this policy.
Then we talk about how it was adopted across the states, and in many cases it's the ballot initiative or the threat of one, which is what happened in Ohio in 2016. They wanted to cut off a ballot initiative, so they passed one in the legislature.
And then we move into the implementation and what they learn from other states as they try to tinker with these laws and perfect them.
And so that's the baseline for what we talk about. But of course, what we've now seen, while marijuana is not really a gateway drug, medical marijuana is a gateway policy. And so we've seen that now 24 states have built off of their medical programs into these recreational programs.
All of this is happening with the states, and the federal government has barely budged in 30 years. Those challenges continue to trickle down to the states and affect people in this industry and affect patients in some really interesting and challenging ways.
Jerry Kenney: You call it a gateway policy, which I think is really interesting. Did you look at the efforts to match up what is happening at the state and federal level?
Hanna: Yes, and over time, we've seen more champions on Capitol Hill for marijuana reforms. What often happens is there's only so much space for policies to happen. And anyone who's passionate about any policy area has watched the federal government with trepidation and often disappointment.
This is a policy that they'll often get close to having some consensus on moving forward, and it will either fall off because of election pressures or changes and who's leading the government, or there will even be new issues that come up.
One thing that we've seen with marijuana policy in particular is the banking issue. Because banks are federally insured, they have not been able to take money from these organizations that that sell a Schedule 1 federally illegal drug. And so there's been an act in Congress called the Safe Act, which is about banking. That has been percolating for over ten years now, and it keeps getting more co-sponsors. It keeps getting more support behind it.
But one thing that's happened in the last five years, I would say, is as we've had this broader reckoning over racial justice, and some — especially from the left — have come in and said, 'hey, it's not just about supporting this industry and then getting what they want in terms of tax revenue and write offs and everything else, we need to be thinking about social justice.'
Just as you're starting to thread that needle where we can come to a consensus on banking, these issues of racial justice come up. And so now you have some, some members that don't want to sign on unless you have some of these more, progressive policies about who can be in this industry, about reforms in criminal justice more broadly.

Kenney: This is a big issue because you've still got people potentially incarcerated in the criminal justice system for whatever charge of marijuana possession they may have had. And now with recreational marijuana taking off, policy needs to catch up there as well.
Hanna: Yes, absolutely. And that's what's happened in recent years is, as people have pointed out the hypocrisy of this.
It's well documented that African Americans in particular have been overly policed on marijuana possession and sale compared to other races. And that's just a constant finding across the country. As you look at this industry, in many cases, the state laws require that you don't have a criminal record, especially in this area, to apply for a license to get your foot in the door. To even be a bud tender, often you have to have a clean record.
And so more and more people have pointed out the contradiction of this substance, that has literally ruined the lives of many people as they've been brought through the criminal justice system over their use of marijuana, that that could then be a goldmine for people who weren't affected by that enforcement. That hypocrisy is very evident. And one trend we've seen in the last ten years or so is that more of these bills include some social equity provisions.