Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing U.S. Policy pertaining to Cannabis. As we have discussed in many videos on this channel recently, Cannabis has been a major topic of discussion especially in the legal community as there has been such a sea change with respect to Cannabis licensure; the ability to operate in that space; the fact that it has been taken off the list of narcotics, it is not considered a narcotic anymore, a lot of major changes have happened with respect to this and it is interesting because it looks like the US may be kind of following suit. I don't know if that's quite the right word but they do appear to be making some major changes here. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Washington Post, washingtonpost.com, the article is titled: How do U.S. Marijuana policies compare globally after Biden's pardon? Quoting directly and I urge those who are watching this video go check out that article in detail. "President Biden offered pardons Thursday to thousands of people convicted of simple marijuana possession under Federal Law as U.S. states and other Governments around the world reconsider their approach toward the drug, with some moving to decriminalize or legalize it. "No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana," Biden said. He called on senior Administration Officials to review how the drug is regulated under Federal Law and whether it should continue to be treated as a Schedule one subject along with drugs such as heroin, LSD and ecstasy." I think that is a great idea. I have always questioned the need for having this thing on schedule 1, I mean, especially sort of this product in the past. It hasn't made a lot of logical sense to me, but okay that's kind of my opinion. 

I want to read this again because this is important stuff. "He called on senior Administration Officials to review how the drug is regulated under Federal Law and whether it should continue to be treated as a schedule 1 substance." That alone is substantial. I don't know of any President going back to Nixon who has made substantive calls even for even discussion of moving this off schedule 1. So major developments I think might be in the offing with respect to this. In any event, quoting further: "How do the United States' policies stack up against the rest of the world? Possessing or consuming marijuana for any reason is illegal under Federal Law, but as of February, 37 states and the District of Columbia had authorized it for medical use according to the National Conference of State legislatures. In addition, at least 19 States and DC had legalized recreational marijuana for adults as of May." Quoting further: "Thailand this year legalized growing and trading marijuana. However, Government Officials have warned that "non-productive" use of the drug - such as smoking it outside - could lead to penalties such as short prison terms." As we noted in other video, there may be a nuisance violation if you are smoking outside. As we noted in another video, in many other videos now, we talked about, there is a video that I made some time ago called the Dude abides, keep it Inside, where we were talking about how when kind of comparing the Thai Police's response to all of this, their kind of position on this, with the Seattle Police at the time that they decriminalized in that state, so in Washington. It is interesting to me that there are some parallels there. Basically for those who are interested in kind of the Thai Policy we did a video on this already about criminal liability but long story short, yeah it could be considered a nuisance thing. Yeah there could be criminal penalties for it. I think the maximum was like 90 days in jail but I don't see that that is going to be very often enforced especially for like a first time offender. Yes there could be fines associated with it but as I see it, and I have discussed it with colleagues here in the office, we don't really see anything really beyond nuisance because it has been pulled as a criminal offense, it's been decriminalized, so that is I mean nuisance maybe, smell nuisance whatever you want to call it. 

Back to the US though yeah, this is interesting. I think we are seeing at least a move toward a paradigm shift or at least possible movement toward a paradigm shift maybe sooner rather than later. It is going to be interesting to watch. Also bear in mind there are Immigration implications associated with this as Immigration Law is its own separate body of Law so I am making another video contemporaneously with this one where I discuss sort of Cannabis generally and how that can impact U.S. Immigration matters. But long story short, yeah it does look like there is at least some movement in a similar vein in the United States regarding Cannabis as there has been here in Thailand.