Cannabis Policy

Activists in Missouri have started collecting signatures to put an adult-use legalization initiative on the November ballot; the effort is backed by the same group from the state’s successful 2018 medical cannabis push.

The top Democrat in Minnesota’s House of Representatives has announced plans to introduce legislation legalizing adult-use cannabis later this year.

A controversial bill that would have banned high-potency concentrates in Washington state was resoundingly rejected for the 2020 session.

Police in Edmonton, Alberta have reported a slight uptick in cannabis-impaired driving arrests over the last year.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders pledged this weekend that he would legalize cannabis in all 50 states on his first day if he wins the presidential election.

The New York State Bar has formally offered approval of legalizing adult-use cannabis in the state; the governor has already included legalization revenues in his 2021 executive budget.

The first year of cannabis tax revenues from Canada’s legalized market is lower than (barely half of) what the government had expected.

The City Council of Berkeley, California has approved on-site cannabis consumption at dispensaries; the changes also allow for up to seven cannabis delivery services in the city.

Major cannabis reforms in the Australian Capital Territory have taken effect, despite opposition from the federal government and a United Nations warning that the reforms violate international drug treaties.

Republican lawmakers in Indiana have advanced a bill from committee that would allow the state to force cannabis prosecutions in counties and jurisdictions that have opted into defacto decriminalization policies.

New Mexico’s Senate Public Affairs Committee has passed an adult-use cannabis legalization bill in a slim and partisan 4-3 vote.

Some critics in Pasadena, California believe that local regulators violated their own rules when awarding six cannabis business licenses last year.

Survey results suggest that cannabis use among Utah teenagers has relatively stabled out despite multiple neighboring legalized markets, including Colorado and Nevada.

An adult-use cannabis legalization bill has been introduced in Tennessee; the bill calls on lawmakers to create regulations but proposes a 12 percent tax earmarked for education and infrastructure.

President Donald Trump was secretly recorded in 2018 saying that cannabis use makes people “lose IQ points” during a discussion about Colorado’s legal market.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers are sparring over cannabis revenues and the governor’s plan to legalize as part of the state budget bill.

A ballot initiative to legalize medical cannabis in Mississippi has been approved for the state’s November ballot.

The Austin, Texas City Council has approved a resolution that blocks police from using city funds on lab tests for low-level cannabis possession cases, effectively decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of cannabis.

A Vermont state lawmaker has pitched the decriminalization of three psychedelic substances — psilocybin, ayahuasca, and peyote — as well as kratom.

Oklahoma’s Cherokee Nation has announced plans to study the potential ramifications of major cannabis and hemp policy reforms.

A bill to legalize industrial hemp is set for a hearing in the Idaho Senate Health and Welfare Committee; farmers would be able to begin growing hemp under the proposal this year if the bill is signed into law.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has again included legalization tax revenues in his official budget for the year; Cuomo did the same last year, although the state ultimately failed to adopt legalization reforms.

West Virginia Del. Sammi Brown has re-proposed legislation to decriminalize cannabis possession and legalize the home growing of cannabis by adults at least 21 years old.

A Washington bill with bipartisan support would cap the state’s adult-use cannabis concentrate products at just 10 percent THC, which would effectively kill the state’s concentrates market.