4/20
The United States of Weed
IF IT SEEMS like a new state is legalizing cannabis nearly every week, don’t worry, you’re not high — states are indeed allowing adult-use of the drug at an unprecedented pace. If the wave of green legislation is slowing to some degree now, that’s only because so many states have already taken action. That doesn’t mean the wave will stop. Since our last update two years ago, numerous states have passed recreational or medical laws. At the same time, setbacks have come as ballot initiatives have been rejected. In other instances, lawmakers and certain governors remain steadfast in their opposition to pot.
It’s now a question of when, not if, politicians in Washington, D.C., will get with the program and decide to do what the majority of Americans support by passing legislation to end federal prohibition once and for all. In 2022, Politico reported that over 155 million Americans lived in a legal cannabis state after the November 2022 Election Day results — inching closer to 50 percent of the population. In the meantime, states are continuing to prime themselves to legalize the drug, either for medicinal use, recreational use, or both. Here’s where things stand is all 50 of them:
Alabama
Status: Medically Legal
In 2021, Republican Governor Kay Ivey in May signed a bill legalizing cannabis for medicinal use, although the program will be one of the most restrictive in the nation. Medicinal THC will only be available in capsules, lozenges, oils, suppositories, and topical gels and patches — so no smokeable flower, no vaping, no edibles — to treat the list of approved conditions. Patients will need to wait a bit longer even if they qualify. The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) has stated that dispensaries will open in late 2023 at its earliest.
But even a restrictive medicinal bill is a major step forward in a state that has been called out by the Southern Poverty Law Center for having “draconian” cannabis laws. An ACLU study found that in 2018 Black people were over four times more likely to be arrested for possession than white people.
Legislative efforts have been taken in 2022 and 2023 to change the medical program. Additional efforts include SB 42. Introduced in March 2023, the measure would remove felony possession charges and instead levy $200 fines against offenders. Three additional bills are currently in committee.
Alaska
Status: Fully Legal
Alaska was one of the first states to allow medical marijuana, legalizing in 1998 — but the measure didn’t allow for sales, so it wasn’t much of a program. Then, the state became one of the early adopters of adult-use recreational marijuana, with voters passing a ballot measure in 2014. But rollout also came with some setbacks: dispensaries were slow to open, and getting product to remote parts of the state — accessible only by air travel, which is governed by federal law — proved difficult.
But after the first dispensary opened its doors in 2016, things picked up — Anchorage, home to 40 percent of the state’s population, had $9 million in pot sales in 2020, a 25-percent increase from 2019. In 2021, Alaska added $28.9 million to the state general fund via cannabis excise taxes. That figure was supported, in part, because Alaskans pay the highest adult use flower taxes in the country. In December 2022, the Tax Policy Center reported that Alaskans paid $57.50 on an ounce of cannabis.
Arizona
Status: Fully Legal
Medicinal cannabis has been legal in Arizona since 2010, and in 2020 the state voted overwhelmingly to legalize it for recreational use, too. The measure that passed that November allowed for adults 21 and over to possess up to one ounce of cannabis, grow up to six plants, and provided an opportunity for people to have their criminal records expunged for certain cannabis-related crimes. It also called for a quick turnaround time for lawmakers to sort out the market rules and dole out licenses. As a result, the first recreational cannabis sales were made in late January. In 2022, Arizona registered over $1.4 billion in total cannabis sales — and adult use accounted for almost 70 percent of the purchases.
Arkansas
Status: Medically Legal
Arkansas voted to legalize cannabis for medicinal use in 2016. Qualified registered patients and caregivers are permitted to carry up to 2.5 ounces to treat qualifying conditions. Since the first dispensary opened in Hot Springs in 2019, residents have spent over $250 million on medical cannabis. In 2022, the state set a new sales record for medical cannabis, generating over $273 million, according to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration.
In November 2022, Arkansas rejected its first initiated constitutional measure on legalization, known as Issue 4. It was defeated with more than 56 percent of the vote.
California
Status: Fully Legal
California is the OG of weed legalization — since they approved medical marijuana with Prop 215 in 1996 (largely on the backs of LGBTQ activists advocating for AIDS patients, but that’s a different story) the state has been at the forefront of legalization, introducing non-profit cooperatives in 2003, and allowing a proliferation of retail dispensaries for medical product — many with dubious credentials — in 2010. But in 2016, when voters passed an adult-use legalization measure, the state made a crucial mistake: high taxes and expensive licenses discouraged existing retailers and customers to make the switch, and the established gray market just, well, stayed put. Though the legal market hit $5.3 billion in annual sales last year, the figure marks a roughly eight percent decline from 2022.
The state’s mistake has since inspired other legalizing states, like New York (more on that below), to put an emphasis on turning unlicensed operators into legal ones — and making sure the customers can afford what they’re selling. As California attempts to correct its costly decisions, operators across the legal and unlicensed markets continue to fear extinction. Flower prices are plummeting while licensed shops attempt to compete with unlicensed operations offering cheaper products tax-free and often not lab tested. In October 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom’s office announced its task force had “eradicated” over 11,000 illegal plants, or roughly 5,200 pounds of pot, totaling more than $15 million in cannabis.
Colorado
Status: Fully Legal
Colorado, which passed a ballot initiative in 2012, was the first state to establish a recreational marijuana market. They got some things right — like having 12.59 percent of retail cannabis tax collected deposited into the State Public School Fund. The state has collected $2.3 billion in retail tax revenue since the launch of the market, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue. Colorado has also gotten critical things wrong (i.e., no social equity measures to speak of, resulting in an overwhelmingly white industry). Consequently, the laws surrounding legal cannabis are a work in progress.
In March 2021, Governor Jared Polis signed a bill to establish a social equity program to provide loans, grants, and education for communities hardest hit by the war on drugs. The state also faced attacks from anti-marijuana activists, pushing for potency caps, particularly on extracts, which have long been popular in Colorado. The potency cap bill was enacted in June 2021.
Even if these issues get worked out, the state’s industry has faced criticism from climate activists: a 2021 study found that indoor grows in Colorado have more greenhouse-gas emissions than the state’s coal industry. In February 2023, state officials began a program aimed at minimizing the ongoing energy problem among Colorado cultivators. All the while, sales are falling, with 2022’s roughly $1.7 billion in sales marking a decline from $2.2 billion in 2021.
Connecticut
Status: Fully Legal
In June 2021, Connecticut’s legislature passed a bill to legalize cannabis for recreational use, allowing adults 21 and over to possess up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis. The commercial market bested expectations for a May 2022 opening, with sales beginning in January that year. Half of the available business licenses were earmarked for social equity applicants, with the first social equity joint venture, Fine Fettle, opening the following month. Per regulations, the state allocates up to $50 million for social equity ventures during their initial startup. In January 2023, adult-use sales began after the state’s Social Equity Council approved all medical operators for expansion into the adult-use market. Nineteen dispensaries are open as of April 2023. Starting July 1, 2023, 60 to 75 percent excise tax revenue will go toward the Social Equity and Innovation Fund.
Connecticut has maintained a medical marijuana system for nearly a decade, with roughly 47,000 patients currently enrolled in the program for a wide range of reasons. It came as no surprise when the state legalized recreational use, especially considering nearby New Jersey and New York had done so the year before. “This measure is comprehensive, protects our children and the most vulnerable in our communities, and will be viewed as a national model for regulating the adult-use cannabis marketplace,” Governor Ned Lamont after the legislature passed the legalization bill.
Adding to the state’s 2023 milestones, earlier this month, prosecutors dropped more than 1,500 cannabis convictions while modifying another 600 where cannabis was involved with other crimes.
Delaware
Status: Medically Legal
Delaware is heavily Democratic and the party has a supermajority in the state legislature, but Governor John Carney isn’t a fan of legalization. After a recreational use bill made it through a state House committee in March 2021, a spokesperson stressed that Carney’s position “hasn’t changed” and that he still has “concerns” about legalization. Delaware legalized cannabis for medicinal use way back in 2011, although home cultivation is not allowed. In March 2023, the state Senate sent two legalization and sales bills, HB 1 and HB 2, to the Governor, who has spent the following weeks not answering if he will sign them.
Florida
Status: Medically Legal
Floridians can pick up cannabis from medicinal dispensaries with a doctor’s recommendation but the pickings get slimmer in certain areas of the state, including parts of North Florida. Making matters more difficult, medical patients are not permitted to grow at home. Then there’s the THC limits. In August 2022, the state placed THC caps on edibles (60 mg), vaporizers (350 mg), capsules (200 mg), tinctures (200 mg), topicals (150 mg), and other product types.
Yet progress may be on the horizon. Democrats are pushing a bill to legalize recreational use, although it’s yet to make it onto any committee agendas. In March 2021, a poll by medical cannabis advocacy group Florida for Care found that 58 percent of Floridians are in favor of the state legalizing the drug for adult use. Several attempts to force a ballot initiative have been undertaken in recent years. In early April 2023, an industry-backed reform effort had accumulated over 70 percent of the needed signatures for a ballot initiative. The initiative needs more than 891,000 signatures and a state Supreme Court review of the measure’s language before qualifying for next year’s ballot.
Georgia
Status: Low-THC Products Medically Legal
High-CBD/low-THC cannabis is legal for medical use in Georgia, but don’t let that fool you. With a five-percent THC cap on medical products, the state fails to meet most qualifications as a medical cannabis market. Meanwhile, other THC products remained very much illegal. In 2018, over 50,000 cannabis arrests were made in the state, which had the 5th-highest cannabis-related arrest rate in the nation. The numbers have dwindled in years, but not enough. Nearly 21,500 arrests were made in 2021, according to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and FBI data.
Efforts have been made but continue to hit roadblocks. In 2020, Democrats in the state legislature introduced the Georgia Justice Act, which would decriminalize low-level possession. Lawmakers in both chambers attempted to pass various reform bills in 2022, but once again fell short. A January 2023 poll conducted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that 53 percent of Georgians polled support adult-use legalization. However, with the legislature still controlled by Republicans, the will of the slim majority may not be factored into the laws anytime soon.
Hawaii
Status: Medically Legal
Medical cannabis is legal and possession of less than three grams of cannabis was decriminalized in 2019, but Hawaii does not have a recreational program. Lawmakers have been trying to change that for some time. In February 2021, two bills were approved by a Senate committee, one to increase the decriminalization threshold from three grams to an ounce, and one to legalize cannabis for adult use. Neither were successful.
Hopes are that legalization could come with a legalization-friendly governor, Josh Green, M.D., in office as of last December. But old politics could still stall progress. Efforts in the 2023 Senate failed to pass. Still, with a two-year legislative window, there is hope that some of the 70 bills already filed this year could be revived before the session’s end in 2024.
Idaho
Status: Fully Illegal
Things are not moving in the right direction in Idaho. Not only is anything with a trace of THC illegal, the state has been doing all it can to keep it that way. In early 2021, for example, Idaho’s Senate voted to write cannabis prohibition into the State Constitution, which would have effectively prevented residents from voting to legalize it. (While the Senate approved, it failed in the House.) In 2023, Senate Joint Resolution 101, which would have increased voter-signature requirements for ballot initiatives, was ultimately shot down in the House. A similar measure was struck down by the state Supreme Court around this time.
In November 2022, a ballot initiative effort was announced by activists, seeking its inclusion in the 2024 ballot. Few updates have been made since. Of the three cannabis-related bills introduced during the 2023 session, just one has passed so far. The bill, ID H0095, clarifies that animal-based hemp remedies for certain animals aren’t considered adulterated or lessened in quality. There’s still hope, though — a measure introduced in March by House Health and Welfare Committee Chairman John Vander Woude, a Republican, could bring medical reform to Idaho.
Illinois
Status: Fully Legal
The fight over legalization in Illinois came down not to if, but how. Chicago, perhaps the most segregated city in the U.S., was a ground zero for the war on drugs; for decades, whole swaths of the city had been torn apart by draconian drug laws that seemed to apply only to Black residents. Legalization was coming, but if it didn’t address that history, it was not going to get anywhere. The result was one of the most progressive legalization plans of its time when it was signed in 2019. Not only did it legalize for adults, it guaranteed expungement or pardons for anyone with a low-level nonviolent conviction (nearly half a million people were able to have their records cleared as of December 2020). Some jurisdictions have taken it a step further, funneling pot revenue directly into the communities that were targeted. In March 2021, Evanston, a suburb just north of Chicago, approved what is believed to be the country’s first reparations program, offering housing grants to black residents, funded in part by marijuana tax revenue. (The program has been slow going.)
The region has become a hotbed for cannabis applicants, with equity and non-equity ventures alike applying to operate within a few blocks from one another. In April 2023, the state Senate passed a bill prohibiting police from searching cars due to the smell of cannabis. As of February 2023, the state has expunged nearly a half million cannabis criminal records. Despite its attempts, the state’s cannabis market remains scrutinized over its lack of equitable license holders.
Meanwhile, the state sold a record number of cannabis in 2022, totaling more than $1.5 billion.
Indiana
Status: Fully Illegal
Indiana is very Republican, and cannabis is very illegal there. Though Governor Eric Holcomb signed a bill to legalize CBD in 2018, penalties are still harsh for anything containing more than .3 percent THC. Lawmakers have brought cannabis reform bills to the state’s General Assembly, but Holcomb has said he’s blocking any efforts to legalize it. It’s much of the same as of late. Indiana is still under the Holcomb administration, and despite 17 bills filed during the 2023 legislative session, according to Marijuana Moment, no cannabis measures made it out of committee.
Iowa
Status: CBD Medically Legal
Medicinal cannabis is legal in Iowa, but the program is pretty limited. Only around 5,000 Iowans have medical cards, and patients are not permitted to use flower. It doesn’t look like there’s much chance the state’s Republican-controlled legislature is going to expand the program, either, even though a Des Moines Register poll released in March 2021 found that a whopping 78 percent of residents are in favor of it. That support has gone down slightly, according to a 2023 Morningside University poll, which found 58 percent of respondents supporting adult use legalization.
Reform attempts have been underway for some time. In late 2021, Democratic lawmakers said they had a plan to get legalization on the ballot by 2024 at the earliest. In 2022, Democratic lawmakers filed a legalization bill, while also putting their focus towards efforts to exempt medical cannabis sales from taxes. Of the 11 bills introduced in 2023, nothing passed committee.
Kansas
Status: Low-THC Products Medically Legal
All cannabis is illegal in Kansas, but in February 2021, Democratic Governor Laura Kelly proposed legalizing it for medicinal use to help fun a Medicaid expansion. Weeks later, lawmakers introduced a bill to do just that. “By combining broadly popular, commonsense medical marijuana policy that will generate significant revenue with Medicaid expansion, all logical opposition to expansion is eliminated,” Kelly said. “This bill just makes sense.” Despite the assertion, Kelly’s efforts to expand Medicaid has failed numerous times, whether cannabis was included in the equation or not. A fifth attempt was launched in January 2023. Described as “dead on arrival,” medical cannabis was not really discussed in the proposal.
As of April 2023, CBD containing less than .5 percent THC is all that’s legal, and can only treat certain medical conditions. Medical legalization efforts have continued to stall. After a failure to pass such a bill during the 2022 session, Governor Kelly urged the public to let their lawmakers know how they feel.
Kentucky
Status: Medically Legal
Until recently, CBD was all that citizens could legally obtain in Kentucky. That changed on March 31, 2023, when Kentucky became the 38th state to approve medical cannabis. Governor Andy Beshear signed the bill, SB 47, but citizens will have to wait some time to see it take effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
The law permits registered patients to keep a 30-day supply at home, and carry a 10-day supply on their person at any given time. Specific figures for the supply limits and pricing are still being determined by the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Home cultivation is not permitted.
Louisiana
Status: Medically Legal
Two-thirds of Louisiana voters were in favor of recreational cannabis in the state as of 2021. A year later, a University of New Orleans poll found that 58 percent supported the measure. The dip in support still marks a majority support for reform in an oft-conservative state.
Public desires be damned, legalization efforts remain slow going. The state enacted medical cannabis laws way back in 1991, but it took until 2016 for a comprehensive program to be established. Even then, patients were only allowed tinctures for a limited number of conditions. Gummies and some other extracts have since been allowed, though, and in June of 2021 Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards signed a bill legalizing smokable cannabis for medicinal purposes. A week earlier, he signed a bill decriminalizing possession. “I believe deeply that the state of Louisiana should no longer incarcerate people for minor legal infractions, especially those that are legal in many states, that can ruin lives and destroy families, as well as cost taxpayers greatly,” he wrote. Progress continued in 2022, with nine cannabis-related bills receiving the Governor’s signature. The measures spanned a variety of topics, including medical reciprocity, allowing certain state employees to partake in the program, and expanding the number of allowable dispensaries (or pharmacies as they are called in Louisiana). All 13 bills introduced during the 2023 legislative session remain in committee. Still, the Governor has signaled towards crackdowns on unlicensed THC products while reaffirming he isn’t in favor of further legalization.
Maine
Status: Fully Legal
Though weed was legalized in Maine in 2016, it took a while to get a retail industry set up — it wasn’t until October 2020 that recreational dispensaries finally opened their doors. Already, though, some in the state — which has had a medical program since 1999, reliant mostly on small growers — worry that change is happening too fast. Big, multi-state cannabis companies are targeting Maine (brand names like Keef are already on dispensary shelves) leaving some to worry that the mom-and-pop legacy will be lost. In August 2022, a federal appeals court ruled that the state’s non-resident business prohibition violated the Constitution. With 31 bills filed in 2023, more change could soon come to Maine, as measures like on-site consumption come up for debate. Meanwhile, state cannabis sales doubled in 2022, backed by local, high-quality cannabis products.
Maryland
Status: Fully Legal
Maryland took a while to get to adult-use legalization, because it was stuck at the crossroads — as are many states that were hotspots of the failed drug war — of figuring out how to implement it fairly. Two bills, both focused on social equity, progressed through the state legislature in 2021, but after each getting a single committee hearing, neither advanced. But after voters approved 2022’s constitutional amendment Question 4, lawmakers were on the hook for passing adult-use reform. After an early April passage in Senate, legalization now awaits the signature of Governor Wess Moore, who is expected to sign the bill soon. Sales are slated to begin on July 1, 2023.
Massachusetts
Status: Fully Legal
Despite its reputation as a liberal state, Massachusetts’ legislation can often feel stuck in the past — you can’t buy booze before noon on Sundays, and tattooing was illegal until 2000. So it wasn’t surprising that when Massachusetts became one of the first East Coast states to legalize in 2016 (along with Maine), officials took their time talking out the details; retail sales didn’t begin until July 1st, 2018. Even then, rollout of retail shops were slow, with only 77 licensed recreational dispensaries open as of October 2021. It didn’t help that when the pandemic hit, medical dispensaries were considered essential, but recreational ones were shut down from March until May 2020. As a result, the number of patients in the program grew to over 100,000 that year up from 67,000 the year before.
After the long delays, momentum has certainly picked up. As of January 2023, total adult use sales in the state topped $4 billion. As of November 2022, more than 225 retail dispensaries had opened across the state.
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"The past few years have been a roller coaster ride for legal cannabis in the United States.
A Democrat-controlled White House and Congress, full of elected officials seemingly ready to end prohibition, have so far produced nothing on the federal level.
A number of U.S. bills to support cannabis banking, expunge previous cannabis-related crimes, expand medical cannabis and even decriminalize the plant have all fallen flat.
The small island nation of Malta recently joined Canada and Uruguay as the world’s only nations to allow the sale and use of recreational cannabis, while Germany, Luxembourg, Italy and Mexico all look poised to potentially hop on the adult-use bandwagon at some point in the future.
In the U.S., the situation has proven to be more complex.
Federal legalization doesn’t look likely any time soon, but cannabis on the state level is very much alive and well, with plenty of room to improve.
Based on my experience in the industry, here are my top 12 predictions for what to expect in 2022:
1. U.S. federal legalization will likely not happen.
In fact, industry leaders can expect at least another five to 10 years before Uncle Sam embraces the plant, in my opinion. But it’s not all bad news. As corporate conglomerates continue to buy up cannabis brands in cannabis-legal states, smaller niche businesses can hold onto a bigger piece of the pie thanks to more exclusive markets.
2. More states could potentially pass adult-use.
Uncle Sam might not be ready to make cannabis federally legal, but momentum on the state level is something I’m sure we can expect. Among states with the best chances to approve adult-use this year include Ohio, where advocates are nearing the required 130,000 signatures to force the state legislature to discuss adult-use and put it on November’s ballot. In Arkansas, the campaign needs about 89,000 signatures to put retail cannabis up for a vote this fall; and in Missouri, 170,000 signatures are needed.
Florida’s Supreme Court blocked a pair of recreational petitions last summer, but advocates have put together a more legally sound initiative that could land on the ballot. All signs in Maryland also point to an adult-use initiative at the polls after a pair of prominent state legislators announced they were prioritizing legal cannabis for 2022. Advocates in Oklahoma have filed for a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize adult-use.
3. Brands will continue to merge, producing a small number of extremely large companies.
The big names in cannabis — Curaleaf, Trulieve, Aurora, Green Thumb, Tilray and Canopy — could likely get even bigger as more states pass adult-use and more small- and medium-sized businesses look to cash out.
4. Companies will continue to go public with IPOs.
IPOs will happen — to the extent possible, that is. Prohibition makes landing on the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ incredibly difficult for cannabis companies. Instead, look for more firms to go public via pink sheets and over-the-counter markets.
5. Retail giants like Amazon and Walmart likely won’t enter the industry.
Prohibition makes rolling the dice on cannabis a losing proposition for most U.S. retailers. The potential profits aren’t worth the extreme risk.
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