These states could next legalize cannabis in 2022

At the beginning of 2021, 13 state parliaments had measures to legalize leisure activities on the table. New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Connecticut, and New Mexico have actually enforced and legalized cannabis for all adults. It is now legal to own in all three states. Retail markets are expected to open in all of these states over the next year except Virginia, which won’t allow retail stores until 2024.

Who’s next?

“The pressure on lawmakers at all levels of government is really weighing on taking action,” said Carly Wolf, NORML’s state policy director. “Public and political support has only increased.”

With the upcoming midterm elections in November 2022, some state lawmakers are facing increasing pressure to pass a legalization bill they have drawn up – or to have voters pass their own bill.

Here’s what’s happening in states that are most seriously considering legalizing adult use, in order of most likely to least likely.

Maryland

Maryland lawmakers started this year with confidence that they would pass an adult use bill only to see the legislation stall. But all signs point to approval in 2022.

In July, Adrienne Jones, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chair of the Panel’s Democratic majority, promised that the issue would be brought up to voters in 2022 as a referendum will begin to work out rules for a regulated industry before voters formally approve one.

A March 2021 Goucher College poll found that two-thirds of Marylanders supported full legalization, including more than half of Republican voters, so the effort has a good chance of success.

Missouri

Missouri legalization advocates are confident they will approve a regulated market in the coming year. Legal Missouri 2022 is one of two groups that aim to put voters in a referendum to vote on. However, the coronavirus didn’t make it easy.

“The last attempt this coalition made was in 2020,” John Payne, campaign manager for Legal Missouri 2022, told Leafly. “We collected signatures and things went very well. And then the world somehow stopped. “

The group’s most recent constitutional amendment was approved by the Missouri Secretary of State in early October, paving the way for collecting the approximately 171,000 signatures they will need.

With a “strong coalition and strong fundraising” Payne gives the campaign an “80-90 percent” chance of success this year.

Missouri 2022 legislation would include home growing and some justice measures like the automatic overturning of previous cannabis convictions.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma lawyers are trying to expand and better manage cannabis sales in that state and earlier this month moved for a proposed constitutional amendment that will legalize adult use in 2022.

Oklahoma passed a medical cannabis program in 2018 that has grown to be one of the most permissive in the country, with few restrictions on who can qualify. Described without exception as the “Wild West” of weed in the news reports, medical cannabis has exploded in Oklahoma in the past three years, and nearly 10 percent of the state’s population has received a medical recommendation.

The current proposal would allow people over the age of 21 to own up to 8 ounces of cannabis without medical approval and grow up to 12 plants. The move would also replace the current regulator to better organize the state’s wide-open industry.

Ohio

Ohio is the largest state with a real chance of legalization in the near future, but its complicated “initiated statute” process means there is no smooth path to adult use in Buckeye State.

“The entire constitutional approach initiated for an initiative is really opaque,” Douglas Berman, law professor at Ohio State University and executive director of the university’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, told Leafly. “But it makes it very likely that this will be voted on by November 2022.”

In late August, a group called the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol was cleared to begin collecting signatures for the first phase of what is likely a two-step process.

They will need around 130,000 support signatures to qualify their bill. If the measure is rejected by lawmakers or no action is taken within four months – an outcome that Berman believes is likely, given the Conservative state house and governor of Ohio – the measure could be presented to voters in the 2022 election. But only after a second, expensive collection of signatures.

Berman believes that the stakeholders involved can rise to the organizational challenge of a double petition phase and that adult use has a good chance of success. Still, politics could be fluid amid a heated mid-term election, he said, and Ohio voters turned down a controversial adult use bill in 2015.

The proposed measure would legalize the possession of up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and the cultivation of up to six plants per person. It would also include the overturning of many previous nonviolent cannabis convictions.

Arkansas

Arkansas, like Missouri, is another state where legalization efforts have withered over the past year under pressure from the coronavirus. Arkansas True Grass attorneys have been forced to abandon their signature collection as the number of cases increased. They are back for 2022, and if they can collect the 89,000 or so signatures they need, voters in November’s mid-term elections can vote for a constitutional amendment that will create a legal market for adult use.

Proponents refer to the move as economic and criminal law reform, but also hope the addition will improve patient access as part of the medical program approved by Arkansas voters in 2016. and retail costs haven’t moved from the highest dollar on the ban days, averaging $ 20 per gram in state pharmacies.

The move would amend the state’s constitution to allow retail sales to adults over the age of 21, allow up to 12 plants to be grown, and lift convictions for some of those convicted of nonviolent cannabis offenses.

Pennsylvania

After neighbors in New Jersey and New York begin establishing regulated markets, proponents in Pennsylvania are hoping that adult consumption policies introduced by the state legislature last year will pick up momentum. A bill, proposed but not formally tabled in February, would set up a retail industry and allow home-growing, while a similar measure without the growing rules was introduced in late September. Both bills contain measures of justice and, for the first time for the state, bipartisan sponsorship.

Legalization is increasingly supported by the highest officials in Pennsylvania. Governor Tom Wolf said in February that he would make cannabis legalization a priority for 2021 and joined other senior officials like Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman who have long called for an end to the ban.

Fetterman in particular has been an outspoken proponent of cannabis for years, sometimes stabbing his Republican counterparts by hoisting a weed leaf flag and LGBTQ pride banner from his office balcony.

Whether legalization can gain momentum in Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled legislature despite support from above is an open question. A spokesman for the House Majority Leader told the Philadelphia Inquirer this month that there was “no significant support” from Republicans there at the moment.

Florida

After previous voting initiatives were blocked twice in quick succession by the state’s highest court this summer, attorneys in Florida are making another attempt to enforce an adult-use measure in front of voters in 2022. is confident that their ballots will pass the legal review.

The Florida Supreme Court overturned two previous cannabis voting measures and said the summary submitted by supporters was misleading as it did not specifically warn of conflicting federal laws or detail ownership restrictions. The latest language circumvents these concerns by drastically narrowing its scope; it would legalize adult cultivation and possession, but not establish a retail system.

Language aside, attorneys will face new challenges this time around after Florida lawmakers set stricter contribution limits on electoral initiatives in April, part of a decade-long effort by Florida Republicans to weaken the citizen initiative process.

Chris Kudialis and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Jon Campbell

Jon Campbell is an investigative journalist based in New York City. As a former writer for the Village Voice, Campbell has contributed to The Daily Beast, The Appeal, Slate, Salon, Gothamist, and other national publications. Follow him on Twitter @ j0ncampbell.

View article by Jon Campbell

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