There are currently 21 states where marijuana is now legal, as of late March when Utah passed a bill to legalize medical marijuana that utilizes extracts of THC at less than .03%.
But there are nine other states that have pending legislature to pass medical or recreational marijuana in 2014. Here is a summary of the pending pot states helping the US reach a critical legalization tipping point:
1. Maryland
Other than just decriminalizing marijuana (yay), there is currently a pending bill in Maryland that expands on a 2013 law to legalize medical marijuana. It would allow patients seeking marijuana as medicine better access by giving more doctors and providers access for additional purposes of treatment.
“It’s a movement that has a groundswell of grassroots support,” says Dianne Hoffmann, director of the law and health program at the University of Maryland’s Francis King Carey School of Law in Baltimore. “People are going to their legislators and saying they find it helpful to their illness, and these are sympathetic cases a lot of the time.”
2. Florida
There are two bills currently pending in Florida, Senate Bill 1150, and House Bill 1139. Both are carryovers from 2013, allowing qualifying persons to poses up to 4 ounces of dried medicinal marijuana and grow up to 8 mature plants. The bills decriminalize the use of medical marijuana in these dosages. In November, Florida voters will get to decide whether medical marijuana becomes a legal, prescribable treatment option for those with serious diseases or conditions.
3. Kentucky
The Kentucky State Senate has already unanimously passed a bill which will allow cannabis oil to treat children who have been diagnosed with epilepsy. Senator Julie Denton said, “This was one of those tingly moments you get when you pass a bill that you really know is good for the commonwealth. It is really going to help people’s lives.” CBD is a component of cannabis, but doesn’t cause users to get high. About a dozen states have considered legislation seeking to allow use of cannabidiol oil for patients who have seizures. House Bill 350 has made it to the House and Senate, but it must meet a conservative constituency there who are still uneducated about the true benefits of medical marijuana and even industrial hemp. The bill’s sponsor, Kentucky state Rep. May Lou Marzian, a registered nurse, informed the committee of what is already going on in their state illegally: people are using medical cannabis. She said she has “heard from citizens all over the state and from my district that this is something that relieves or alleviates many conditions.”
4. Minnesota
According to Marijuana Policy Project,
“It has become abundantly clear that Gov. Mark Dayton is standing in the way of Minnesota becoming [the next] state to enact a compassionate and workable medical marijuana law. After assuring patients, their family members, and medical marijuana advocates that he would dedicate his staff to finding an acceptable way forward, the governor instead proposed scrapping a comprehensive law and instead creating a single study on high-CBD medical marijuana for seizure disorders. Medical marijuana supporters rejected the proposal, as it is highly unlikely that a study would materialize in a timely fashion — if it ever does — and assuming one does, it would be limited to a very small class of patients.”