on May 22, 2023.
As a long-time cannabis activist in the United States, I have personally witnessed the ‘cannabis political butterfly effect.’ Cannabis activists worked at the state level to legalize medical cannabis for many years with no victories in the United States, although it wasn’t for lack of effort.
That all changed in 1996 with the passage of medical cannabis legalization in California. That one victory would quickly prove to be the first domino that would knock over several others in the years that followed, with state after state passing measures via citizen initiative or legislative action.
The same thing happened with adult-use legalization. The first states to legalize in the U.S. were Colorado and Washington in 2012, and roughly a decade later the list has grown exponentially to 22 states, two territories, and Washington D.C. Both policy shift patterns demonstrate the butterfly effect.
