As 2025 kicks off and state legislative sessions get rolling, marijuana legalization advocates are eyeing a handful of jurisdictions as key battlegrounds where they see the prospects of enacting reform this year as most likely.
Pennsylvania and Hawaii are widely seen by proponents as the most promising states for adult-use cannabis legalization in the year ahead. As for medical marijuana legalization, Kansas and the Carolinas are key states to watch. Wisconsin, meanwhile, is expecting renewed efforts to legalize the substance for both medical and adult-use.
“We need to be looking at Pennsylvania. We need to be looking at Hawaii,” said Morgan Fox, political director at the advocacy group NORML. “Those are at the top of my list. The one right after that is Wisconsin.”
The effort in Kansas could also be “interesting,” Fox added, calling it “a hard target for cannabis policy reform.” The North Carolina and South Carolina, meanwhile, are “ripe for moving medical bills,” he continued, “but there’s still a tremendous amount of opposition.”
A legalization effort is also on deck in New Hampshire this year, and advocates are pushing to add a legal and regulated sales component to an existing noncommercial legalization law in Virginia, though significant
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