Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what's
happening in the world of legalized marijuana.
Let's start off with Illinois, where recreational
marijuana became legal on January 1, 2020. A social equity
component of the legislation ensures that some of the tax revenue
will lower the costs of starting a cannabis business. And Governor
J. B. Pritzker ended 2019 by issuing over 11,000
pardons for low-level marijuana offenses.
In Indiana, a state Senator introduced
legislation to decriminalize possession of less than one ounce of
cannabis. The move has bipartisan support in the legislature, but
is opposed by the governor.
In Oklahoma, it's been an up and down week
for legalization advocates. They withdrew their recreational cannabis petition,
over concerns that it might cause problems for the state's
booming medical market. Then, they resubmitted it, after changing the wording to
include protections for medical marijuana.
