A new report sent to Congress by the White House’s drug office spotlights concerns of law enforcement agencies around that country that claim marijuana legalization has not diminished the market for unlicensed cannabis products from illicit sellers.
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s (ONDCP) budget submission to lawmakers for the 2025 Fiscal Year includes analyses from regional High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) programs on the impact of cannabis legalization that largely conflict with a growing body of research showing that launching legal markets does in fact shrink the opportunity for illicit operators.
Advocates have been critical of the reports, arguing that they are intrinsically biased given ONDCP’s statutory mandate to oppose efforts to legalize Schedule I drugs such as cannabis. That said, the regional HIDTA sections do not necessarily reflect where ONDCP or the administration falls on the issue.
This year’s report follows familiar themes as in past years: Marijuana is described as a major threat in states across the country, including those where cannabis has been legalized for medical or adult use.
The Michigan HIDTA section, for example, notes that the state enacted adult-use cannabis legalization in 2018, but despite this, “black market marijuana is still being trafficked and remains a threat.” It also says that marijuana “produced in Michigan is illegally distributed to other states.”
The Nevada HIDTA section says that, as the state’s legal cannabis market has evolved, “resources have been prioritized toward illicit drugs causing significant overdose deaths in the state rather than black market marijuana which is produced in illegal clandestine grows in California and more often indoor grows in the Las Vegas.”
“The black-market marijuana continues to thrive virtually uncontrolled due to criminal justice complications with managing the problem,” it says.
The Ohio HIDTA states that cannabis is “ranked as the fourth greatest drug threat,” and claims that the “legalization of medical marijuana in Ohio has led to an even greater amount of marijuana usage in the region.”
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