New NORML Report Provides Policymakers with Guidance on 'Best Practices' for Regulating Adult-Use Marijuana Markets

On Tuesday, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) released a new report titled “Marijuana Policies in Legal States: A Comprehensive Review of Adult-use Marijuana Rules and Regulations,” examining many of the different aspects of regulated marijuana programs in the 18 states that have passed adult-use cannabis laws.

The report seeks to “educate decision-makers at the state and federal level on the common features of states’ adult-use marijuana legalization laws and regulations so that they can make informed decisions on cannabis policy,” reported NORML in a press release.

“Despite the continued expansion of regulated adult-use cannabis markets and overwhelming public support for ending cannabis prohibition, many elected officials are still relatively unfamiliar with the specific policies that states have implemented over the last decade or with the lessons they have learned,” said NORML political director Morgan Fox.

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“We are releasing this report in anticipation of a vote on the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act in the US House of Representatives and ahead of the impending introduction of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act in the Senate, which will put a spotlight on cannabis policy reform and jumpstart conversations at all levels of government on how to best regulate this substance to ensure justice, efficacy, and public safety,” Fox added.

“The number of states enacting legalization as an alternative to marijuana prohibition is growing, and public support for these policies is at an all-time high, including in early-adopter states. The success and popularity of these policies are due in no small part to the fact that legalization has been carefully crafted by lawmakers and regulators in a manner that addresses common health and safety concerns and that seeks to provide common sense market controls,” NORML’s report concludes.

Some of the recommendations for federal lawmakers include repealing federal prohibition through cannabis descheduling, respecting state decisions on possession and home cultivation, providing for automatic record expungement, establishing more modest taxes, providing labeling and packaging rules for interstate commerce, considering imposing national lab testing standards, preserve state medical programs, and avoid establishing federal potency caps.

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