Tax and Regulate

What a year! A lot happened in 2009 when it comes to drug policy, much of it good. Last issue we reviewed the international developments. This last week of the year, we take a look at what we see as the ten most important domestic drug policy stories the year brought us.

Will 2010 be the year the first state legalizes marijuana? If California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano and Washington Representative Roger Goodman have their way, two states will do so.

A new poll of likely California primary voters has a majority in favor of maintaining marijuana prohibition, but the pollster said that should not be read as suggesting legalization initiatives will necessarily go down to defeat. Different polling questions and populations provide different results, he said.

For the first time in nearly a century, the California legislature took up marijuana legalization on this week. A Wednesday hearing on a legalization bill previewed the battle lines and arguments that lie ahead.

The world as we know it may indeed end in 2012, if the trend line in recent Gallup polls on marijuana legalization is any indication. More than half the people in the West now want to free the weed, and the figure is up to 45% nationwide.

All of the attention has been on California, but it's Massachusetts where the state legislature will hold a hearing on a marijuana legalization bill next week.