New Jersey courts have either dismissed or vacated an estimated 362,000 marijuana cases since July 1 and an additional 150,000 New Jersey residents may also be eligible to have their marijuana-related records automatically expunged in the near future.
Senate Bill 311 (a/k/a Ryan’s Law) provides for “a terminally ill patient’s use of medicinal cannabis within the health care facility.”
Lawmakers participating in a Study Committee have recommended that legislators formally rescind language in the law that permits patients to grow up to three marijuana plants. A majority of House and Senate lawmakers would still need to approve those recommendations before they could take effect.
Texas NORML and other advocates had sought to further amend the bill to include eligibility for chronic pain patients and to raise the THC to five percent. House lawmakers agreed to the additional changes, but members of the Senate ultimately removed those provisions.
“The sponsors of this year’s recall election are no friends of marijuana or criminal justice reform. Whatever else might be said about Gavin Newsom, no governor has been so supportive of legal marijuana,” California NORML said in an action alert.
Colorado NORML is urging voters to decide against Initiative #25, opining that excessive taxation on regulated marijuana products will drive consumers back to the illicit market. “This Ballot Initiative is an unnecessary tax burden,” Colorado NORML states in an action alert.
Forty-nine percent of respondents said that they have consumed cannabis – up from one-in-three Americans two decades ago. Twelve percent of respondents identify as current consumers of marijuana.
Authors collected data on the percentage of adults in each state who acknowledged having used cannabis within the last year. They then cross-referenced those percentages with the most recent population data from the U.S. Census Bureau to calculate the number of cannabis users per capita (per 100,000 residents) in each state.