The Maryland House Judiciary Committee just approved HB 1, legislation that would refer the question of legalization to voters on the ballot in November, and its companion, HB 837! The bills will now head to the full House for consideration.

Back in April, New Mexico became the 18th state to legalize adult-use cannabis. Today, the new legalization law officially goes into effect.

In the past week, two committees in the Minnesota Legislature approved HF 600, which would legalize cannabis for adults 21 and older! This is the first time ever that a Minnesota legislative committee has approved legalization.

Bill passes final committee — urge your representatives to vote in favor. Today, Vermont’s House Appropriations Committee approved S. 54 in a 6-5 vote. The bill to legalize, regulate, and tax cannabis sales appears likely to receive a vote in the full House later this week. Please contact your representatives now and ask for their support! The House has amended the bill, including by changing the tax rate to a flat 20% (in the Senate’s version, it’s 16% plus a 2% local option tax), but none of…

Today, the Nevada Tax Commission adopted temporary regulations proposed by the Department of Taxation allowing the state to issue recreational marijuana licenses by July 1, 2017. The ballot measure requires the state to initiate sales by January 1, 2018, but this “early start” program will allow businesses to open six months sooner. Only medical marijuana establishments that are already in operation can apply to function as recreational retailers during the early start period. The establishments…

The Colorado Department of Revenue’s announcement that $1.3 billion in regulated marijuana sales took place in calendar year 2016, generating nearly $200 million in state tax revenue. These figures do not include millions of dollars in revenue generated by local taxes on marijuana. The Cannabist reports: To put the state’s third year of regulated recreational marijuana sales in perspective, Year One totaled $699.2 million (combined with medical sales) and Year Two jumped up to $996.2 million. The…

Legal marijuana businesses in Colorado made more than a billion dollars in sales during the first 10 months of 2016, exceeding sales numbers from last year. The Cannabist reports: Recreational and medical cannabis shops in America’s first 420-legal state have sold nearly $1.1 billion of marijuana and related products in 2016, according to the new October data from the state’s Department of Revenue. When 2015’s year-end marijuana tax data was finally released in February, Cannabist calculations showed…