Marijuana legalization has become a reality in many U.S. states and a lot of hopes are pinned on this year too. This post from Yahoo.com brings to you a map of every state and their marijuana laws.
This year could be big one for marijuana legalization, with states like Arizona, Maine and Vermont likely to jump on the bandwagon, which is already led by Alaska, Colorado and Washington. As of June, marijuana was legalized in some way in 23 states and Washington D.C, proving that a revolution is already underway.
But federally, marijuana is still considered a Schedule I drug — along with heroin and LSD — meaning that it has a high potential for abuse. That’s left both the industry and consumers in a confusing gray area, since in states like Washington, people over the age of of 21 can walk into a commercial dispensary to buy an ounce of marijuana.
President Barack Obama has said on record that he supports “carefully prescribed medical use” of marijuana, and reducing incarceration rates from marijuana possession and crime, according to the Huffington Post. Marijuana crimes account for about 30% of drug arrests, advocacy groupNorml found. “At a certain point, if enough states end up decriminalizing, Congress may then reschedule marijuana,” he told Vice‘s Shane Smith in March.
To illustrate what’s actually going in the nation regarding marijuana legalization, below is a map that shows which states have decriminalized marijuana and to what extent, according toLeafly and as of Feb. 1. The dark green represents states with recreational marijuana; the red represents states where marijuana is illegal; the yellow represents states where marijuana is decriminalized; the light green represents states where there’s legal medical marijuana.
The change will probably be worth it. If marijuana is decriminalized, Norml estimates government savings in taxes and law enforcement costs to range from $8 to $16 billion per year. And in 2015, legal marijuana sales reached $5.4 billion, which is 17.4% more than 2014’s $4.6 billion, according to data from cannabis industry-tracking company the ArcView Group, CNBC reported.
These are states with legal recreational marijuana:
1. Alaska
2. Colorado
3. Oregon
4. Washington
These are states with legal medical marijuana:
1. Alaska
2. Arizona
3. California
4. Colorado
5. Connecticut
6. Delaware
7. Hawaii
8. Illinois
9. Maine
10. Maryland
11. Massachusetts
12. Michigan
13. Minnesota
14. Montana
15. Nevada
16. New Hampshire
17. New Jersey
18. New Mexico
19. New York
20. Oregon
21. Rhode Island
22. Vermont
23. Washington
Source: Here’s a Map of Every State and Their Marijuana Laws – Yahoo News
