In case you missed it, House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D) has announced that the House intends to pass a bill to refer legalization to voters on the 2022 ballot. The announcement also included the formation of a legalization workgroup to study the issue. The workgroup held its first meeting last week.

Write your state legislators today and urge them to support ending cannabis prohibition in Virginia! Virginia made great strides on cannabis policy in 2020, and some political leaders are calling for the legislature to take the next step and pass a legalization bill in 2021. On November 16, Gov. Ralph Northam came out strongly in support of ending cannabis prohibition, saying “it’s time to legalize.” “Our Commonwealth has an opportunity to be the first state in the South to take this step, and…

The University of Montana's Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) released a study analyzing the potential economic benefits of legalizing and taxing marijuana. The researchers, led by BBER Director Dr. Patrick Barkey, project that Montana will generate $236 million in new revenue from marijuana sales by 2026. Click here to read the full report. The study anticipates a significant boost will come from tourists visiting Montana,…

We wanted to share with you a study performed by Professor Fred Cartensen, Director of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis (CCEA), and commissioned by MPP with the goal of better understanding the potential economic effects of cannabis legalization in Connecticut. The estimates are conservative and provide insight into the financial possibilities that lie ahead once Connecticut begins to regulate and tax cannabis like other states in the region and throughout the country. The study projects…

A new study published in the American Journal of Public Health found little effect of adult-use marijuana laws on prevalence of marijuana use among youth.In this examination, researchers focused specifically on 504 justice system-involved adolescents in California, who, as they point out, have substantially higher marijuana use levels as compared to the general youth population. Among this population, they found marijuana use levels in the past 24 hours were similar in 2015 (before adult-use marijuana…

Last Wednesday, Dale Quigley, deputy coordinator for the National Marijuana Initiative, a project of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program, spoke virtually with North Dakota lawmakers, who began a study of adult-use cannabis 10 months ago. As policy makers in North Dakota continue to examine how legal cannabis is working in other states, Quigley presented findings from Colorado, one of the first two states to legalize adult-use cannabis in 2012. During his presentation, Quigley…

The 18-year-old question as to whether or not legalizing medical marijuana causes an increase in crime seems to be answered in a recent study by a team of researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas this week. The results did not indicate a “crime exacerbating effect” of medical marijuana on any of the Part I offenses, which (according to the FBI) include homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and auto theft. Alternatively, states with medical marijuana laws showed…

[caption id="attachment_7012" align="alignright" width="180"] Dr. Wai Liu[/caption] Studies have shown that marijuana not only helps fight the symptoms of treating cancer but also the disease itself. THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, often gets the credit for battling cancer cells, but a new study shows that THC isn’t working alone. The study conducted at St. George’s University of London, led by Dr. Wai Liu, examined six non-hallucinogenic chemicals found in marijuana, called cannabinoids. The study…

A study looking at survey data pooled in 2010/11 comes from Northern Ireland and reveals that marijuana use rates tend to be greater for those engaged in higher education, and are also consistently lower in groups that left education before age 15. As it turns out, the group most frequently using marijuana in their lifetime is a composite of professionals and managers, whereas marijuana useage is lowest among semi-skilled and unskilled laborers. This information is also consistent with data gathered…

A study released by the American Medical Association is getting a whole lot of attention this week, as it rightly should. This study, which shows that people who smoke marijuana exhibit little to no harmful pulmonary effects from their use, pokes a gigantic, gaping hole in one of the most often-employed attacks against marijuana reform. According to the 20-year study, those who used marijuana occasionally (2-3 times a month) did not show any decrease in lung functioning and, in some cases, actually…