The One-plant Solution

The One-plant Solution is a white paper offering the most detailed and realistic roadmap to date for ending federal cannabis prohibition and the currently bifurcated approach to federal cannabis policy and establishing a coherent, viable, national regulatory framework.

It explains how the separation of “marijuana” and “hemp” has created a fragmented and unstable policy landscape that rewards loophole chasing, weakens consumer protections, complicates enforcement, and undercuts public health research and data collection. States have worked to fill the void, demonstrating that regulated cannabis systems can work, but contradictions embedded in federal law still create confusion and cause problems for regulators, businesses, and consumers alike.

The One-plant Solution offers a clear and achievable plan for establishing a fair, familiar, and workable regulatory framework that regulates cannabis as one plant, prioritizes public health and safety, and reflects the realities of today’s market. In summary:

• Deschedule botanical cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and regulate it as one plant through existing federal authorities, aligning it with the nation’s typical approach to product safety for food, dietary supplements, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and adult-restricted products;

• Preserve state autonomy, allowing each state to continue setting its own policies and serving as the primary regulator; and

• Establish national guidelines to support states with clear standards for product safety, youth access prevention, marketing, taxation, and product authentication.

The analysis and policy recommendations in the paper were informed by extensive stakeholder input and feedback from across the marijuana and hemp spaces. Over the course of three months, Strategies 64 conducted more than 80 interviews with federal officials, state regulators, policy experts, advocates, trade association leaders, and business operators, including cultivators, manufacturers, retailers, and testing facility operators, to collect and contemplate their perspectives and gain insight into the on-the-ground realities of governments and businesses.

The paper also highlights the timeliness of its recommended reforms, as Congress acted in November 2025 to recriminalize most hemp-derived products in November 2026. Paired with the recent rescheduling of medical marijuana and the prospect of rescheduling marijuana more broadly, the subject of federal cannabis classification is gaining significant attention and a unique sense of urgency among federal officials.

Product authentication is a critical area of federal responsibility identified in The One-plant Solution. It is vital to effective cannabis regulation, supporting nearly every objective of regulated cannabis markets, including consumer and public safety, youth access prevention, and taxation. It also plays a critical role in preventing inversion—the introduction of unregulated products into regulated markets—and diversion of regulated cannabis products into the illicit market.

The One-plant Solution recommends the federal government leverage existing federal inventory transparency systems, evolving technology, and modern data analysis to identify and address noncompliance, rather than replicating the mandated three-tier distribution structure used to regulate alcohol. This addendum expands on that recommendation.