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<\/div>\nIf marijuana policy advocates’ plans come to fruition in the new year,\u00a02018 will bring about the first legalization laws passed by lawmakers; to date, all eight states to end cannabis prohibition did it through voter initiatives.<\/p>\n
Here’s a look at the states that are most likely to enact marijuana reforms in 2018:<\/p>\n
Vermont<\/strong><\/p>\n The Green Mountain state appears ready to legalize cannabis very soon.\u00a0House and Senate leaders and Gov. Phil Scott (R) have signaled in recent weeks that they are\u00a0prepared to legalize marijuana<\/a>\u00a0shortly after the legislature reconvenes on January 3. Because the state operates on a biennium, all that is needed is one more House vote in favor of a previously-Senate-passed bill that the governor has pledged to sign.<\/p>\n The legislation is different that other existing legalization laws because it would not create a system of taxed and regulated cannabis sales, at least not initially. It would\u00a0instead legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana as well as low-level home cultivation, while a study commission\u00a0would examine potential future legal commercialization.<\/p>\n New Jersey<\/strong><\/p>\n Gov.-elect Phil Murphy (D)\u00a0campaigned on legalization<\/a>, and the Senate president says he\u2019s ready to pass a bill in 2018. While some key lawmakers have\u00a0signaled<\/a>\u00a0that they’d prefer not to rush into passing big changes to marijuana laws, the sponsor of a Senate legalization bill says he wants to get it to the governor’s desk within the\u00a0first 100 days<\/a>\u00a0of the new administration.<\/p>\n Murphy consistently\u00a0pledged to end prohibition<\/a>\u00a0on the campaign trail, often describing it as an important piece of a broader criminal justice reform agenda, in addition to touting the tax revenue it would generate. Failing to shepherd a legalization bill to enactment in the Garden State would amount to a broken promise and likely\u00a0be somewhat of an embarrassment\u00a0for the new governor.<\/p>\n Michigan<\/strong><\/p>\n Advocates are poised to\u00a0place a marijuana legalization measure\u00a0on the state’s November ballot.<\/p>\n A similar proposal fell just short of qualifying in 2016, but the new effort is better-funded and has the support of national groups like the Marijuana Policy Project.\u00a0Several surveys have shown majority support for legalization, including one this May that found\u00a0likely voters<\/a>\u00a0back ending prohibition by a margin of 58 percent to 36 percent.<\/p>\n If the measure is approved, Michigan would be the first state in the Midwest to end cannabis prohibition.<\/p>\n Oklahoma<\/strong><\/p>\n Activists\u00a0have already succeeded in collecting enough signatures to\u00a0place a medical cannabis measure before voters. There was a chance the measure could have gone on the 2016 ballot but, because a dispute over the measure\u2019s official ballot title with then-Attorney General Scott Pruitt (now U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator) was not resolved by the state Supreme Court in time, its consideration was delayed until the next election.<\/p>\n Gov. Mary Fallin (R) says she will announce after the new year whether it will\u00a0appear on the June primary ballot<\/a>\u00a0or will be considered during the November general election.<\/p>\n A 2013 poll found that 71 percent of the state\u2019s\u00a0likely voters<\/a>\u00a0support medical cannabis.<\/p>\n Utah<\/strong><\/p>\n Activists are mounting a well-funded effort to qualify a medical marijuana measure for the state’s November ballot. If approved, the proposed measure would allow\u00a0patients with cancer, HIV\/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, PTSD, chronic pain and other specifically enumerated conditions to use medical cannabis preparations, but they would not be allowed to smoke the drug.<\/p>\n An October Salt Lake Tribune\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0found that 75 percent of the state\u2019s registered voters back medical marijuana.\u00a0If the conservative state, along with Oklahoma, approves medical cannabis it would send a strong signal that the issue is not a partisan one.<\/p>\n Missouri<\/strong><\/p>\n The Show Me State could potentially see\u00a0three\u00a0separate medical cannabis ballot measures<\/a>\u00a0qualify in\u00a02018.<\/p>\n Competing teams are currently working to collect\u00a0signatures for measures that would allow patients to use medical marijuana with their doctors’ recommendations. If one or\u00a0more of the measures pass, the result could be in flux. Whereas the measure with the most votes usually prevails in instances of\u00a0same-topic\u00a0questions appearing on the same ballot, in this case two of the measures are constitutional amendments and one is a statutory change. Enacted constitutional provisions take precedence over statutes, of course, but if the statutory measure gets more votes than either of the proposed constitutional changes, it’s not clear which would be enacted. Litigation would likely ensue.<\/p>\n A July 2016 survey found that\u00a0voters<\/a>\u00a0favored an earlier proposed ballot measure by a margin of 62 percent to 27 percent.<\/p>\n Virginia<\/strong><\/p>\n Gov.-elect Ralph Northam (D)\u00a0made marijuana decriminalization a centerpiece of his campaign<\/a>, often describing the issue in stark racial justice terms.<\/p>\n Removing criminal penalties for cannabis appears to have bipartisan support in the state. Republican Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment has\u00a0pledged<\/a>\u00a0to file a decriminalization bill early in 2018.<\/p>\n And the effort could get an additional boost by Democrats’ surprising number of wins in House of Delegates races this past November. Depending on the results\u00a0for two still-pending\u00a0seats under review, the party could either have a narrow majority in the chamber or be tied with Republicans. The GOP has a two-seat majority in the Senate, but tie votes there would be broken by the Democratic lieutenant governor.<\/p>\n Other Possibilities<\/strong><\/p>\n A team of wealthy individuals in Ohio\u00a0announced this month<\/a>\u00a0that they will work to qualify a marijuana legalization measure for the state’s 2018 ballot. A 2015\u00a0initiative pushed by the same group was overwhelmingly rejected by voters.\u00a0That\u00a0campaign\u00a0generated opposition from many longtime legalization activists because it proposed creating an oligopoly on cannabis cultivation for the very investors who paid to put it on the ballot. Advocates were also turned off by the campaign\u2019s usage of a cartoony mascot, \u201cBuddie,\u201d which raised concerns about appealing to children. The team has said that it learned from those mistakes.<\/p>\n While Vermont and New Jersey are seen as most likely to pass marijuana legalization bills through their legislatures in 2018, advocates are also working to build momentum for bills to end prohibition in a number of other states next year. Among\u00a0those are Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois and Rhode Island, any or all of which could potentially send legalization legislation to their governor’s desks in the coming months.<\/p>\n 2018 is likely to be one of the most active years to date for marijuana legislation, and lawmakers in a number of states have already gotten\u00a0a head start and\u00a0begun\u00a0prefiling bills for new sessions<\/a>\u00a0that begin in January.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tom Angell edits cannabis news portal\u00a0Marijuana Moment<\/a>\u00a0and founded the nonprofit\u00a0Marijuana Majority<\/a>. Follow Tom on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0subscribe to his newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Retrieved from: https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/tomangell\/2017\/12\/26\/these-states-are-likely-to-legalize-marijuana-in-2018\/2\/#6db476591b04<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" These States Are Likely To Legalize Marijuana In 2018 December 27, 2017 \u00a0Tom Angell\u00a0,\u00a0CONTRIBUTOR I cover the policy and politics of marijuana\u00a0\u00a0Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. After\u00a0four of\u00a0five statewide marijuana legalization ballot initiatives\u00a0were approved by voters in 2016, no additional states\u00a0ended cannabis prohibition\u00a0in 2017 (though New Hampshire …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cannabis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}