Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says that in itself sets the program up for failure.

"Louisiana seems to be an example of how to over regulate the product," Armentano says. "The program is not in the best interests of many of the patients it's designed to serve."

"People should never have to choose between their medication and their employment," Paul Armentano, deputy director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said in an email.

"The DEA’s rescheduling of this plant-derived medicine provides an additional option to patients seeking the therapeutic benefits of cannabis," said Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML. "However, it remains to be seen to what degree physicians will be comfortable prescribing this new agent, and whether most patients can feasibly afford it.”

Armentano added: “We anticipated that Epidiolex will be the first of many potential FDA-approved medicines based on the cannabis plant. These are welcome alternatives. But these products should not be regulated in such a manner that patients no longer have ready access to herbal cannabis — a product that humans have used safely and effectively as a medicine for thousands of years and is approved today by statute in 31 states.”

Abner Brown with North Carolina NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) wants to create a conversation about cannabis, rallying with others for legalization. 

"We're going to set ourselves up for the best chance possible," Brown said. "We've sent letters out and have contacted all of our elected officials in North Carolina, and those that were running, to get their responses about how they felt about cannabis reform."

Sessions lost his job as chair of the House Rules Committee in a failed re-election bid. Goodlatte, who ran the House Judiciary Committee, chose to retire. As a result, wrote Deputy Director Paul Armentano of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, “it would be political malpractice for the (GOP) to not prioritize enacting comprehensive marijuana policy reform in the 116th Congress.”

Still, had we compared notes, advocates for both issues would have observed similarities. Gay and lesbian people and marijuana users were social outsiders, considered deviant by mainstream opinion. "Both groups were not held in high regard by mainstream America," says Keith Stroup, NORML's founder. The reforms they advocated threatened to undermine the social order and cause a cascade of uncontrollable consequences, or so the public feared.

Despite majority public support in favor of marijuana legalization, and super-majority support in favor of medical cannabis access, members of Congress have nonetheless been reticent to move forward with any significant changes to federal pot policy. That is, until now.

The legislation has been endorsed by the Drug Policy Alliance, the National Cannabis Industry Reform Association and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. 

Erik Altieri, executive director of the marijuana advocacy group NORML, didn’t mince words when commenting on Sessions’ Nov. 7 departure.

“NORML hopes (Sessions) finds the time during his retirement to seek treatment for his affliction of 1950’s reefer madness.”

According to survey data compiled by the American Legion, we now know that 22 percent of veterans self-report consuming marijuana to alleviate symptoms stemming from a physical or mental ailment.

The longer it takes the state to set up retail stores, the more people will be home growing,” said Matt Abel, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws or NORML. “I expect a rush on the grow stores in December because people are going to be getting lights and fans for Christmas.”

“Marijuana law reform is not a ‘red’ or ‘blue’ issue, it is a nonpartisan position favored by most Americans, including those residing in the heartland of America,” Paul Armentano, deputy director of marijuana advocacy group NORML, tells Mother Jones.

“Representative Pete Sessions was the single greatest impediment in the U.S. House to the passage of common-sense, voter-supported marijuana law reform measures,” NORML political director Justin Strekal said in a statement. “His departure opens the door for the possibility of House lawmakers in 2019 enacting a number of significant, NORML-endorsed policy changes.”

"The strategy in the House is going to be an all-of-the-above approach,” Justin Strekal, political director for marijuana advocacy group NORML, tells Rolling Stone. “It would be political malpractice for the Democratic Party to not advance comprehensive marijuana reform in the 116th Congress.”

Missouri voters voted not on one, but three different cannabis measures: Amendment 2, Amendment 3, and Proposition C. According to St. Louis Public Radio, the major differences in the proposed policies revolve around how much cannabis products are taxed.

However, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) only endorsed Amendment 2 — which was the only one out of the three to successfully pass. “Amendment 2 is written in a manner that best provides for the needs of patients and their physicians,” the NORML statement said. The amendment regulates licensed production and distribution to qualified medical patients with certain conditions. The measure will tax marijuana products at 4% and go toward state regulating agencies, compared to the proposed 15% tax rate on the failed Amendment 3 plan.

“This isn't done. Just because we passed legalization we have many more hurdles to accomplish. expungement is one, federal banking is one, criminal justice reform on the national scale,” said Rick Thompson of Michigan NORML.

"Passage of Amendment 2 creates a robust statewide system for production and sale of medical cannabis,” Justin Strekal, the political director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said in a press release. “Of the three proposals on the ballot, we believed that Amendment 2 was the clear choice for voters, and the voters agreed.”

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which tracked the progress of the Michigan vote and the marijuana ballot initiatives in other states, said voters’ approval of Proposal 1 was a “resounding rebuke” of the state’s policy of prohibition and of its “racist application” of arrests. In 2016, the Michigan police made over 22,000 marijuana-related arrests, the executive director of Norml, Erik Altieri, said in a statement on Wednesday. “That wasteful and harmful practice ends today,” he said.

"All of the ballot initiatives 'have a very good chance of passing,'" said Erik Altieri of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that's long pushed for an end to the national prohibition against marijuana.

The organization has been involved in each of the four ballot initiatives in varying capacities, including fostering grassroots support and knocking on doors of constituents to raise support, Altieri said.

"Despite the pushback from Attorney General Sessions (or maybe because of), this year has been one of our most successful in terms of support," he added. "We've have more pieces of federal marijuana reform legislation introduced this year than in any other."

“Voters in Michigan sent a resounding rebuke to their state’s failed policy of prohibition and elected to follow a new, more sensible path of regulation and legalization," NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri said. "Instead of arresting thousands of citizens a year for possession of a plant, Michigan will now be able to prioritize law enforcement resources towards combating violent crime, honor personal freedom and civil liberties, end the racist application of weaponizing prohibition laws against communities of color and collect tax revenue that was previously going to black market elements and put it towards important social programs such as education and infrastructure development.”

On Election Day, NORML urges voters to stand with New Approach Missouri and to vote “Yes” for Amendment 2. Quite simply, Amendment 2 — unlike its competitors — puts the interests of patients first.

Legendary musician David Crosby is the new voice of a campaign to legalize recreational marijuana in North Dakota.

"s he outlined the issues, Cain noted marijuana was legal in the country until the early 1930s and that various pharmaceutical companies once marketed medicines with active ingredients of marijuana in them.

“It is absolute fact that cannabis does have medical benefits,” Cain said.

Keith Stroup is the founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He believes commercial marijuana will be good business in Michigan. Though he says federal reforms are still needed to pass the Congress, which a Yes vote next week may help.

“If you approve this on November 6th, every member of your [congressional] delegation is going to have to take a fresh look at their position on federal marijuana policy,” says Stroup. “And most of them are going to end up saying ‘my state was right.'"

Over 60 percent of Americans — including majorities of Republicans, independents, and Democrats — believe that the adult use of marijuana ought to be legal. And an estimated 20 percent of Americans now live in a state where cannabis use by those over the age of 21 is permitted.

"The Democratic Party has yet to grasp that marijuana is an issue that moves a core segment of voters which they keep on claiming they want to target, which are white men,” Justin Strekal, political director for marijuana advocacy group NORML, tells Rolling Stone. When it comes to marijuana, there’s been no leadership from Washington, even as polls reveal more than 60 percent of Americans want legalization.

The fate of marijuana prohibition hangs in the balance on Election Day. A "yes" vote on Measure 3 is a decision to end the failed, wasteful, and destructive policy of cannabis criminalization - a policy that has led to the arrest and incarceration of tens of thousands of North Dakotans.

"I’d like cannabis to be legal everywhere. I knew people who were in jail for years over a couple of joints and it’s just not right... It should be legal and people shouldn’t be going to jail for it, and I want to reinforce that to the degree that I can... The places that have done it are winning and they will have money for schools, roads, and hospitals, and are no longer arresting otherwise respectable adults for consuming marijuana.”

"Marijuana legalization is no longer a regional or partisan issue. Well over 60 percent of all Americans support ending our nation’s failed prohibition,” said National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Executive Director Erik Altieri, who noted that a “growing contingent of states (has) chosen the sensible path of legalization and regulation over prohibition and incarceration.”