When it comes to state legalization – whether it’s medical or adult-use – there is either effort on the legislative front or at the ballot box (or in cases like New Jersey, the battle moves from one arena to the other).
More than half of all state legislatures considered legislation in 2019 to legalize the possession or use of marijuana, a new record that illustrates a normalization of an issue that lawmakers once saw as a third rail.
Only a few states actually passed legislation dealing with marijuana this year, and just one — Illinois — legalized its recreational use among adults. But backers of legal marijuana point to the broad debate itself as evidence that a once-niche issue has gone mainstream.