Multiple States on Track to Loosen Marijuana Restrictions This Year

     February 2022, Black History Month, has been a historic month for marijuana legalization in the United States. This is fitting, because the War on Drugs launched by Richard Nixon on June 18th, 1971, was really launched ahead of his 1972 election campaign, the Watergate campaign, as a war on the people of color who hated everything he stood for.

     In 2021, New Jersey, Arizona, Montana, New York, Virginia, New Mexico, and Connecticut legalized marijuana; the St. Regis Mohawk and Crow Native Americans did the same; Colorado and Oregon increased the legal amount of marijuana that can be possessed; Louisiana decriminalized marijuana; and more.

     In February 2022, Mississippi became the 37th state to legalize medical marijuana. The Senates of Georgia and South Carolina have passed medical marijuana bills this month. In Delaware, the House approved a bill to legalize recreational marijuana. A bill to legalize marijuana in Rhode Island is expected to be brought up in a matter of weeks. In Hawaii, a bill to legalize recreational marijuana was sent for a full House vote by a subcommittee. The GOP-controlled New Hampshire House passed a bill to legalize recreational marijuana back in January, the same month a group of Republican lawmakers proposed legalizing medical marijuana in Wisconsin.

     In Nebraska, where marijuana is already decriminalized, medical marijuana will be on the ballot in November; with more than 80 percent support, mobilizing enough voters would virtually guarantee it passes. Maryland's legislature will vote on marijuana this year: if the Republican governor, Larry Hogan, vetoes the bill, the legislature can override it; if the legislature fails, it, too, will be on the ballot in November.

     Just as consequentially, the House passed a bill including the SAFE Banking Act, a bipartisan bill that would allow for increased investments in marijuana industries at the state level, on February 4th, the same day Chuck Schumer announced that the Senate would consider the MORE Act, a bill to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, in April.

     10 years ago, Washington and Colorado became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana. Now, it appears that medical marijuana will be legalized in all but a handful of states within the next year or so and that the majority of states will have legalized marijuana in the same amount of time. This is a huge step to ending the War on Drugs, and we're nowhere near done: as marijuana restrictions continue to be loosened, it's past time to pass the EQUAL Act ending the crack-cocaine disparity, legalize psychedelic drugs, and decriminalize all drugs.