As Maryland’s lawmakers delve into the nuances of whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use, they’re learning that they have a lot of details to figure out. A joint House of Delegates-Senate work group on legalization met Monday for the second time, as members build up their knowledge of the drug before recommending whether — […]
marijuana legalization
Bernie Sanders says he would legalize marijuana by executive order
Legalizing marijuana has long been part of Bernie Sanders’ policy platform: The Democratic presidential candidate has called for an end to the “destructive ‘war on drugs” as part of his racial justice and criminal justice reform policies—along with eliminating private prisons, the death penalty, cash bail and mandatory minimum sentencing. But in a recent interview, Sanders got specific, pledging […]
Lawyer John Morgan wants to make recreational marijuana legal in Florida next year
Orlando lawyer John Morgan on Tuesday backed a campaign to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida through a constitutional amendment in 2020, declaring that “I am too old to care” about opposition to the proposal. “I believe that #marijuana should be legal!!” Morgan wrote on his Twitter account. “I think we have time and I think […]
With Petition Milestone, Recreational Marijuana Is One Step Closer in Florida
For years, Floridians have watched from the sidelines as states such as Colorado, California, and even Michigan have legalized recreational marijuana. But with activists pushing to get recreational weed on the 2020 ballot in Florida, the possibility of legalization now seems likelier than ever. Yesterday the advocacy group Regulate Florida announced its petition to legalize […]
Indiana ignores marijuana as neighbors legalize it
Illinois joined 11 states in legalizing recreational marijuana this year, joining Michigan as the second state in the Midwest to legalize the substance. In Indiana, nine bills related to marijuana died without a committee hearing in 2019, bucking the national trend. Over 30 states allow marijuana prescriptions for medical conditions, such as seizures and chronic […]
7 Reasons Marijuana Has Virtually No Chance of Being Legalized in the U.S. Before 2021
No green flag for cannabis in the U.S., at least at the federal level, anytime soon. If investors were to look around, they’d probably find a number of fast-growing trends, such as blockchain, cloud computing, and gene therapy in the healthcare sector. But there’s perhaps no industry with a more impressive growth rate at the […]
Florida has ‘all-time high’ support for recreational pot, but will it be on the ballot?
With medical marijuana dispensaries becoming commonplace in Florida, will recreational pot soon be on the shelves, too? The people behind the effort to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot say yes. That optimism is reflected in the 65 percent of Florida voters polled recently by Quinnipiac University who support the idea, a number the […]
Political winds have shifted in favor of marijuana legalization
Allegations that the legislative push for marijuana policy reform has stumbled in recent months (“Marijuana advocates hit unexpected roadblocks in 2019,” June 2) are nothing short of a pipe dream. Nearly one in four Americans reside in a jurisdiction where the adult use of cannabis is legal, and 33 states regulate medical marijuana access by […]
Switzerland aims to legalise medical marijuana
The Swiss government aims to make it easier for patients to get medical marijuana, proposing on Wednesday to allow prescriptions for cannabis to treat people suffering from cancer or other serious conditions. The proposal, separate from a Swiss government push to allow some cities to experiment with recreational marijuana, would replace the current system, in […]
Virginia Attorney General calls for marijuana legalization in Virginia
Attorney General Mark Herring says he will push Virginia to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults — a first for a statewide official in the commonwealth, which has traditionally taken a conservative approach toward drugs. Other prominent Virginia politicians have previously called for decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, including the two Democrats who […]
No Ohio marijuana legalization measure on the 2019 ballot
Ohioans will not vote in 2019 whether to broadly legalize marijuana in the Buckeye State, despite several recent reports to the contrary. Yes, there was a proposed constitutional amendment in the works last year, but that effort largely fizzled last fall. Ohio Families for Change, the group backing the Marijuana Rights and Regulations amendment, deactivated its Facebook […]
Kirsten Gillibrand Announces Plan For National Marijuana Legalization
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) unveiled a plan on Wednesday that would legalize recreational and medical marijuana, expunge all nonviolent marijuana convictions and “tap into the medical and economic opportunity” of the drug. “Fundamentally, whether adults use marijuana is a matter of privacy, and we should treat marijuana as a major economic opportunity and revenue source,” […]
Marijuana unlikely star of Israel’s elections as cannabis industry booms
Medical cannabis is legal in Israel, but recreational use of the drug is still banned. In a campaigning field inundated with some of the Middle East’s heaviest issues, from the threat of a new war with Gaza and the occupation of the Golan Heights, marijuana has emerged as a hot topic in Israel. Legalised for medical use over […]
Recreational marijuana goes on sale Jan. 1 in Illinois. Dispensaries are already getting ready.
Recreational marijuana is just a signature away from being legal in Illinois, and dispensaries are staffing up, remodeling, and wasting no time preparing for new foot traffic. Illinois lawmakers approved a bill Friday that, with Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s promised signature, will allow the state’s 55 medical dispensaries to apply to sell recreational marijuana. Additionally, the dispensaries can […]
Marijuana advocates hit unexpected roadblocks
Advocates of legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes scored their most significant legislative victory of the year Friday when the Illinois state House gave final approval to a measure allowing residents over the age of 21 to purchase and use cannabis products. But their win in Springfield comes at the end of a string of defeats […]
How Democrats are failing on legalized marijuana
This was supposed to be the big year for marijuana legalization. But in many state capitols across the country, efforts have stalled or collapsed as Democrats clash over everything from race and criminal justice to how to divvy up a gold mine of pot-tax revenue. Legalization of recreational marijuana seemed all but inevitable in at […]
Growing recreational pot at home might not be allowed after all under Illinois legalization proposal, sponsors say
Just more than a week after introducing a bill to legalize recreational marijuana in Illinois, sponsors have begun retooling the measure to appease critics. In one of the most fundamental changes, sponsors say it is likely they will eliminate a provision to let all adult state residents grow up to five plants at home. A member […]
Mexico Aims to Legalize Recreational Marijuana Before October
Momentum within the marijuana industry is undeniable. Since 1995, we’ve seen support for broad-based legalization in the U.S. catapult from just 25% to 66% in October 2018, according to Gallup’s national poll. We’ve also gone from having zero U.S. states legalized for medical or recreational purposes in 1995 to 33 states having approved medical marijuana as […]
