State & Local Legislatures

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If you like to wager, Alaska, Oregon, and Rhode Island look like the best bets for legalizing marijuana next year. But the situation is fluid, and there could be others.

A Michigan couple get their child back, New Jersey gets its second dispensary, and Washington regulators get an earful over attempts to do away with patient home grows under I-502 legalization. And much, much more.

In a move that cuts against more than a decade of sentencing reform efforts in California, Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill that would allow some people caught with small amounts of drugs to face misdemeanor charges instead of felonies.

The feds back off in some Southern California asset forfeiture cases, an Iowa newspaper tells local authorities to back off from prosecuting a cancer patient, and several states move forward with implementing their medical marijuana laws.

California localities continue to grapple with medical marijuana issues. Meanwhile, officials in three states are moving forward with implementing medical marijuana laws, and a key Kentucky politician says nice things about it.

Defelonization of drug possession is starting to take hold across the country. California looks set to join the list of states easing up, and Washington state could be next.

A bill that would require people to take employer drug tests or lose their unemployment eligibility is moving in Michigan.

A California dispensary regulation bill dies, the dark ages return to San Diego, Massachusetts towns enact moratoria, New Jersey gives a loan to a dispensary, and more.

First, a District decriminalization bill was filed. Now, a marijuana legalization bill has been filed in the nation's capital. Public opinion there supports both efforts, and activists are ready to move with an initiative if the council falters.