The legal marijuana movement, which in recent years has flourished in coastal states, is taking up new roots in the Midwest even as efforts have stalled in nearly a dozen other states this year.
Lawmakers in Illinois approved a measure Friday to legalize the sale of marijuana to anyone over the age of 21, making it the second state in the nation’s interior to legalize pot, after Michigan.
To date, 11 states, including Illinois, have decided to legalize recreational marijuana, a majority through ballot measures placed before voters. The move by Illinois lawmakers is only the second time a legislature has legalized marijuana, following Vermont, which passed a measure last year allowing possession and limited cultivation of cannabis.
But since January, nearly a dozen other states have either spiked outright or taken no action on marijuana legalization measures.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, made marijuana legalization a key pillar of his election campaign last year, and said in a statement Friday that the legislation in his state
