Pot Innovation: Patents for Marijuana Could Lead to Court Battles

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the

article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. It's hard to make sense of cannabis regulation. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) continues to categorize marijuana as a Schedule I drug. That means the government believes it has "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse," putting it in the same league as LSD and heroin. The Trump administration has expressly voiced skepticism of marijuana's medical benefits, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions calling them "hyped." Yet, legal pot has become a multi-billion-dollar industry that stuffs the coffers of eight states where voters have approved its legal recreational use. And nearly 30 states have legalized pot for medicinal purposes so far.