Utah

Justice Grown, a multi-state cannabis operator which holds licenses in each California, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, is proud to announce that it has acquired three new cannabis cultivation licenses in the Missouri medical market and two cannabis pharmacy licenses in Utah's medical market. With the acquisition of these licenses, Missouri and Utah are the sixth and seventh states added to Justice Grown's repertoire.

We're now just over two weeks away from closing the door on 2018, and when we do, we'll likely look back on what was the biggest year ever for the marijuana industry.

In Canada, lawmakers passed the Cannabis Act in June, and officially ended nine decades of recreational weed prohibition on Oct. 17. As the first industrialized country to legalize recreational marijuana use, Canada has paved a path for other countries to follow, as well as given its legal weed companies an opportunity to generate billions of dollars in added sales.

Marijuana initiatives appeared on ballots in four states in the midterm elections. In Michigan and North Dakota, initiatives gave voters the opportunity to legalize marijuana for recreational use. In Missouri and Utah, voters chose whether to allow people who are sick to use the drug for medical reasons.

Here are the results of those initiatives.

Michigan voters legalized the sale and use of marijuana

AND SO A few more dominoes fall. Michigan voted to legalize the recreational use of cannabis, while Utah and Missouri legalized it for medical use, according to projections made late Tuesday night. (A recreational measure in North Dakota failed, though medical cannabis remains legal there.) They join 31 other states that have already gone the medical route, and nine others that have gone fully recreational.

Voters in Michigan approved a ballot measure to legalize recreational use of marijuana on Tuesday, and two other states — Missouri and Utah — endorsed medical marijuana laws. Voters in North Dakota didn't partake, rejecting a measure to legalize recreational marijuana use.

Now 33 states have legalized marijuana to some degree, and recreational pot use is now legal in 10 states, along with Washington, D.C. But possessing, selling or using marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

Cannabis legalization goes before the voters in a number of states on Nov. 6. This year’s highlights:

Michigan and North Dakota will decide statewide measures on the legalization of adult-use cannabis.

Utah and Missouri will consider medical marijuana legalization initiatives.

Other states will consider smaller reforms or advisory measures, including Ohio and Wisconsin.

As polls show record support for marijuana legalization, advocates say the midterm elections could mark the point of no return for a movement that has been gathering steam for years.

"The train has left the station," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., a leading marijuana reform advocate in Congress. "I see all the pieces coming together... It's the same arc we saw two generations ago with the prohibitions of alcohol."

The move to legalize marijuana for medical and recreational use has been shifting to conservative states like Oklahoma, North Dakota and Utah — a reflection of the country’s changing attitude toward the drug, which federal law classifies as an illegal narcotic.