A 2014 report card on cannabis law reform in our laboratories of democracy

America continues to teach itself about
harms of cannabis prohibition, and the evolution is happening so fast, it’s
hard to keep track of state-level reforms.

Below, CULTURE issues a report card on key states’ performance in 2014.

Washington D.C.: A+

District voters won the ‘Waterloo of the
War on Drugs’ with the landslide passage of Measure 71. District leaders also
decriminalized cannabis this year, and began hearings to roll out legal
cannabis commerce.

Colorado: A+

Colorado rolled out dozens of adult-use
stores and defied its
doomsayers. It also raised $84 million in cannabis taxes and saw road
fatalities decline statewide. The Cato Institute found legalization had no
effect on teen use, drop-out rates, crime, suicide rates or ER admissions.

Oregon: A

Oregon gets an A for the most tightly run
legalization campaign, which beat expectations to deliver 58 percent of the
vote. Measure 91 is among the nation’s most liberal initiatives. Oregon’s
medical cannabis regulations made progress in 2014.

Alaska: A

Alaska gets an A for being the first red
state to green-light the end of prohibition—which appealed to small government
and state’s rights advocates in the wild North.

Washington: A-

About three dozen retail cannabis shops
opened in the Evergreen State, and hundreds of producers have been licensed.
But Washington saw epic price-gouging, amid a painfully slow rollout.

Arizona: B

The desert state leap-frogged California
to open more than 100 legal, state-licensed medical cannabis dispensaries this
year.

Nevada: B

The gambling mecca also leap-frogged
California to officially license its medical cannabis industry and allow
medical tourists to partake in-state.

Maine: B

Maine has licensed dispensaries, and
several cities that have fully ended prohibition. An initiative has good odds
of passing in 2016.

Massachusetts: C-

Licensed Massachusetts dispensaries are
coming online, albeit slowly and expensively.

Michigan: C-

Local cities are doing the job of the
state and permitting MMJ dispensaries in Michigan in 2014.

California: D+

The California legislature failed to
regulate the country’s oldest, biggest medical cannabis industry—again.
Conservative cities like Fresno rolled back Prop 215 rights. Arrests are at
record lows, but all Californians deserve world-class safe access as well as
standards for labeling, and testing.

Hawaii: D

The island state failed to officially
legalize dispensaries in 2014, though a legalization bill made historic inroads
in the legislature.

Illinois: D-

The midwest population center dragged its
feet implementing its restrictive MMJ program this year.

Montana: D-

This MMJ state backslid into prohibition
in 2014, imprisoning some of its best dispensary operators.

New York: F+

Patients are literally dying while awaiting
basic MMJ products in the Empire State, which passed a weak and draconian
medical law in 2014.

New Jersey: F

Unscientific restrictions on doctors and
patients make New Jersey a medical cannabis state in little more than name.

Florida: Incomplete

Florida failed to pass medical cannabis
despite garnering 57 percent of the vote. With no medical cannabis or
decriminalization, the populous, conservative Southern state’s reforms remain
incomplete this year. We’re holding them back one grade.

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Your state didn’t make the list? Read
more about each one in Americans for Safe Access’ own national report card
online.