.State-by-State Marijuana Laws: Is Your State For or Against Weed?
Marijuana laws vary significantly from state to state, from legal to illegal. The reasons for such wide variations are unclear, but some pot proponents say that a number of states have misperceived that marijuana, or at least the drug’s use and distribution, is harmful or dangerous. Marijuana legalization proponents also argue that some states have delayed the implementation of medical marijuana laws in order to protect the interests of drug cartels and drug traffickers who allegedly control the medical pot business. So what are the facts?
Marijuana is illegal for recreational use in all 50 states. The substance is legal in only five states, though Oregon, Colorado, and Washington have implemented their own recreational marijuana schemes.
Federal law classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance, meaning that it has no accepted medical use and is considered dangerous. Still, marijuana has been used medically for more than 1,000 years, according to the National Institute of Health. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) permits the sale of marijuana for certain medical purposes under carefully regulated conditions.
In recent years, the medical marijuana business has increasingly become a multibillion-dollar industry. Sales of marijuana-based drugs, such as Marinol, are expected to top $2 billion by 2017, according to the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA).
Medical marijuana is legal in 23 states, according to Americans for Safe Access. The states that have enacted medical marijuana laws include: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, DC.
How Much Is Sold?
According to HIDTA, California generates the bulk of the medical marijuana market, accounting for about 70 percent of the country’s sales. Alaska also generates a good amount of medical pot, as does Oregon and Colorado.
Hawaii legalized medical marijuana in 2000, which HIDTA says makes it the only US state where medical marijuana is sold legally and regulated by the state. California is the largest medical marijuana market in the world, with an estimated $700 million worth of weed being purchased in the state last year.
Marijuana laws vary from state to state.
Which States Have Medical Marijuana Laws?
Medical marijuana is legal in some of the most populous be359ba680
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