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Boston Globe
25 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
What to know about Trump's potential change in federal marijuana policy
What's the federal policy on marijuana? Possessing marijuana remains a federal crime punishable by fines and prison time. Selling or cultivating marijuana is a more serious offense, punishable by prison sentences of five years to life, depending on the quantity of the drug. Advertisement The Justice Department last year proposed to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD, to a less dangerous Schedule III substance, which includes such things as ketamine and some anabolic steroids. But that switch involved a lengthy bureaucratic process. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Nearly 43,000 public comments were submitted to the federal government about the proposed change. The Drug Enforcement Administration was still in the review process when Trump succeeded Biden in January, triggering a re-examination of policies across the federal government. What would reclassifying marijuana mean? Reclassifying marijuana would not make it legal for recreational use by adults nationwide. Rather, it would change the way it's regulated and taxed. Federal income tax deductions for business expenses aren't available to enterprises involved in 'trafficking' any Schedule I or II drug. Changing marijuana to a Schedule III drug could mean significant tax savings for businesses licensed to sell marijuana in states where it is legal. Advertisement It also could make it easier to research marijuana, since it's very difficult to conduct authorized clinical studies on Schedule I substances. Due to the potential for federal penalties, many banks and financial institutions don't provide debit or credit services, loans or other common banking products to marijuana businesses authorized under state laws. That's unlikely to change merely by rescheduling marijuana under the federal Controlled Substances Act, according to a Congressional Research Service report. What is there for Trump to consider? Trump is weighing the pros and cons of a marijuana policy change, noting it's a 'very complicated subject.' 'I've heard great things having to do with medical' use of marijuana and 'bad things having to do with just about everything else,' Trump said Monday. Marijuana advocacy groups have long pushed for the federal government to soften its stance. As a candidate, Trump appeared open to relaxed regulation, posting on his social media platform last year that he would 'focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug.' But reclassification faces resistance from some conservatives and law enforcement groups. The National Sheriffs' Association was among those submitting written opposition, highlighting prior determinations that marijuana has a 'high abuse potential' and pointing to cases of 'extreme intoxication' and fatal vehicle crashes. What's happening in the states? The medical use of marijuana is already allowed in 40 states and the District of Columbia. Over the past dozen years, the number of jurisdictions legalizing recreational marijuana for adults rose rapidly to 24 states and the District of Columbia. Advertisement But the movement suffered some recent setbacks. Ballot measures to legalize recreational marijuana failed last fall in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota. Florida's measure received a majority vote, which would have been sufficient in most states, but fell short of the 60% threshold needed to approve amendments to the state constitution. Idaho lawmakers this year referred a proposed constitutional amendment to the ballot that would forbid citizen initiatives to legalize marijuana and instead leave such decisions only to the Legislature. Initiatives continue elsewhere to try to place recreational marijuana on the ballot, including in Oklahoma, where voters defeated a measure in 2023. What does the data say about marijuana use? About 6 in 10 voters across the country said they favor legalizing recreational use nationwide, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 U.S. voters conducted during last year's election. Polling from Gallup shows support for marijuana legalization has grown significantly, from just 36% support in 2005 to 68% last year. Marijuana use has also increased. More than 64 million Americans age 12 and older — or 22.3% of people — used marijuana during the past year, according to a 2024 national survey released recently by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. That was up from 19% of people in 2021. The growth in marijuana use was driven by adults aged 26 and older, according to the survey. However, people ages 18-25 remained the most likely to partake in marijuana, with 35% reporting use during the past year.
Business Journals
25 minutes ago
- Business Journals
Federal cuts hitting D.C. suburbs hardest, data says
Story Highlights Trump administration's federal cuts severely impact Greater Washington's economy. Suburbs hit hardest, with steep drops in employment and contracts. CBRE's REVIVE index shows second-worst economic start since 2009. The Trump administration's efforts to slash federal spending through mass firings and buyouts of federal workers and cancellation of scores of federal contracts are finally starting to take their toll on Greater Washington's economy. New data from the real estate firm CBRE showed that the first of half of 2025 was the second-worst start to the year for Greater Washington's economy going back to 2009, eclipsed only by the first year of the pandemic. GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY Find Local Events Near You Connect with a community of local professionals. Explore All Events Notably, the suburbs have been it the hardest, said Ian Anderson, CBRE's senior director of research and analysis. Northern Virginia has seen the steepest drop in federal employment while federal government contracts and grants procured in suburban Maryland fell more than twice as fast in the first six months of 2025 than other parts of the region, according to CBRE's REVIVE Regional Vibrancy Index, a monthly index tracking the health of the local economy. At the end of June, the index stood at 72.4 out of 100, down 1.1% from the prior month and 5% since the start of the year. Only in the first half of 2020 did it show a bigger drop in the region's economic vitality. CBRE (NYSE: CBRE) and the Washington Business Journal began partnering to produce the monthly index in early 2024, tracking changes to the region's economy following the pandemic. The index lags by more than a month and tracks thousands of data points on dozens of industries and condenses those into major areas: labor, innovation, commercial real estate, residential real estate, mobility and visitation, the federal government and investor sentiment. Revised job numbers and additional monthly data have begun to filter in and make clear that the local economy took a turn for the worse in the first two quarters, Anderson said. In previous months, the impact of federal cuts on the economy looked to be more modest and didn't meaningfully drag down the REVIVE index, which had been buoyed strong investor sentiment and rising mobility and visitation scores Now, however, 'that negativity we know about is starting to become clearer in the data,' Anderson said. The region shed roughly 20,000 federal government jobs in Greater Washington so far this year while federal government contracts and grants procured by companies in the region fell by $1.7 billion or 13% since the start of the year, according to CBRE's research. A rise in the region's unemployment rate to 4% in June from 3.3% a year earlier led REVIVE's labor sub-index to fall 2.4% year-over-year in the most recent report. This month, the D.C. real estate firm has added a new index tied specifically to the District. Indices for Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland are forthcoming, as CBRE aims to make its research 'more applicable to stakeholders and players in each of those geographies,' Anderson said. And there are variances between the sub-areas. For example, federal government employment fell by 6.1% in Northern Virginia, 4.1% in suburban Maryland but just 2.4% in D.C. between December and May. Anderson speculated that cuts were more severe in the suburbs because that's where much of the federal job growth has been in recent decades. The Maryland suburbs saw a whopping 31.4% drop in federal government contracts and grants procured from December to June, compared to a 13% drop in Northern Virginia and 12% drop in D.C., the index found. Cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services have disproportionately affected suburban Maryland, which is home to some of HHS' biggest agencies, including the Food and Administration and the National Institutes of Health. NIH has been hit particularly hard by cuts in federal grants. A bright spot in the data was the mobility and visitation sub-index, which was up 43% year-over-year in June. Average daily tapped entries on Metro were 22% higher in June compared to the same month last year, according to data from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. The sub-index also tracks anonymized cell phone data, which also showed more people moving around the region than during the same time last year. The D.C. index's street activation metric also takes into account a 12-month rolling average of crime in D.C., which was down 18% through June, Anderson said. Such numbers run counter to President Trump's claims that crime is up in D.C., allegations he this week in announcing that the federal government would be temporarily taking control of D.C.'s police force and deploying the National Guard in D.C. Another bright spot is the apartment rental market. The second quarter of 2025 was the 'ninth-best quarter over the last ten years' in the apartment rental market in Greater Washington, Anderson said, based on median rental rates. The median asking rent in Greater Washington was $2,125 in June, according to data from Zillow, an increase of 1.5% from June of last year. That could be a sign, Anderson said, that even residents who've lost, or are in danger of losing, their jobs are confident that they'll be able to find new ones. 'It appears that is one positive thread underlying a lot of this negative,' he said.
CNBC
26 minutes ago
- CNBC
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire addresses stablecoin growth after firm's first earnings: CNBC Crypto World
On today's episode of CNBC Crypto World, Circle shares jump after the stablecoin issuer posted a 53% increase in revenue, driven by strong stablecoin growth in the quarter. Plus, eToro CEO Yoni Assia discusses the retail trading platform's Q2 earnings results, the firm's plans to offer staking and what else investors can expect as it relates to the firm's crypto offerings.
