2023 marks yet another successful year for the advancement of marijuana policy reform in the United States. Four additional states – Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, and Ohio – and one US territory (the Virgin Islands) enacted policies legalizing adult-use marijuana possession and regulating retail cannabis markets. Now, for the first time since the adoption of federal marijuana prohibition in 1937, more Americans reside in a jurisdiction where cannabis is state-legal than do not.
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In addition to the passage of these new legalization laws, legislators in many states took action expanding the rights and liberties of cannabis consumers. Several states enacted policies protecting consumers from workplace discrimination. Others took steps to facilitate the expungement of criminal records for those previously convicted of certain marijuana-related offenses. To date, 24 states have enacted marijuana expungement laws – resulting in the vacating of an estimated 1.7 million criminal records, and ten states and the District of Columbia have passed laws prohibiting employers from either firing or refusing to hire employees who consume cannabis in their off-hours.
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Lawmakers also continue to pass legislation expanding patients’ access to medical cannabis. This year, Kentucky became the 38th state to enact a regulatory framework regulating the production and dispensing of medical cannabis products to authorized patients. Other states amended their laws to provide patients with increased access to medical marijuana and/or expanded the pool of patients who may use them.
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This legislative progress illustrates that state lawmakers are growing more responsive to the public’s demand for meaningful cannabis policy reform. In 2023, NORML members sent tens of thousands of communications to their elected officials via our Take Action center. Our numerous legislative successes shows that more and more lawmakers are listening.
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As we look ahead to next year’s state legislative sessions, we anticipate that lawmakers will continue to advance these and other marijuana-related issues. As always, NORML will be tracking the progress of these legislative efforts and providing NORML members with timely alerts and status updates so that you can take action.
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Your support helps ensure that cannabis consumers are represented in the political process, and it powers our movement to end prohibition once and for all. If you have not already done so, get your 2024 NORML membership and join our efforts.
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