In 1970, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), classifying marijuana as a Schedule I drug and making its possession and distribution a federal crime. Congress justified this ban using the Commerce Clause, asserting that drug markets, even within a single state, affect the national economy. In the 2005 case Gonzales v. Raich, the Supreme Court affirmed this power, ruling that federal law could criminalize locally grown marijuana even in states that allowed it for medical use.

Despite this federal prohibition, a political shift began in 2012 when voters in Colorado and Washington approved ballot initiatives to legalize recreational marijuana. By 2023, nearly half of the U.S. states had passed similar laws, establishing state-regulated markets for cannabis. This created a complex legal landscape where businesses operate legally under state regulations while technically violating federal law. Proponents of these state measures argue that the Tenth Amendment reserves the police power—the authority to regulate health, safety, and morals—to the states. Consequently, the federal government has faced a dilemma: enforce the supreme federal law against state-compliant citizens or allow states to serve as 'laboratories of democracy' and set their own policies.