Fixing a “Convoluted Patchwork”
October 10, 2025
In the 40 states in which cannabis is legal for recreational or medical use, brightly lit, well-organized dispensaries offer a dizzying array of products; budtenders help customers select the right variety for their interests or needs; and it’s not unusual to catch the signature scent wafting over a sidewalk or from a backyard. This is a remarkable transformation for a substance that was illegal to sell or even possess anywhere in the United States as recently as 1996.
However, today “cannabis policy, product safety, and patient guidance form a complex web of contradictions, patches, and gaps,” Symone T. Griffith, Marisa L. Kreider, and Maxwell C. K. Leung write in Issues. The federal government still classifies cannabis as an illegal Schedule I drug, with no medical use and a high risk of abuse. Even in states where medical cannabis is legal, the qualifying conditions (Parkinson’s disease, cancer, anxiety, etc.) are not uniform, creating confusion for patients and providers.
The resulting patchwork of state-level regulations, the authors argue, “has had intractable and far-reaching consequences—for the cannabis industry and how it’s regulated, for product safety, for scientific research on all things cannabis-related, and ultimately for the health and safety of patients.”