"It took a lot of compromise and hard work on behalf of legislative leaders and Gov. Murphy to get this across the finish line and they should be commended for their efforts," said DeVaughn Ward, MPP's senior legislative counsel.

Jared has been working to change marijuana laws since 2012 when he was an undergraduate at Brown University, helping to organize students to successfully decriminalize marijuana possession in Rhode Island. He joined the Marijuana Policy Project in 2014 as Rhode Island political director and helped build an influential statewide coalition, Regulate Rhode Island, with the goal of legalizing marijuana like alcohol. He played a role in the 2016 Massachusetts legalization campaign as field director, and he was part of teams that successfully passed Michigan’s 2018 ballot initiative to legalize marijuana for adults as well as Utah’s 2018 medical marijuana measure. Most recently, Jared played a central role in the successful 2020 ballot initiative campaigns in Montana for adult-use legalization and South Dakota for legalization of both medical and adult-use marijuana.

"Support for marijuana legalization has steadily increased for the past two decades, now reaching 68% according to the most recent Gallup poll. Furthermore, nearly half of all Republicans support legalization. It’s also worth noting that using taxpayer money to fund a lawsuit to overturn the will of the people is unpopular across the political spectrum," said Matthew Schweich, MPP's deputy director.

"You have to recognize we are in red territory, and that’s part of this. At the same time, we are living in a time when democratic norms are under assault. Politicians no longer feel they have to uphold the vote," said Matthew Schweich, MPP's deputy director.

"The reality is that our opponents understand that a majority of voters are on our side. They can’t win at the ballot box, so they resort to legal theories and legislative efforts to defeat ideas that they can’t actually defeat in an election," said Matthew Schweich, MPP's deputy director.

"Olivia Naugle, with Marijuana Policy Project, said that cannabis reforms should be passed 'to ensure business ownership and participation in the legal industry by communities who have disproportionately impacted by prohibition.'"

Catch MPP Legislative Analyst Liv Naugle on Baltimore CBS Local 13 WJZ coverage of the February 16 House Judiciary Committee hearing on Maryland's HB 32.

Because marijuana is illegal federally, and there are no housing protections for medical marijuana patients in Pennsylvania, private landlords can ban you from using it. But it comes down to your lease, said DeVaughn Ward, senior legislative council for the Marijuana Policy Project.

"What I can say about the bill is that there are things that could make it better and there are things that could make it more equitable. But for anyone to suggest that the bill is not an improvement over what we have right now, I think, would be short-sighted," said DeVaughn Ward, MPP's senior legislative counsel.

"The more narrow the bill can be, without making it useless, the more likely we can get a vote," said Jeff Zucker, MPP board vice-chair.