Articles tagged with "legalization"

Congress made progress on two of the most prominent cannabis reform bills this week, setting up key votes that could greenlight cannabis banking and OK state-level legalization.

Legalization has traveled a route that looks, from a distance, like the red-and-blue maps that frame many a US political conversation. But look closer, and the trend isn’t so clear.

People angry about sweeping changes made to a voter-approved medical cannabis law called on the state’s highest court to rein in the Legislature’s power to alter ballot measures.

“We’ll be back at this,” Senate President Steve Sweeney said at a news conference Monday after the vote was called off. “Anybody who thinks this is dead is wrong.”

That doesn’t mean it’s dead. But it does leave advocates with a tougher road ahead.

Legislative leaders are “making progress, but we have a ways to go,” Gov. Phil Murphy said this week.

The influx is a good sign for cannabis reform’s prospects in Congress, but it can also be confusing: Why can’t lawmakers work together on a single bill to address everything?

Support for legalization is strongest among 18-to-34-year-olds, with nearly 75% favoring it, according to a widely respected survey of social trends.

The bill envisions a robust social equity program, a pathway for small businesses to engage in the industry, and even an eco-conscious vape pen recycling program.

The bill has stalled in the Senate Finance Committee, and it doesn’t appear that the chair of the panel plans to give it a hearing.