Cannabis Legalization News

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam says he will introduce a cannabis legalization bill in the 2021 legislative session starting in January.

Israeli lawmakers appear poised to approve adult-use cannabis legalization by the end of next year.

The U.S. House is set to vote on the MORE Act, which would decriminalize cannabis at the federal level and expunge convictions for non-violent cannabis crimes, after delaying the vote in September to focus on coronavirus relief.

Texas Senator-elect Roland Gutierrez has pre-filed a bill that aims to legalize cannabis in Texas and dramatically expand the state’s limited medical cannabis program.

Tennessee looks poised to make significant cannabis policy reforms in the coming year with at least one medical cannabis legalization bill planned for January’s legislative session.

The latest Gallup poll shows that 68 percent of Americans support legalizing cannabis for adults; it is the pollster’s highest-ever recorded level of support for the issue.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday that he expects New York to legalize adult-use cannabis next year, “because the state is desperate for funding.”

New Jersey Assemblyman Jamel Holley is calling for the immediate end of minor cannabis arrests and prosecutions after the state’s landslide vote in favor of legalization.

Anti-cannabis activists in Montana have filed a post-election lawsuit against the state’s successful adult-use cannabis legalization ballot measure, claiming its allocation of new funding violates the state constitution.

With legalization the big winner in Tuesday night’s election, what other cannabis justice measures prevailed?

New Jersey’s Ballot Question No. 1 was approved by voters with an overwhelming 2:1 margin of support.

Arizona became the 13th state to legalize cannabis on Tuesday after voters approved Proposition 207, which legalizes the possession and use of cannabis by adults aged 21 or older.

South Dakota voters have chosen to legalize cannabis for both adult and medical use. It will be the first time a state has jumped straight from prohibition to full legalization.

Montana voters have approved adult-use cannabis legalization via two voter initiatives that set the legal consumption age at 21 and will establish a legal and regulated cannabis marketplace in the state.

Mississippi voters have overwhelmingly approved Amendment 65, an advocate-led ballot initiative to legalize medical cannabis.

Across the U.S. today, voters from Montana to New Jersey will consider a series of ballot initiatives that could represent yet another dramatic shift for the country away from our archaic cannabis and drug policies.

New Zealand voters appear to have rejected a voter referendum to legalize adult-use cannabis by a 53 to 46 percent margin.

Recent polling shows 65 percent of Ukraine voters support legalizing medical cannabis access for severely ill patients.

Cannabis advocates in Nebraska are regrouping for 2022 after their medical cannabis initiative was struck down in September by the state Supreme Court.

Both South Dakota’s medical cannabis and adult-use cannabis legalization voter initiatives are currently polling over 50% among likely voters.

Montana’s Supreme Court has rejected a legal bid by Wrong for Montana — an anti-cannabis group — that attempted to invalidate the legalization voter initiative appearing on state ballots this year.

President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has filed a cease-and-desist letter against Mississippi cannabis activists, claiming they are deceptively using two Trump quotes from 2015 and 2019 in which the president expressed support for medical cannabis and state policy reforms.

Kurt Alme, the Trump-appointed US Attorney for the District of Montana, has penned an anti-cannabis op-ed ahead of the state’s legalization vote. The editorial hinges on “Reefer Madness” tropes such as addiction and the gateway theory, as well as an unsubstantiated claim that legalization leads to more traffic fatalities.

Cannabis sales on Maine’s first day of legal sales reached nearly $100,000 and the industry generated about $9,000 in state sales taxes.