Yes, the Democratic National Committee delegates voted against including marijuana legalization in the party platform. Not surprising considering presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden doesn’t support federal legalization of recreational marijuana. Biden does back decriminalizing marijuana on the federal level and legalization of medical marijuana.

In the grand scheme of things, does it matter when it comes to the future legalization of cannabis? Probably not. For better or worse, the DNC vote appears to be more of a strategic decision to avoid controversy before the election.

The fact is that a November of 2019, a Pew Research study revealed that 9 out of 10 Americans favor legalization of either medical or recreational/adult-use marijuana. If the Democrats were to win both the White House and Senate, most observers believe there is the will for decriminalization and leaving the question of legalization up to states.

“It’s not a partisan issue — for sure we have support on both sides of the aisle — but I do think the Democratic leadership has shown a desire to pass cannabis legislation where the Republican leadership has not,” Curaleaf CEO Joe Lusardi said to Yahoo! Finance.