Marijuana Legalization

According to national polls — including Pew, Gallup, Quinnipiac, and CNN — more than 65% of Americans support legalizing cannabis for adults’ use. State-by-state polling shows majority support in every single state. Yet, only 19 states, home to 44% of the U.S. population, have passed laws to legalize and regulate cannabis for individuals over 21.

Those states that have legalized cannabis are blue, red, and purple: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

MPP played a leading role in the campaigns to enact 11 of the 19 legalization laws, including the first two states to legalize cannabis through the state legislature, rather than the ballot box — Illinois and Vermont.

Legalizing and regulating cannabis for adults has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenue and created tens of thousands of jobs. It has also displaced the criminal market and freed up law enforcement resources to focus on serious crime. Meanwhile, teenagers’ cannabis use rates haven’t increased, and voter support has grown.

Below you will find more information about those laws and how they are working, along with materials to make the case for allowing adults to use a substance that is safer than alcohol.

NOTE: A few of the below documents have not yet been updated for the newest legalization states — Connecticut, New York, Virginia, and New Mexico — which were all signed into law since March 31, 2021. In addition, all of these documents include South Dakota as a legalization state. There, the state Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision soon on a lawsuit seeking to overturn the law. If the law were overturned, there would be 18 — not 19 — legalization states.