People vote with their wallets. It's clear that Americans either want weed or don't care if other people do. This law -- a complete Federal law, tested numerous times and not a loophole -- survives because the public wants the product and this is the way to get it.
Sigh, it's probably because, for cannabis-naive people, it's far harder to tell if someone is super high than if someone is super drunk. There's not a lot of difference between a high person who's trying not to let on, and someone who's just rather tired or a bit dumb. It's not like with alcohol where past a few drinks it's pretty easy to tell. But that doesn't mean the effects are harmless.
Legalization was one thing, but valorization is another.
THC potency levels are going through the roof and availability of analogues is too. I feel like there will eventually be problematic societal consequences and a pushback a generation from now, much as happened a few decades after cheap hard liquor distillation was invented, or a few decades after we hit peak tobacco.
Also, here's an ad from a century ago selling whiskey, claiming it is a medicinal cure all for any and every condition, much as is common today with cannabis
I belive your statement, "... claiming it is a medicinal cure all for any and every condition, much as is common today with cannabis" is really off base. Nobody who is serious thinks medical marijuana can cure any specific disease.
In any medical state, there is a list of specific conditions for which you must have a medical diagnosis in order to get medical cannabis. No doctor will tell you it is a "cure" for anything and nobody is permitted to advertise this either.
People tell each other that everything from homeopathy, to crystals, to keto diets to meditation can cure specific diseases all of the time. I do not believe that you could lump probiotics, to make another example, in with the absurd patent medicines of the 1920s.
Additionally, there plenty of promising peer review regarding cannabis. We've had high potencey weed for decades.
