Majority of Public Comments Support Descheduling or Legalizing Marijuana
While lawmakers remain resistant to change, most of the public thinks it's high time to stop treating marijuana as dangerous.
While lawmakers remain resistant to change, most of the public thinks it's high time to stop treating marijuana as dangerous.
The presumptive Democratic nominee has a more liberal drug policy record than both the president and the Republican presidential nominee.
Every year, thousands of U.S. residents are deported for drug-related activity, including minor offenses and conduct that states have legalized.
I visited Australia and New Zealand to find out. Spoiler: It’s great for everyone.
Rescheduling does not resolve the conflict between federal pot prohibition and state rejection of that policy.
Moving marijuana to Schedule III, as the DEA plans to do, leaves federal pot prohibition essentially untouched.
The change from Schedule I to Schedule III is welcome, but removing it from the schedules altogether is the best option.
Oregon lawmakers recently voted to recriminalize drugs after voters approved landmark reforms in 2020.
Peter Moskos, criminal justice professor and former Baltimore police officer, discusses ways to reform policing and turn failing cities around on the latest Just Asking Questions podcast.
The president has not expunged marijuana records or decriminalized possession, which in any case would fall far short of the legalization that voters want.
The reversal of a landmark reform was driven by unrealistic expectations and unproven assertions.
The supposedly reformed drug warrior's intransigence on the issue complicates his appeal to young voters, who overwhelmingly favor legalization.
Recent research finds "no evidence" that it did, undermining a key claim by critics of that policy.
Plus: A listener asks if the state of Oregon’s policy on drug decriminalization should be viewed as a success.
Newsom vetoed both reforms, which he deemed excessively permissive.
In light of the state's marijuana reforms, the court says, the odor of weed is not enough to establish probable cause.
The researchers reached a similar conclusion about overdose trends in Washington, where penalties for simple possession were reduced in 2021.
Prohibition is at the root of the hazards that have led to record numbers of opioid-related deaths.
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Many of the problems the state is experiencing are caused by the continuing impact of prohibition.
The imminent expiration of a law that recriminalized drug possession triggered a bipartisan panic.
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Philadelphia's progressive district attorney tried to enact criminal justice reform—and got impeached for his trouble.
Ohio might be on the verge of making home distilling legal—but federal law will still prohibit it.
Federal sentences for simple marijuana possession dropped by 93 percent over seven years.
S.B. 58, which emulates an initiative that Colorado voters approved last month, would legalize the use of five psychoactive substances found in fungi and plants.
A study credits "an overall lower police search rate," the result of new priorities and legal constraints.
Legalization is unlikely in the foreseeable future, but banking reform and expungement could be feasible.
Proposition 122 is the broadest liberalization of psychedelic policy ever enacted in the United States.
Two more states legalized recreational marijuana on Tuesday, while decriminalization of five natural psychedelics looks like a winner in Colorado.
The ballot initiative also would authorize state-licensed "healing centers" where adults could obtain psychedelics for supervised use.
From immigration to drug reform, there is plenty of potential for productive compromise.
Even as he pardons thousands of marijuana users, the president stubbornly resists legalization.
The president's mass pardon does not extend to pot suppliers, and his rescheduling plans won't make marijuana a legal medicine.
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It would be far easier to prosecute sex trafficking if voluntary sex work were legal.
The results confirm that the ongoing collapse of marijuana prohibition has not boosted underage consumption.
Travelers caught with small amounts of marijuana at the U.S. border face much less severe punishment.
The bill would've removed civil penalties but stopped well short of taxation and regulation.
Belgium is the first country in Europe to decriminalize selling and paying for sex.
But 37 states allow medical or recreational use, and arrests are falling.
Though state laws in both places have not yet adapted, consumers of "entheogenic" plants and fungi are now less likely to be arrested and prosecuted in the two cities.
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Voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative that makes "entheogenic plant" possession the city's "lowest law-enforcement priority."
The resolution urges police to refrain from arresting people for noncommercial production and distribution as well as possession.
What have policy makers learned since Colorado became the first state to allow recreational use in 2012?
Small-scale drug possession is now a $100 infraction that can be dismissed with a call to a drug abuse assessment hotline.