A Guide to Marijuana Legalization

ON ELECTION DAY IN 2012, voters in Colorado approved a ballot initiative legalizing the recreational use and sale of cannabis, making the state the first in the U.S. to do so.

Fourteen other states, Washington, D.C., and Guam would go on to legalize the drug in the next eight years as public support for legalization rose rapidly despite marijuana being illegal at the federal level.

Some strains of the cannabis plant often called marijuana or weed contain a psychoactive compound called THC that produces a "high" when ingested.

Today, support for marijuana legalization has become mainstream among Democratic politicians, and some Republicans also back the idea. State legislatures are grappling with if and how to legalize the drug, while several marijuana-related bills including those aiming to decriminalize it on the federal level have been introduced in Congress.

Opponents say marijuana poses a public health and safety risk, and some are morally against legalization. Proponents, however, argue that it is not as dangerous as alcohol and point to evidence that it has therapeutic benefits, such as stress and pain relief.

Advocates also see it as a money maker for states and a necessary social justice initiative. Marijuana laws have disproportionately affected people from minority communities, contributing to mass incarceration. States where the drug is legal have sought to retroactively address the consequences of marijuana prohibition, often including provisions allowing for the expungement or vacation of low-level marijuana convictions.

Retail sales from dispensaries are or will be allowed in all states where the drug is legal except for one: Vermont. Retailers there will start receiving licenses in October 2022.

States have their own processes for licensing dispensaries, but in all states where marijuana is legal, businesses that sell marijuana must have a license from the state to do so. The sales are regulated and taxed by the states at varying rates. Some states implement an excise tax on the sales, which are taxes on a particular good – in this case, marijuana – levied on the seller, which typically passes it on to the consumer by including it in the product's price.

Provisions outlining the amount of marijuana an adult can legally possess, if adults can grow their own marijuana plants and how the tax revenue is spent vary from state to state.