This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on December 21, 2013.
In my lifetime or most people reading this, the year 2013 was the greatest in terms of medical marijuana and recreational marijuana reform. Because after all, while it helps us with our medical conditions, no one should go to jail for this harmless plant. Perhaps as a society we are starting to collectively view marijuana in a much different light.
So what events top the charts in 2013 regarding marijuana reform.
- The US Congress introduced legislation in February to legalize, tax, and sell recreational marijuana. The measure never got to an actual vote however but was symbolic.
- The FDA approves clinical trials for CBD based drugs for the treatment of epilepsy.
- The American Academy for Cancer Research published a study that found smoking marijuana has no long term effects nor does it cause lung cancer.
- The ACLU published a report that suggested blacks are 4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana offenses than whites.
- Gallup polls suggest that 58% of Americans would legalize marijuana, and over 85% approve of the medical benefits.
- 20 reform measures (medical and recreational) were passed at a state level across several states.
- Colorado and Washington finalized regulations as the nation’s first state’s to legalize cannabis for adult use.
- Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows support for the medical use of marijuana and helped to influence mainstream media’s ever changing view of cannabis.
- The US Department of Justice vowed to not go after medical marijuana, calling the drug war tired and the nation’s largest policy shift away from the failed War on Drugs.
- Uruguay legalizes marijuana, regulates distribution and sales. The first industrialized nation to ever do so.