Hemp Farm Unveils 76-Acre Art Installation, And It's Breathtaking

By Javier Hasse
Source: greenentrepreneur.com


Charlotte's Web Holdings Inc. is unveiling a 76-acre farm art installation as part of its "Trust The Earth" Campaign.





Charlotte's Web Holdings Inc. is unveiling a 76-acre farm art installation as part of its “Trust The Earth” Campaign.

The Campaign

This is part three of Charlotte’s Web’s “Trust The Earth” advocacy campaign, a collaboration with Shepard Fairey's Studio Number One that promotes access to hemp-derived CBD for consumers in every U.S. state.

The “Trust The Earth” campaign was launched in October 2019 with the goal of opening up doors of access to the power of hemp for health. While hemp was made federally legal by the 2018 Farm Bill, each state has the ability to regulate — or ban — hemp unilaterally.

The Project

Charlotte’s Web created this piece of farm art in McPherson, Kansas. The installation features a massive rendering of a hand holding a hemp stalk and the call-to-action “Trust the Earth.”

The crop art was mowed across 3 million square feet of farmland – the equivalent of 57 football fields. The installation required one solo farmer mowing for one week using GPS to guide the process. The final field art is so large that it required a local farmer’s plane to achieve enough height to photograph the entire installation.

“This is about the market share leader bringing awareness to the forefront that we lack federal and state regulations," Charlotte's Web CEO Deanie Elsner told Benzinga. "Charlotte’s Web finds breakthrough ways to drive awareness so that consumers can learn to drive positive change.”
Learn more about this campaign on www.TrustTheEarth.com

The Global Industrial Hemp Market is expected to grow by $ 3.35 bn during 2020-2024

Source: prnewswire.com




Global Industrial Hemp Market 2020-2024 
The analyst has been monitoring the industrial hemp market and it is poised to grow by $ 3.35 bn during 2020-2024 progressing at a CAGR of 11% during the forecast period. Our reports on industrial hemp market provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis covering around 25 vendors.


Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05938947/?utm_source=PRN


The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current global market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The market is driven by the high demand from textile industry.
The industrial hemp market analysis includes application segment and geographic landscapes.

The industrial hemp market is segmented as below:
By Application
• Textiles
• Hemp-based CBD
• Food and supplements
• Personal care
• Others

By Geographic Landscapes
• APAC
• North America
• Europe
• South America
• MEA

This study identifies the high demand from cannabidiol as one of the prime reasons driving the industrial hemp market growth during the next few years.
"The analyst presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources by an analysis of key parameters. Our industrial hemp market covers the following areas:
• Industrial hemp market sizing
• Industrial hemp market forecast
• Industrial hemp market industry analysis"

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05938947/?utm_source=PRN

Research Shows Batteries Made From Hemp Are Superior to Lithium, Graphene

Source: hempingtonpost.com

Could industrial hemp be part of the future of battery powered vehicles? Fresh research into the efficacy of hemp batteries says yes. 

There is indeed precedent for this. An iteration of Henry Ford’s original Model T was partially composed of hemp ‘bioplastic’ and powered by hemp biofuel. In 1941 Ford presented what should have been a groundbreaking invention: a car powered by and largely built by hemp. In 1941, Popular Mechanics described Ford’s work as “ a step toward materialization of Henry Ford’s belief that someday he would “grow automobiles from the soil.”

Now, with battery-powered vehicles beginning to supplant those that use combustion engines, researchers are constantly looking for sustainable and efficient ways to create battery power.
Late last year, research demonstrated that hemp batteries can be more powerful than commonly used lithium and graphene. Researcher and popular YouTuber Robert Murray Smith discusses the experiment at length in a recent video.

He began by observing a Volts by Amps curve of both the lithium and hemp batteries.  Much to his surprise, the power beneath the hemp cell 31 times greater than that of the lithium cell.

The use of hemp in batteries is not new.  In 2014, researchers in the US  discovered that unused fibers from hemp can be converted into “ultrafast” batteries that are “better than graphene.” Dr. David Mitlin of Clarkson University, New York led this experiment into hemp tech. Scientists ‘cooked’ waste bark fibers of hemp and transformed them into ‘carbon nanosheets.’

This process has since been dubbed ‘hydrothermal synthesis.’ Subsequently, the team was about to transform fibers into high volume capacitors. Such ‘supercapacitors’ have represented a paradigm shift in the way energy is stored.

“With banana peels, you can turn them into a dense block of carbon – we call it pseudo-graphite – and that’s great for sodium ion batteries,” Mitlin explained. “But if you look at hemp fibre its structure is the opposite – it makes sheets with high surface area – and that’s very conducive to supercapacitors.”

A peer-reviewed paper ranks the capacitors “on par with or better than commercial graphene-based devices.”

 

A French company will produce fuel from hemp

Source: cannabis-mag.com


qairos-energies.com

This startup plans to produce energy from hemp biomass

A French startup says it will soon be testing the use of hemp biomass to produce energy, and plans to enter full production in 2022. Qairos Energies, based in Mareil-en-Champagne near du Mans in northwestern France, said it will produce hydrogen that will be converted into electricity for fuel cells which will supply the buses and trains. This operation will also produce methane for the exclusive natural gas distribution network in France and the leading distributor in Europe.

 

The hemp will be transformed through a gasification process in which the hemp biomass is crushed and subjected to high temperatures which will transform it into methane, hydrogen and CO2.

Qairos said it will source local hemp within a 35-kilometer radius of its production project, relying on the 150 members of Fermiers de Loué, an agricultural cooperative, to supply the biomass. A small first harvest this summer will be used for trials to finalize the industrialization and development processes, said Jean Foyer de Qairos.

Where will the hemp be produced?

The French natural gas company Qairos Energies will produce fuel from hemp. According to his Press release, this process will be non-polluting, because it will crush the hemp and heat it to a very high temperature.

 

Mr. Foyer, an automotive engineer by training, has declared that the goal for next year is to get local farmers to plant 350 hectares to start operations in 2022. Ultimately Qairos will need 1000 hectares of hemp to be fully operational. The energy will be used locally to keep the high costs of transporting hydrogen down, Foyer said.

 

The idea of ​​the operation of energy production was born when Foyer started talking to Magalie Rhodé, a local farmer and chicken breeder who is also a small hemp producer.

 

Rhodé, the first farmer to sign a contract to supply Qairos, said she intended to increase her hemp fields from a few hectares now to 30 hectares in the next five years.

The French professional hemp union (SPC) included energy among the sectors it recommends for development in a recently released manifesto, in which it expressed concern that the French hemp sector, Europe's largest, could fall behind. compared to those of other European countries.

 

Through this process, the heat will turn the hemp into gas and from there it will extract methane, hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

The company that will produce fuel from the hemp expects that each gas extracted will be resold and used for different purposes. For example, synthetic methane will be injected into the gas network, while hydrogen will be converted into fuel for vehicle batteries. As for CO2, it will be sold to the food industry.

This project is supported by the Pays de la Loire region, BPI France and the Center Métropolitain du Mans Sarthe.

It is without doubt a very versatile plant that can be used to generate sustainable energy; in fact, it could also be used in our kitchens or for clothes, or even very soon there will be boats built with hemp.

 

The use of this plant is done with a minimum of waste, because luckily it is used from the stem to the flower.

Hemp Industry in Minnesota OK’d by USDA/MDA

By QuickCountry 96.5
Source: newsbreak.com



With the approval from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture, Hemp farming in the State is expanding.

According to the MDA, the Industrial Hemp Pilot Program studies the growth, cultivation and marketing of hemp. The program allows for the state to better learn about hemp. The pilot program began in 2016 with six growers and now, there are currently 511 Minnesotans growing or processing hemp in the state.

The program was made possible in 2014 in part of a federal farm bill that allowed for pilot programs to better understand hemp. This marked the first time that the plant could be legally grown in the United States in decades.

CBD For Coronavirus? New Study Adds Evidence For Cannabis As Covid-19 Treatment

By Emily Earlenbaugh
Source: forbes.com


CBD from cannabis could become the next COVID-19 treatment - according to new study. GETTY

As we continue to see outbreaks of the novel coronavirus surging, many are waiting and hoping for treatments to be developed that might treat, cure or prevent the potentially deadly disease. In a surprising turn of events, cannabis is on the list of potential treatments. 

While researchers are exploring many different possibilities in combating COVID-19, some researchers are looking into whether cannabis or cannabis derived CBD might offer benefits for those suffering from severe forms of this infection. Interestingly, there have been several different ways researchers have suggested CBD might help, including its ability to reduce ACE2 expression and pro-inflammatory cytokine production to fight lung inflammation, and it’s potential as an antiviral. But few studies have tested these theories with actual experimentation.  

Now new evidence is adding support to the theory that cannabis derived CBD may help those suffering from the severe lung inflammation that occurs in more serious cases of COVID-19. The study from researchers at Augusta University in Georgia suggests  that CBD may positively impact ARDS or acute respiratory distress syndrome - a dangerous symptom in COVID-19 caused by an overactive inflammatory response. This is sometimes referred to as a ‘cytokine storm’. The authors of the study explain that “currently, other than supportive measures, there is no definitive cure for ARDS, illustrating the urgent need for creative and effective therapeutic modalities to treat this complex condition.”

But CBD may be able to help treat this dangerous symptom of COVID-19. The researchers suggest CBD may be able to help by reducing pro-inflammatory cytokine production, fighting off the storm. By reducing specific cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1b, and IL-17, we may be able to bring down the inflammation and thus end the respiratory distress and damage. And the results of these researchers' experiments supported this theory. 

The research itself was performed on mice, who were first given a treatment called Poly(I:C) to artificially induce ARDS, with symptoms similar to what we see in severe COVID-19 patients. This created a cytokine storm, reduced the blood oxygen saturation by 10%, and even produced structural damages to the lungs in mice subjects. Then after the mice were experiencing the cytokine storm and coinciding respiratory distress, they were given CBD. And the results showed just how powerful CBD can be when treating ARDS. “These symptoms were totally or partially reversed and returned to the level and condition of the normal after treatment with CBD” the authors report. 

Cannabis derived CBD may help fight off severe lung inflammation caused by COVID-19

 GETTY

In particular, mice treated with CBD saw reduced expression of IL-6, an important marker for cytokine storms, and lowered the levels of other proinflammatory cytokines. While the Poly:(I:C) spiked inflammatory markers, “CBD treatment reversed all these inflammatory indices and partially re-established homeostasis” the authors explain. Mice treated with CBD also had increases in lymphocyte levels in their blood, which are important white blood cells for fighting off infections. 

Researchers on the study say that CBD could play an immunotherapeutic role in treating severe respiratory viral infections like COVID-19, based on the present findings. 

“The current data support the notion that the anti-inflammatory function of CBD may reduce cytokine storm and mitigate the effects of exaggerated inflammation” they explain. They add that “considering all potential regulatory effects of CBD as well as the vast distribution of endocannabinoid system in the body, it is plausible that CBD may be used as a therapeutic candidate in the treatment of various inflammatory conditions including COVID-19 and other virus-induced ARDS.”

More research could help us learn how cannabis and CBD can help fight the novel coronavirus

 GETTY

Of course, this is an early study, and more research needs to be done - particularly more research that tests this theory on actual human subjects with COVID-19 related ARDS. The authors point out that “obviously, more studies are required to expand and validate this therapeutic strategy.” 

While we may have to wait for more research before this is being used as an active treatment for COVID-19, this study gives us good reason to hope that CBD might eventually be harnessed to help fight ARDS. It also adds to the chorus of researchers and cannabis advocates suggesting that we look further into cannabis and its potential to fight this deadly disease.

 

Will The WHO’s New Cannabis Recommendations Loosen International Control?

By Natasha Winkler
Source: medicalcannabisbrief.com

As cannabis reform continues to go global, we are seeing more organizations and reputable statements come out. Now with more than 7000 people working in 150 country offices, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) primary role is to direct and coordinate international health within the United Nations system. They support countries as they coordinate the efforts of governments and partners.

Over the years the WHO has released several statements regarding the use of cannabis. The oldest available scientific report on the WHO website regarding cannabis is from 1971 and even 50 years ago and even then the organization gave clear recommendations of follow up research studies on uses, consumption methods, and effects on human behavior.

WHO Reviews and Changes Cannabis Recommendations

As a follow up to a scientific expert meeting held in 2015 that resulted in the WHO publication, “The health and social effects of nonmedical cannabis use” – WHO hosted a review of the latest available information in the public health of cannabis use and cannabis use disorders in December of 2019

This meeting was organized by the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use in collaboration with other relevant WHO programs. Their intention was updating and revising the above-mentioned publication to reflect the recent developments and accumulated evidence on appropriate public health responses to health risks associated with cannabis use. At the 2019 meeting, experts made a handful of recommendations regarding the scheduling of cannabis (and its resins, preparations, derivatives, etc) in global drug control treaties.

This Would Be The First Reschedule of Cannabis Since 1961

WHO recommendations are often celebrated as a positive step toward the easing of the international control of cannabis. Member states of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) received the cannabis recommendations in January 2020 and an expected vote to adopt the changes is scheduled for December 2020.

If adopted, this would be the first rescheduling of cannabis since the drafting of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs, a global drug control treaty, so it’s unsurprising that some governments are asking for more time before casting a vote that could catalyze the global cannabis industry. 

Other organizations and governmental departments are now beginning to chime in on how, if at all, these recommendations (if adopted) would affect the international control on cannabis both medically and recreationally.

Particularly one recommendation is a big symbolic win because it would implicitly acknowledge the medical value of cannabis at the highest international level. Regarding practical implications in the level of international control, the Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) document found that, if adopted:

• Two recommendations would imply no meaningful change.
• Two others would mean more control for pure THC.
• The other two would imply less control – for certain pharmaceutical preparations containing THC and for some CBD products. But the INCB also said clearer definitions are needed.

Recommendations Are Just That

The 2015 recommendations report specifically states, “…[The expert panel] hope[s] that Member States, institutions, and organizations will be able to make use of this report when prioritizing areas for future international research on the health and social consequences of nonmedical cannabis use.”

While the changes that are being proposed are a sign of progress, they will not have a direct effect on international controls of cannabis. They will however serve as yet another win for the cannabis plant.

 

Remembering Cannabis Reform Advocate Dr. Lester Grinspoon

By Natasha Winkler
Source: medicalcannabisbrief.com

Dr. Lester Grinspoon passed away peacefully on the morning of June 25, 2020, at the age of 92. Longtime Harvard professor, psychiatrist, and author of twelve books – including Marihuana Reconsidered (1971) – which was once considered the single most comprehensive and thoughtful and convincing explanation of the crucial need to end cannabis prohibition. For fifty years following its publication, he continued to write on the subject.

Like most of his generation, he began with the assumption that cannabis was a dangerous drug and should be prohibited. When Dr. Grinspoon first entered Harvard, he viewed cannabis with the same typical criticism, believing it was a harmful drug. But those biases were initially challenged by his close friend, then Harvard colleague astronomer Carl Sagan. Sagan convinced Grinspoon that his initial negative views about cannabis were likely mistaken and that he might personally find the experience of cannabis to be a positive one.

Carl Sagan Offered to Split a Joint with Him 

Once Dr. Grinspoon began his review of the available literature in the 1970s, he concluded that there was no reason to treat cannabis users as criminals. Even more importantly, he adopted Sagan’s perspective that in the right situation, cannabis use can be an enriching experience.

Unlike Sagan, Grinspoon once openly admitted to smoking cannabis in an interview with Barbara Walters. When the public saw a Harvard professor admit such a thing, he hoped it would reshape the image around cannabis users and stoner stereotypes. Decades would pass before that happened and Dr. Grinspoon suffered professionally for his public cannabis stance. 

He was something of a campus renegade, speaking out against the Vietnam War. He was twice denied a promotion to full professor, once in 1975 and again in 1997, despite a career that included pioneering research on schizophrenia, dozens of books and papers, and leadership roles at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center and other prestigious institutions. His extraordinary personal commitment to advancing both cannabis policy and the NORML organization demonstrated his deeply held belief that we all have an obligation to fight injustice.

Dr. Grinspoon’s Nearly Fifty-Year-Old book Now Reads Almost Prophetically

“Indeed the greatest potential for social harm lies in the scarring of so many young people and the reactive, institutional damages that are direct products of present marijuana laws,” Grinspoon wrote.  “If we are to avoid having this harm reach the proportion of a national disaster within the next decade, we must move to make the social use of marijuana legal.”

In the end, Dr. Lester Grinspoon, despite being way ahead of his times – led the way to insist that cannabis policies be based on legitimate science. He made it possible to have an informed public policy debate leading to the growing list of states legalizing the responsible use of cannabis, even though it took his whole life. Looking at his lifetime of advocacy one can only wonder why in the US cannabis prohibition continues.

Cannabis pioneer launches company to unlock the potentials of the endocannabinoid system

By Meg Hartley
Source: medicalcannabisbrief.com

(HQUALITY/AdobeStock)

Scientists have been articulating the prowess of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) since the ‘80s, yet nearly four decades later, the ECS is hardly covered in medical schools, despite dysfunction of the system being linked to many illnesses. The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a system of neurotransmitters and receptors that enables our bodies to benefit from cannabis, and even though medical cannabis is legal in most states, there are only a couple pharmaceuticals on the market that make use of it.

Cannabis has been studied for even longer than the ECS, but we still use the plant rather simplistically. Even though there are many components to cannabis—cannabinoids, terpenes, terpenoids, flavonoids, oh my!—the industry mostly focuses on the cannabinoids THC and CBD, when over 100 compounds have been discovered in the plant.

Luckily, there are people on a mission to elevate this state of affairs. Acclaimed endocannabinoid scientist Ethan Russo has partnered with business aficionado Nishi Whiteley to create CReDO Science, and they’re off to a running start. Their research focuses on how to apply cannabis to balance the health of the ECS and help treat disease, and by creating market-disrupting technologies that utilize this research to create solutions and products (five examples coming up).

CReDO’s mission

As a Leafly reader, you may be familiar with the work of Ethan Russo, as he has been featured in many of our articles (he’s a bit of an ECS rock star). He’s nearing 25 years of experience researching the ECS and cannabis and is also a board-certified neurologist.

The mission of his new company CReDO is, “To commercialize patented products generated from our investigation of the cannabis plant and the endocannabinoid system (ECS), making cannabis safer and better.” According to the company’s website, their moniker reflects the philosophy of innovation as well: “In Latin, CReDO means ‘I believe.’ We maintain that ‘the proof is out there’ for cannabis/hemp-based solutions for better living.”

Talking about the stigma of cannabis and not taking advantage of its potential, Russo said: “What we’re doing is trying to treat disease with at least one of our hands behind our back. It’s a situation where we’re not applying the requisite knowledge to the problems at hand.”

He also went on to say: “It really points out how politics interfere with science and the public good; in this instance, because we’ve really denied ourselves the full benefits of a plant that has so much to offer medically, nutritionally, and as an aid to better living.”

Russo is joined by Nishi Whiteley, a cannabis author and educator with 30 years of business development experience. In addition to stunning business credentials, she is an advocate for cannabis law reform and sits on the board of the Foundation for an Informed Texas, a cannabis advocacy organization.

Products for the endocannabinoid system

The initial efforts of CReDO Science will concentrate in a few areas for which provisional patents are in progress. Russo shared they cannot get too specific when describing most of the products, as they’re still in development: “We’ve got a lot of convergent evolution in science—that’s a fancy way of saying that you can’t have an original idea for long before somebody else will think of the same thing.” But they were able to give us some general scoops.

Here’s what they can reveal:

 

Disinfectant that works on coronavirus

This product is a disinfectant that’s efficacious enough to kill coronavirus, a great example of using cannabis in a novel fashion, taking advantage of its antibiotic, antiviral, and antifungal properties in an industrial way. “I personally don’t like Clorox, the smell gives me headaches. But there are products that can be made with cannabis in the disinfectant area that would be, I think, aesthetically nicer and potentially even organic,” said Russo.

Diagnostics for diseases of the ECS

CReDO is working on two projects that would diagnose medical conditions related to the ECS. “If there is the potential for products or treatments or profit down the road, that’s nice, but that’s not what keeps me up at night thinking about things; it’s ideas that could help explain what ails us, and what to do about it,” said Russo.

Canna nutritional line

Another product of theirs is a line of cannabis-derived nutritional products (think nutritional bars and capsules) expected to have broad anti-inflammatory effects. The ingredients remain a proprietary secret for now, but they hope to be on the market with full disclosure in the next two to three years. “These would be products that should be saleable anywhere in the US and internationally because they won’t involve the inclusion of nasty [he laughs] THC or anything,” said Russo.

Extraction technique

They’re also working on cannabis extraction hardware that will use a technique to keep more aspects of the plant. “I’m a big proponent of the entourage effect, which requires synergy of terpenoids and cannabinoid components. And yet, many of the extraction techniques really end up wasting, particularly the terpenoid fraction,” said Russo.

This technique would create cannabis products that take advantage of the full power and spectrum of cannabis’ value, allowing us to benefit from terpenes, underutilized cannabinoids, and other components.

Over-the-counter medicine

They had to stay pretty tight-lipped about this one, but according to Russo: “There is a really, really common condition where current products are either toxic or not very effective. We think that we’ve got an effective approach with a cannabis-based product that’s not going to be psychoactive, not subject to any abuse potential.”

The Marijuana Superweapon Biden Refuses to Use

Legalizing marijuana is extremely popular. So why won’t Joe Biden embrace the idea?

By Edward-Issac Dovere
Source: theatlantic.com


ALEX WONG / GETTY / KATIE MARTIN / THE ATLANTIC

Democratic political consultants dream of issues like marijuana legalization. Democrats are overwhelmingly in favor of it, polls show. So are independents. A majority of Republicans favor it now too. It motivates progressives, young people, and Black Americans to vote. Put it on the ballot, and it’s proved a sure way to boost turnout for supportive politicians. It’s popular in key presidential-election states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Florida, Arizona, and Virginia. There’s no clear political downside—although marijuana legalization motivates its supporters, it doesn’t motivate its opponents. For the Democratic presidential nominee, the upsides of supporting it would include energizing a very committed group of single-issue voters and making a major move toward criminal-justice reform and the Bernie Sanders agenda.

Joe Biden won’t inhale.

Democrats eager for Biden to support legalization have theories about why he won’t. His aides insist they’re all wrong. It’s not, they say, because he’s from a generation scared by Reefer Madness. It’s not, they say, because he spent a career in Washington pushing for mandatory minimum sentencing and other changes to drug laws. It’s definitely not, according to people who have discussed the policy with him, because he’s a teetotaler whose father battled alcoholism and whose son has fought addiction, and who’s had gateway-drug anxieties drilled into him.

With legalization seeming such an obvious political win, all that’s stopping Biden, current and former aides say, is public health. He’s read the studies, or at least, summaries of the studies (campaign aides pointed me to this one). He wants to see more. He’s looking for something definitive to assure him that legalizing won’t lead to serious mental or physical problems, in teens or adults.

America appears to be moving on without him, and so are the future leaders of his party.

If Biden really has his eyes on public health, he should think about how many Black people end up in jail for marijuana sale and possession, argues Jackson, Mississippi, Mayor Chokwe Lumumba—a young Black progressive who oversaw local decriminalization in his city in 2018. Biden should also think about how an illicit, unregulated market is leading to the drug being laced with other chemicals, and the health effects of that, Lumumba told me. If Biden thinks marijuana is addictive, he said, then he should explain what makes it worse than alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine. Legalization is a necessary part of criminal-justice reform, Lumumba said. “I would encourage him and his campaign more broadly to do more research on some of the finer points,” he added.

Alternatively, John Fetterman, the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, says Biden should think about how legalization could raise tax revenue in the post-pandemic economy of state budget deficits. “What better time than now to have that conversation?” Fetterman told me. Before the coronavirus outbreak, Fetterman spent a year traveling his state, including areas that mostly voted for Trump in 2016, proselytizing “commonsense” legalization. There’s even more reason to agree with him now, he said. “It’s the ultimate policy and financial low-hanging fruit,” he said. “If you’re not moved by the gross racial disparities, what state doesn’t need a couple hundred million more in revenue at this point?”

Amid the criticism that Biden hasn’t taken a definitive stance on legalization, it’s easy to lose track of how far ahead he is of any other major-party presidential nominee in history in terms of changing marijuana policy. He’d decriminalize use, which would mean fines instead of jail time, and move to expunge records for using. He’d remove federal enforcement in states that have legalized the drug. That’s further, by far, than Donald Trump, or Barack Obama, has gone. Biden would move marijuana off as a Schedule 1 narcotic, the same category as heroin, but would not take it off the illegal-drugs schedule entirely, so that federal law would treat it the way it does alcohol or nicotine.

John Morgan, a Florida Biden donor and a major proponent of legalization in his state, is a proud user of marijuana, and told me he knows many Democrats and Republicans who are too. He’s been able to get Ron DeSantis, his state’s Republican governor and a big Trump ally, on board with legalization. Morgan said that when he broached the issue briefly with Biden last year ahead of hosting a fundraiser for him, the candidate responded, “‘I know where you are on this.’ I just took it to be as You know where I am on this.”

Erik Altieri, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a pro-legalization lobbying group, told me that although his organization heard from several of the other leading Democratic presidential campaigns last year, it never got a call from the Biden team.

Biden’s resistance is particularly frustrating for those who remember how he was a pioneer in standing up for legalizing same-sex marriage, the biggest recent issue on which laws suddenly flipped to catch up to changing views. Maybe, one person who’s spoken with Biden theorized, the difference is that he knew gay people, but believes—almost certainly falsely—that he doesn’t know people who regularly use marijuana.

That’s a bad guess too, Biden aides told me.

“As science ends up with more conclusive evidence regarding the impact of marijuana, I think he would look at that data. But he’s being asked to make a decision right now. This is where the science guides him,” Stef Feldman, Biden’s policy director, explained to me. “When he looked to put down his position on marijuana in writing for the purposes of the campaign, he asked for an update on where science was today. He didn’t ask for an update on what views and science said 20 years ago. He wanted to know what was the best information we know now. And that is what he made his decision on.”

This can seem both perfectly reasonable and a ridiculous excuse. There isn’t some conclusive study about health effects that Biden is ignoring, but one is also not likely to emerge anytime soon. And though they insist this is all about health, other ripples from legalization are on the minds of institutionalists like Biden and his close advisers: trade deals that require both sides to keep marijuana illegal would have to be rewritten, half a century of American pressure on other countries about their drug policies would be reversed, and hard-line police unions would have to be convinced that he wasn’t just giving in to stoners.

Realistically, marijuana isn’t a priority right now for the campaign. Legalization is at once too small an issue for Biden’s tiny team to focus on and too large an issue to take a stand on without fuller vetting. And it comes with a frustration among people close to Biden, who point out that liberals talk about trusting science on everything from climate change to wearing masks—and, notably, wanted vaping restricted because the health effects were unclear—but are willing to let that standard slide here because they want marijuana to be legal.

Biden’s compromise: going right to the edge of legalization, while appointing a criminal-justice task force for his campaign whose members have each supported at least some approach to legalization. But that sort of signaling doesn’t get people to the polls. “Being cute is fine. Being bold is motivating,” Ben Wessel, the director of NextGen America, a group focused on boosting political involvement among younger voters, told me.

“If Biden said he wants to legalize marijuana tomorrow, it would help him get reluctant young voters off the fence and come home to vote for Biden—especially Bernie [Sanders] supporters, especially young people of color who have been screwed by a criminal-justice system that treats them unfairly on marijuana issues,” Wessel told me. Publicly supporting marijuana legalization would be an easy, attention-grabbing move, and might help many Sanders diehards get past the fact that he’s not where they want him to be on the rest of their candidate’s democratic-socialist agenda.

Altieri, the pro-marijuana lobbyist, said coming up with a legalization policy wouldn’t take much work: Sanders had one, as did Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Andrew Yang. Or Biden could check in with Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who wrote a legalization bill based on the argument that legalization is essential to the criminal-justice-reform conversation. Altieri is not impressed with how little Biden has moved so far. “Where he’s at now would have been maybe a bold stance in 1988. It’s not much of one in 2020,” he told me.

In 2018, top Democrats credited a legalization ballot initiative in Michigan with boosting turnout and producing the biggest blue wave in the country—winning races for governor, Senate, attorney general, and secretary of state, along with flipping two congressional seats and multiple state-legislature seats. A ballot initiative is expected for the fall in Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota, and possibly Montana. Anyone who believes—hopefully, or out of cynical political calculation—that Biden will announce some big change in his thinking, aides told me, will be disappointed.

Just do it, Fetterman said: Do it, if only to secure Pennsylvania’s electoral votes and get that much closer to the White House. “If Joe Biden’s account tweeted out ‘Legal. Weed.,’ it would get a million likes in the first two hours. I guarantee it. And no one’s going to accuse Uncle Joe of being a pothead,” Fetterman told me. “If you think weed is the devil’s tobacco, you ain’t voting for Biden anyway.”