Marijuana Seeks to Break into Wyoming — Again. But did you know the secret history of marijuana?

Can you hear them coming?

Over the past decade, well-funded forces have repeatedly tried to kick down the door to make marijuana legal in one form or another in Wyoming. The pro-pot camp has tried just about everything: They wanted to get it on the ballot. They've sought legislative action in the Wyoming House of Representatives. They've tried to get marijuana decriminalized, legalized, or approved for medical use.

All of those efforts have failed—so far.

But they're not done yet. Far from it.

Pro-marijuana interests recently worked to try to decriminalize marijuana in the Cowboy State—and another push is expected in the upcoming legislative session in Cheyenne in February.

Why should you care—and why do pro-pot forces keep coming?

Make no mistake, it's about greed, for lack of a better word. History offers insight into what's happening now in Wyoming. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, marijuana seeped across the landscape of the United States, fueled in large part by the counterculture movement. Back then, there was a growing challenge to traditional American values with what became known by the famous saying: tune-in-turn out-drop-out.

Among those who took note of the rise of marijuana then was Big Tobacco, the cigarette makers at the height of their commercial power. Secretly, they began researching marijuana—then called "marihuana"—as a potential new money maker, according to records unearthed years later.

In 1969, for example, a supervisor of a Philip Morris program in chemistry wrote to a research lab manager:

"From all I can gather from the literature, from the press, and just living among young people, I can predict that marihuana smoking will have grown to immense proportions within a decade and will probably be legalized. The company that will bring out the first marihuana smoking devices, be it a cigarette or some other form, will capture the market and be in a better position than its competitors to satisfy the legal public demand for such products. I want to suggest, therefore, that you institute immediately a research program on all phases of marihuana."

This memo is not hard to interpret. It was, in short, about making money.

Philip Morris wasn't the only tobacco maker to eye the profit potential of marijuana. Behind the scenes, British American Tobacco and R.J. Reynolds also explored the idea of producing marijuana products, records show.

As it turned out, Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy magazine, also saw the lucrative potential of marijuana. In the early 1970s, Hefner invested $100,000 a year—a significant sum then—to fund a new group that sought to change public opinion in favor of the legalization of marijuana. The name of that organization: the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws—or, better known by its acronym, NORML.

Sound familiar?

That's because you may have heard of NORML. It's not just a footnote in history. They're still around. And they're still coming for Wyoming. In 2015, the Wyoming chapter of NORML gathered signatures to place so-called legal medical marijuana on the 2016 ballot.

That effort failed—as did several subsequent efforts, including three consecutive years, starting in 2016, to decriminalize marijuana in Wyoming. Attempts to get marijuana on the state ballot also faltered in 2017, 2021 and 2023. And a move to decriminalize marijuana also fell short last year.

All along, pro-pot forces have sought to shift public perception of marijuana, to improve the social acceptance of a mind-altering drug that can have devastating health consequences on the user. Indeed, records show that NORML has led that image-making effort, seeking to put forward the idea of marijuana as medical—as a substance that can help people with illnesses and ailments.

It's a strategy that has paid dividends in nearly 40 other states where in many cases voters approved ballot initiatives to legalize so-called medical marijuana. But don't be misled. A voter initiative doesn't make marijuana medical. That's simply a political declaration—not a medical or scientific one—backed by big money interests.

Only the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can make the determination about whether marijuana is medical. And the federal agency hasn't. Simply put, the FDA has not approved marijuana for the treatment of any disease.

But just in case that isn't clear, how's this? The Drug Enforcement Administration—the DEA in the U.S. Justice Department—states: "Marijuana is a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning that it has a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision."

Shouldn't that be enough?

If not, stay tuned. More information to come from your friends at Wyoming Liberty Group.