Now that marijuana legal for both medical and recreational use in a number of different states throughout the country, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before it’s legal at the federal level.
The current Senate has officially released a bill to legalize the plant despite the poor chances of the bill passing.
It’s a sign of progress, at least that’s what I tell myself to assuage my concerns. I want to see all of the people who were incarcerated for marijuana related offenses released from jail and their records expunged as well. Until Congress finally decides to act on cannabis like it did with CBD and hemp in 2018, we have to leave it to the states to decide for themselves like they’re already doing right now. For instance, when I was in college only a small number of states had medical marijuana legalized. During my last year of college, there were three states with legal recreational cannabis and that number grew every year moving forward. Pretty soon there’s going to be a majority of states in this country who have legal recreational cannabis on top of legal medical cannabis. I live in Chicago, Illinois and we finally legalized medicinal cannabis in 2014. At the time there weren’t too many companies open who could sell cannabis products as the program grew slowly. However, everything changed for cannabis in Chicago and the rest of Illinois six years later when recreational cannabis was legalized in the state. This made them the 11th state in the country to legalize cannabis for recreational use. There are nearly 20 dispensaries in the Chicago Metropolitan Area already. My favorite weed stores are in places like West Loop and River North.