The Policy Divergence: Why Cannabis Got Legalized While Nicotine Got Restricted
Cannabis policy has moved toward legalization, harm reduction, and consumer rights. Nicotine policy has moved toward restriction, prohibition, and consumer exclusion. Two substances, opposite trajectories. The divergence reveals the role of politics, not evidence, in drug policy.
Cannabis is being legalized, regulated, and normalized. Nicotine is being restricted, stigmatized, and pushed to the margins. Two psychoactive substances, used by overlapping populations, delivered through the same hardware—and governed by radically different policy trajectories. **The divergence is not explained by evidence. Cannabis is not safer than nicotine (delivered without combustion). The divergence is explained by politics: cannabis benefited from a social justice movement that nicotine never had. The cannabis movement organized the beneficiaries of reform. The nicotine movement has not.**
