Despite being illegal federally, most Americans live in a legal marijuana state. Over time, marijuana shifted from being associated with axe murder and Black criminality to childlike billionaires tanking stock prices and soccer moms who just need a break. The rebranding and changing legal status has led to some pretty big institutional changes; even law firms are getting in on the market. One place you’d expect to see changing its ways is behind on the trend — law schools.
From ABA Journal:
In the 2022-2023 academic year, 45 law schools—or about 22% of the 197 ABA-accredited schools—offered a combined total of 47 cannabis law courses, according to research by the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center. Although that’s an increase of 24 schools compared to four years earlier in the 2018-2019 academic year, some professors think that even more are needed.
“We’re still playing catch-up,” says Robert Mikos, a professor at the Vanderbilt University Law School who has taught a class on marijuana law and policy for more than 10 years.
It is only a matter of time before more law schools add weed related courses to their curricula. It is a rapidly growing industry that, due to the limbo situation of being legal in some states but illegal federally, is chock full of the grey lines and ambiguities that legal minds make careers out of deciphering. And that’s just the business-focused angle — the subject material is rich with opportunities to talk about the intersections of race, mental health, gender, the list really goes on.
If you’re a 3L looking for a class that will prepare you for real world legal practice and don’t want to study mediation, check to see if your school offers a class on marijuana. And it not, request it so that the class following you can benefit.
Budding Cannabis Law Courses Are Growing—But Not Fast Enough [ABA Journal]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
