“Once again, the lesson is clear: Legalizing and regulating marijuana markets is preferable to prohibiting them. Placing marijuana products behind the counter keeps cannabis out of the hands of young people and it reduces the public’s appetite for these unregulated novel intoxicants.”
“This bill is a slap in the face to the millions of Ohioans who voted in favor of Issue 2. Once again, politicians are arrogantly trying to claim that the public didn’t know what they were voting for.”
“Every year that we do not enact retail sales in Virginia for adult use marijuana is another year that the Commonwealth is choosing to continue ceding control of the marijuana market to untaxed, illicit operators.”
“At a time when voters and politicians are largely divided, there is one issue that Americans largely agree upon: It’s time to legalize and regulate marijuana.”
Those populations most vulnerable to cannabis-related adverse health events stand to benefit from a regulatory environment that promotes consumer education, product quality control and responsible use.
“Marijuana-related prosecutions remain the primary driver of drug war enforcement in those states where marijuana-related activities remain criminalized. It is shameful that hundreds of thousands of Americans continue to be arrested annually in these jurisdictions for cannabis-related violations that the majority of voters no longer believe should be a crime.”
“Our results show no evidence of widespread fentanyl co-occurrence with cannabis,” the study’s authors concluded.
“These results illustrate that cannabis regulation, coupled with consumer education, can provide sufficient safeguards to protect — and potentially even improve — mental health outcomes, particularly among more vulnerable populations.”