After perusing the menu, Kate – a young professional in her mid-thirties who works at a science-related firm in DC – opted for a 600-milligram packet of edibles and a packet of sativa flowers, for the equivalent of about $A150.
She put the order in her online cart, filled in her phone number and the delivery address as she went through the virtual checkout, and immediately received a text message asking to verify her age and identity with a photo ID and selfie.
After placing our order, cannabis gummies and flowers were delivered to the apartment within the hour.
About 40 minutes later, a driver messaged to say he was about to arrive at my apartment, and soon enough, there he was, delivering drugs on a bustling street not far from the White House, in exchange for an on-the-spot mobile banking transaction.
The ease of the process is in stark contrast to Australia, where recreational drug use is illegal across most of the country, despite cannabis being the nation’s most widely used illicit drug.
Figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, for instance, show that about 11.5 per cent of the population uses cannabis, with 21 per cent doing so at least once a week, 60 per cent sourcing it from friends and about one in five buying it from drug dealers.
And yet federal reform has been glacially slow: note, for example, the Legalising Cannabis Bill put forward by the Greens which, among other things, would allow adults to grow up to six plants at home without formal permission and establish a national agency to register and regulate its use.
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Although millions of Australians want the illegal status of cannabis to change, and despite all the well-known arguments about why prohibition doesn’t work, Labor and the Coalition recently voted down the bill at the committee stage.
Back in the US, federal drug policy also lags compared with the states, where medicinal use is lawful in 38 jurisdictions and recreational use is legal in 24 – from the Republican-run Ohio (which voted on a ballot measure in November) to the Democratic stronghold of California (which was the first state to legalise cannabis for medical use, in 1996).
Indeed, within a one-kilometre radius of my apartment in Washington DC – where commercial sales are technically against the law – there are almost two dozen weed dispensaries, many of which are using a loophole called Initiative 71.
This allows the store to “gift” up to one ounce (28 grams) of the drug to another person as long as no money is exchanged, which means you generally have to buy another item – such a piece of art – and the cannabis is then supplied as a gift. (In the case of our home delivery, the service is linked to an I-71 compliant store.)
With an election looming in November, the Biden administration is turning its attention to the issue, hoping to drum up support among young people, as well as black and brown voters, who are disproportionately prosecuted for drugs compared to their white counterparts.
In a major shift in April, the federal Department of Justice proposed reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I drug (alongside substances such as heroin and LSD) to a Schedule III drug (like ketamine and some anabolic steroids).
The plan, approved by Attorney-General Merrick Garland, would not legalise the drug outright but rather recognise it for research and medicinal purposes, while suggesting it has lower potential for abuse compared with drugs in higher classifications.
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Critics, however, argue that the move is more about politics than science, and have warned about the impact that increasingly potent cannabis products can have, particularly on young people with developing brains.
The latest proposal comes after President Joe Biden also moved to pardon thousands of people convicted federally for simple possession of the drug, and called for the states to follow suit.
“Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing and educational opportunities,” he said in December.
“Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs.”
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