Marijuana Law Issues

1. More than a quarter of the US population now lives in a state that allows marijuana for nonmusical purposes. 
2. In 2012, Colorado and Washington state became the first states to vote to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes. 
3. Vermont and Washington, DC do not allow marijuana sales for recreational purposes, meaning it's not legal to buy and sell pot in either jurisdiction, although residents in both places can legally grow it. In DC, the allowance of "gifting" has led to some vendors selling products like  Each state where marijuana is legal has laws for people 21 and older. They allow marijuana, with a limit on how many plants are allowed and there is variation in how much someone can legally possess. In the other states that have legalized marijuana, legal sales are on their way or already underway; however, local jurisdictions can decline to allow marijuana sales within their borders. Some states that have legalized marijuana have also erased criminal records for past marijuana offenses. 

4. Marijuana legalization is generally taken to represent the removal of all government-enforced penalties for possessing and using marijuana. In most, but not all, cases, legalization also paves the way for the legal sales and home-growing of marijuana. Decriminalization generally eliminates jail or prison time for limited possession of marijuana, but some other penalties remain in place, treating a minor marijuana offense more like a minor traffic violation. You would still get a fine for possessing or selling an amount within the decriminalized limits. States with stricter decriminalization laws can also attach some jail or prison time to possessing larger amounts of marijuana, sales, or trafficking. 

5. The ACLU found that there are several hundred thousand arrests for marijuana possession each year and these arrests cost law enforcement time and money, as well as damaging the government's credibility. 

6. A major concern if marijuana is legalized is that letting for-profit businesses - "Big Marijuana" - market and sell cannabis may lead them to market aggressively to heavy pot users, who may have a drug problem which. is what happened in the alcohol and tobacco industries. 

7. Support for marijuana legalization rose from 12 percent in 1969 to 31 percent in 2000 to 66 percent  in 2018. A 2014 survey found 63 percent of Americans agree states should move away from harsh mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug crimes, and 67 percent said drug policy should focus more on providing treatment over prosecuting drug users. Overall this shows, Americans are fed up with drug and criminal justice policies that have contributed to higher incarceration rates while doing little to solve ongoing drug crises. 

8. The federal government classifies marijuana as a schedule 1 drug, meaning it's perceived to have no medical value and a high potential for abuse. That classification puts marijuana in the same category as heroin and a more restrictive category as heroin and a more restrictive category that schedule 2 drugs like cocaine and meth. This means that the federal government doesn't see marijuana and heroin as equally dangerous or that it considers it more dangerous than meth or cocaine, this means that marijuana has a high potential for abuse. 

9. The Obama administration, thought the federal government has also taken a relaxed approach to marijuana legalization at the state level, generally letting states do as they wish as long as they met certain criteria (such as not letting legal pot fall into kids' hands or cross state line.) The Trump Administration suggested it would take a tougher line under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, but current Attorney General William Barr backed off the tougher approach and said he would more ore less go back to the Obama-era policies. 

10. Pot’s criminal classification at the federal level has other serious ramifications for marijuana policy even in places where state law says the drug is legal. Many state-legal marijuana businesses, for instance, must function as cash-only enterprises, since many banks are nervous about dealing with businesses that are essentially breaking federal law. Businesses also can’t file for several deductions, and, as a result, their effective income tax rates can soar to as high as 90 percent or more.