Colorado Celebrates Marijuana Legalization Anniversary; Massive Drop In Arrests and Millions In Tax Revenue

by Art Way.  More than three years have passed since Colorado residents voted to legalize marijuana, which immediately allowed adults to possess and cultivate limited amounts of marijuana. This past New Year’s Day marked the two year anniversary of adults being able to legally buy marijuana in Colorado.  The policy is still in its formative stage,  ... MORE

John Stossel: 2015

Terrorism! Crime! Deadly storms! Hillary Clinton! We reporters focus on bad news, but at year's end, let's remember what went right. 2015 was a better time to be alive than most any prior point in history. The rich got richer. Some people think that's a problem, but why? Do rich people sit on their piles of money and cackle about how rich   ... MORE

Christopher Ingraham: One Of The Biggest Arguments Against Marijuana Legalization Is Falling Apart

Drug use continues a decade-long drop.     America's high school students are using drugs and alcohol at or near the lowest levels on record, according to federal data released Wednesday. The 2015 Monitoring the Future Survey, conducted by the University of Michigan and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)        ... MORE

Guess What Marijuana Is Being Blamed For Now

by Sean Willliams.       We're less than three weeks away from the calendar ticking over to a new year -- a year that very well could be the most important for the marijuana industry to date. We can certainly look back on some of the milestone events within the marijuana industry over the past two decades and argue that they've been pivotal        ... MORE

Going To Pot? Canada Leads Way In Legalizing Marijuana

by Michel Comte. Justin Trudeau raised eyebrows when he admitted to having dabbled in marijuana while a member of parliament, but his pledge as prime minister to legalize pot has been broadly cheered. He said in a policy speech on Friday that his Liberal government would introduce legislation as early as 2016 to legalize marijuana, making Canada  ... MORE

VIDEO: Legal Pot Will Soon Be Almost Everywhere

Flawed Ohio Marijuana Legalization Initiative Defeated

by Ilya Somin.   An anti-marijuana or anti-monopoly vote? Ohio Issue 3 – the seriously flawed marijuana legalization referendum initiative that I nonetheless defended because of its superiority to the status quo, has gone down to defeat. While not all of the votes have yet been counted, it is likely that it will lose by a large margin (currently 65-35,       ... MORE

Hell's Angels Say Canada’s Plans To Legalize Marijuana Will Deal Massive Blow To Their Organized Crime Operations

by Emily Gray Brosious.  Canada’s newly elected Liberal government has promised to legalize marijuana “right away,” and that’s not sitting well with thousands of Hells Angels members who say the move would cost the organized crime outfit hundreds of thousands of jobs, as reported by World News Daily. Thousands of members of the organized   ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Pot Pleasure, Pot Problems

As prohibition collapses, abuse is less likely.  It stands to reason that legalizing marijuana, by making it easier, cheaper, and less risky to obtain, would encourage consumption. That is mostly a positive development, since it implies greater consumer satisfaction as more people enjoy a product that prohibition made harder to get.     ... MORE

Poll Says Marijuana Legalization Support Nears 60%

by Trevor Hughes.   More Americans than ever are smoking, eating and drinking marijuana, and they now overwhelmingly support full legalization of the long-banned plant, a new study and poll show. A Gallup poll released Wednesday shows 58% of American adults think marijuana should be legal, up from 51% a year ago, with just 40% believing it     ... MORE

Nullification In Effect: Oregonians Defy Feds, Spend Millions On Marijuana In First Week Of Legal Sales

$3.5 million of sales on first day.        In the first week of limited marijuana sales in Oregon, dispensaries sold a staggering $11 million of weed – more than double the numbers from Colorado’s first week – proving state laws legalizing cannabis truly do nullify federal prohibition in practice. The Free Thought Project reported on the first week  ... MORE

59 Million More Americans Could Access Marijuana In 2016

by Todd Campbell.     California and Florida could both be liberated by next year. Marijuana advocates have been gaining momentum in states that have yet to legalize marijuana, but supporters and those interested in the legalization efforts are undeniably watching most closely to see what happens in California and Florida. Those two states have different ... MORE

Bruce Wright: Marijuana Legalization 2015 - US Pot Arrests Increased In 2014 With 1 Every 45 Seconds, FBI Data Show

It's easier than chasing down bad guys. Even as many U.S. states continue to reform and ease legislation governing the use of marijuana, both medicinal and recreational, enforcement of laws against the drug's use has apparently hardened. Nearly 701,000 people were arrested in 2014 for marijuana-related offenses, which means roughly one arrest  ... MORE

Marijuana Legalization: Disaster or Catastrophe?

by Jacob Sullum.    Drug warriors are desperate to make repeal of pot prohibition look like a mistake. In 2012 Coloradans approved Amendment 64, which legalized marijuana for recreational use, by avote of 55 percent to 45 percent. Last February a Quinnipiac University poll found that 58 percent of Colorado voters supported that decision, while 38   ... MORE

Ian Lovett: California Legislature Approves Assisted Suicide

Individuals gain property rights over themselves.        In a landmark victory for supporters of assisted suicide, the California State Legislature on Friday gave its final approval to a bill that would allow doctors to help terminally ill people end their lives. Four states — Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont — already allow physicians to  ... MORE

Steve Chapman: Outlawing Prostitution Is A Crime

Laws put sex workers in unnecessary danger.   Banning things you don't like has a long history, though not a happy one. Americans have tried banning alcohol, marijuana, pornography and homosexuality. All of them persisted anyway. So we learned to not only tolerate but allow them. Nowadays, you can have a glass of Scotch in a gay bar while    ... MORE

These 17 States Could Have Legalized Marijuana Soon

by Kyle Jaeger.      A marijuana legalization initiative in Ohio received enough signatures to get on the November 2015 ballot, Secretary of State Jon Husted announced on Tuesday, much to the excitement of the measure's pro-pot supporters. If it passes, Ohio will become the fifth state (plus the District of Columbia) to allow people 21 or older to   ... MORE

G Bentley: Paper Explodes Feminist Myth That Women Are As Horny As Men And Calls For Legalization Of Prostitution

It is what it is.   Men’s demand for sex far outstrips that of women and the gap is set to widen with major implications for laws surrounding prostitution, according to a new paper from the Institute of Economic Affairs. One of the key claims in the IEA paper is that there is a major gap between men and women in sexual desire. “Male sexual      ... MORE

D.A.R.E. Published An Op-ed Calling For Pot Legalization

by Claire Landsbaum.    It must unanimous now. The war on drugs is over, and weed won. D.A.R.E., the organization designed to plant a deep-seated fear of drugs in the minds of every late-20th-century middle schooler, published an op-ed calling for marijuana legalization. Written by former deputy sheriff Carlis McDerment in response to a letter  ... MORE

Pot Legalization Likely To Be On Michigan's 2016 Ballot

by Mara MacDonald.     It looks like Michigan voters will be deciding whether they want to legalize marijuana in 2016. Nearly 40,000 signatures have been collected in just 12 days as part of a push to get the issue on the ballot. There are two ballot proposals which have seen language approved by the state board of canvassers, but only one has   ... MORE