According to national polls — including Pew, Gallup, and CNN — more than 65% of Americans support legalizing cannabis for adults’ use. Fifteen states and Washington, D.C. have legalized cannabis for individuals over 21, and all 15 states — Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, and Washington — have approved taking cannabis production and sales off the criminal market and regulating and taxing them. (D.C. legalized the possession and cultivation of limited amounts of cannabis by adults 21 and older, but due to the fact that D.C. cannot control its own budget, Congress has been able to block the District from taxing and regulating cannabis sales.)
MPP played a leading role in the campaigns to enact 10 of the 15 legalization laws, including the Illinois’ Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act, which includes the most far-reaching social equity and criminal justice reform provisions ever included in a legalization bill. It will expunge as many as 770,000 cannabis convictions, while providing funding for communities hard hit by prohibition and disinvestment. It also provides funding and other measures to ensure those who have been harmed by cannabis prohibition are represented in the industry.
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: Voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota approved adult-use cannabis legalization initiatives on November 3, 2020. We are in the process of updating our materials, but some do not yet reflect these changes. With these four states, we count 15 states that have ended marijuana prohibition.
The Case for Legalizing Cannabis and Regulating Sales