SIX MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION LESSONS.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: DRUGS

LEGISLATORS IN NEW JERSEY, New York, New Mexico, and Virginia voted to legalize recreational marijuana this year, bringing the number of states that have approved legalization to 18. While New Jersey was implementing a 2020 ballot initiative (the typical route to legalization), legislators in the other three states acted on their own, although Virginia has not yet approved rules for commercial production and distribution. The four bills reflect six big lessons policy makers have learned--and in some cases ignored--since Colorado became the first state to allow recreational use in 2012.

1. EXPUNGEMENT: Unlike the first few states to legalize marijuana. New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, and Virginia are simultaneously trying to alleviate the damage done by prohibition. All four states are creating expungement programs to remove the taint of criminality from people who were convicted of marijuana-related conduct that is no longer illegal.

2. STONED DRIVING: New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, and Virginia, unlike several other states with legal pot, wisely eschewed defining marijuana-impaired driving based on THC blood levels, which are not a reliable measure of intoxication. All four states will continue to require additional evidence of impairment, such as erratic driving and performance on sobriety tests.

3. CANNABIS CAFES: After the first few states legalized marijuana, dispensary customers--especially tourists--frequently had trouble finding a place where they could legally consume the pot they could now legally buy. New Jersey, New York, and New Mexico address that problem by allowing marijuana use in specially licensed consumption areas.

4. HOME DELIVERY: When states allow local governments to ban dispensaries, even buying marijuana can be difficult. Home delivery, which New Jersey, New York, and New Mexico all will allow, frees cannabis consumers from the dictates of weed-unfriendly jurisdictions.

5. HOME CULTIVATION: Most states where marijuana is legal let recreational consumers grow cannabis at home to use and share with friends, which is analogous to allowing home brewing by beer drinkers. New Mexico began allowing home cultivation this summer, so consumers won't have to continue relying on the black market until state-licensed pot shops are up and running, which is supposed to happen by April 1, 2022.

   Virginia legislators plan to approve rules for licensing and regulating commercial suppliers by the end of 2023. But in the meantime, they...