Lawmakers and voters enacted more than 40 laws liberalizing cannabis policies in more than a dozen states in 2022, according to a December report by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
Last year, Maryland, Missouri and Rhode Island all enacted laws legalizing adult-use marijuana possession and regulating retail cannabis markets, bringing the total number of states with a recreational industry to 21, meaning nearly one-half of the U.S. population lives in states with regulated adult-use industries.
Lawmakers in several states, including California, Colorado, Illinois and Oregon, also continued to take steps to provide relief to those with past marijuana convictions — either by providing mass pardons or by enacting laws facilitating the mass expungement of prior convictions. NORML estimates that approximately 2 million people have had their marijuana-related convictions either pardoned or expunged in recent years following the adoption of these policies.
Both Maryland’s and Missouri’s new legalization laws contain provisions allowing the expungement of past records.
“Voters and lawmakers took significant steps this year to repeal marijuana prohibition laws and to provide relief to those tens millions of Americans who have suffered as a result of them,” NORML deputy director Paul Armentano said in a press release.
2022 also saw Mississippi became the 37th state to legalize and regulate medical cannabis for authorized patients, while other states enacted laws expanding their pool of patients. In addition, Louisiana, Missouri and Utah enacted laws protecting authorized medical consumers from being discriminated against in the workplace, while lawmakers in California, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C. extended workplace protections to all adult-use consumers.
“Polling continues to show that marijuana reform is popular among voters, regardless of political party,” Armentano said. “As more lawmakers recognize that advocating for marijuana policy reforms is a political opportunity, not a political liability, we anticipate future legislative gains in 2023 and beyond.”
— Brian Beckley