So far, things seem to be going well. Colorado`s then-governor, John Hickenlooper, opposed legalization when it appeared on his state`s ballot, but has since admitted that “the things I feared six years ago didn`t happen.” Most states that have legalized so far have done so through election initiatives, but that changed in recent years when state legislatures in Vermont and Illinois approved legalization. So there are two plausible ways to legalize. Since legalization, regulators have taken a stricter approach to edibles – restricting them, requiring stronger packaging and labels, and even banning some of them. Meanwhile, Canada and Uruguay are the only countries that have fully legalized marijuana. (The Netherlands, despite its reputation, has not completely legalized pot.) As Kleiman, who supported legalization, used to tell me, “The bad risks are mostly long-term. We`re in the situation where the guy jumped out of the Empire State Building and as he walked through the 42nd floor, someone asked, “How are you?” And he said, `So far, so good!` But opponents of legalization fear that any move toward legalization will inevitably attract powerful for-profit forces, especially since the marijuana industry has already taken off in several states. “The reality is that there are countless other forces at work here,” Sabet said. The most important of these are the very powerful forces of greed and profit. When I look at how things are being set up in states like Colorado, where the marijuana industry gets a seat at the table for every state decision on marijuana policy, it worries me. Marijuana does not carry the same risks as, say, cocaine, heroin or even legal substances such as alcohol.
But opponents of legalization argue that excessive consumption can still mean addiction, meaning someone really wants to stop using weed, but despite the negative consequences, it can`t harm their personal life, education, career, and perhaps their health. Even though states and voters support marijuana legalization, the federal government remains on the path. Critics of legalization also argue that edibles are traded irresponsibly, as they can take the form of child-friendly snacks such as gummy bears and cereal. Critics of legalization also claim that marijuana is a “gateway drug” that can entice people to try more dangerous drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, because there is a correlation between cannabis use and harder drug use. But the researchers argue that this correlation could only indicate that people prone to all types of drug use only start with marijuana because it is the cheapest and most accessible of the illicit drugs. So if cocaine or heroin were cheaper and more accessible, chances are people would start using those drugs first. In addition, there are legalization initiatives coming, perhaps in Arizona, Florida and North Dakota. But the U.S.
has a poor record of treating with other drugs — allowing drug manufacturers, for example, to irresponsibly market opioids for years and allowing a major overdose crisis. Therefore, some experts, even those advocating legalization, prefer the alternative reform approaches that RAND has detailed in detail. Proponents of libertarianism support the legalization of what they see as victimless crimes, such as recreational drug and alcohol use, gun ownership, and prostitution. The empirical and clinical studies examined here clearly show the pathological effects of cannabis use on physical and, in particular, mental health, as well as its impairment of social and occupational functioning. We did not find a single methodologically sound study suggesting that the benefits of smoking cannabis outweigh the risks. This negative data far outweighs the documented benefits for a limited number of medical indications for which safe and effective alternative treatments are readily available. However, interest groups are pursuing the legalization or medical use of smoked cannabis, largely ignoring pills containing extracted THC and other cannabinoids. It therefore seems that it is not the benefits of the active ingredients of cannabis that are recommended, but the route of administration, a wider range of indications and the ritual of consumption. Based on the empirical and clinical evidence reviewed here, it seems certain that there is a medicinal role for cannabinoid-based medicines, and that is in chemically modified extracts, not in unprocessed cannabis plants. In recent years, there has been strong pressure on U.S. state legislators to legalize or decriminalize the use and possession of certain amounts of cannabis and/or pass laws allowing the smoking of raw cannabis plants (also known as marijuana, weed, Mary Jane, pot, reefer, ganja, joint and weed) for prescribed medical purposes (so-called “medical marijuana”). Advocacy groups claim that smoking cannabis is a safe and effective treatment for a variety of psychological and medical conditions, ranging from stress and anxiety to Alzheimer`s dementia and Parkinson`s disease, although cannabis is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for such use.
So far, however, states that have legalized marijuana have generally allowed a for-profit industry, as is the case with drugs like tobacco and alcohol — what RAND called the “standard business model.” The hope under this system is that the government will be able to tax and regulate the industry to allow responsible use while preventing riskier behavior. The laws legalize marijuana for people 21 and older, similar to alcohol laws (and some tobacco laws). They allow the cultivation of marijuana, with a limit on the number of plants allowed. There are also differences in the amount of cannabis a person can legally possess, with out-of-state visitors subject to stricter limits. These drugs are approved for certain indications (nausea, vomiting, cachexia) and are currently being studied for a number of new indications, including spastic syndromes, neurological disorders, neuropathic pain and other pain syndromes. Note that the use of drugs that have been tested and approved by the FDA is not controversial. Reprehensibly, current efforts to legalize raw cannabis plants use state legislative procedures to circumvent federal regulatory processes put in place specifically to protect public health. As is well known, voters in Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana in November 2012.
Both states only allow personal recreational use of marijuana by adults 21 and older. Colorado has been able to introduce legal marijuana retail stores since Jan. 1, 2014. Washington has been slower to allow recreational marijuana stores and began issuing licenses in July 2014. Other states have since followed suit, including California and Massachusetts (both in 2016). Colorado and Washington approved recreational marijuana measures for adults in 2012. Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia followed in the fall of 2014. In 2015, Ohio voters rejected an election measure focused on the commercial production and sale of recreational marijuana. On November 8, 2016, voters in four states, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada, approved adult recreational marijuana, while voters in Arizona rejected it.
In 2018, Michigan voters approved “Proposition 1” by a margin of 56% to 44% to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana in the state. In 2018, Vermont became the first state to legalize adult marijuana through the legislative process (rather than through a voting initiative). The Vermont law went into effect on July 1, 2018. In May 2019, the Illinois General Assembly passed the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act, House Bill 1438, and the governor signed the law into law in June. Recently, New Jersey (AB 21) legalized some personal uses, while marijuana was removed from Schedule I. Given these concerns, opponents favor more limited reforms than legalization.