Police benefit from marijuana legalization in ways you probably don’t expect. Research shows no longer enforcing marijuana policies allows cops to redirect their attention to solving more pressing crimes, including burglary, theft, and property crimes. But multiple states and municipalities also allocate legal marijuana tax revenue to police budgets.

For residents in states that have legalized marijuana, the grass is indeed greener on their side.

That’s the takeaway from new polling data released earlier this month. The survey, from pollster YouGov, found that in “many states where recreational cannabis is legal, a plurality of citizens believes these laws have been more of a success than a failure overall.” 

While other parts of the state’s economy languish amid the shutdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, Oregon’s recreational marijuana market is booming.

Last month, pot sales in the Beaver State hit $89 million, as reported by local television outlet KHOU, which said that the tally represented a 45% spike since last April. That also made April 2020 the largest month for cannabis sales in state history. The previous record holder? March of this year, when sales hit $84.5 million. 

Cannabis regulators across the country continue to react to the spreading coronavirus pandemic, with Oregon and Pennsylvania relaxing rules while storefront dispensaries were ordered closed in Nevada. The changes come as more states issue stay-at-home orders in an effort to curtail the spread of the virus.

Millions of Americans now have access to medical marijuana. But millions more do not, and attempts to change that have hit a brick wall in some states. Medical marijuana is inaccessible to 34 percent of the states in the country and remains illegal on a federal level.

This fact is a fly in the face of national sentiment. Based on the most recent nationwide survey by Gallup, 66 percent of Americans favor legalizing marijuana.

Throughout history, cannabis was regulated by federal law on reservations, so it was generally illegal. But after the 2013 Cole Memo, the topic of cannabis on tribal land and how it ties into the tribe’s government autonomy became increasingly prevalent.

Illinois dispensaries sold nearly $40 million dollars with of cannabis in the first 31 days of recreational cannabis sales, according to new numbers released last week.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation announced the number on Feb. 3. Officials said the final total of $39,247,840.83 came from the sale of 972,045 cannabis products at licensed retailers across the state.

The city with the most dispensaries based on its population figure is Missoula, Montana.

When most Americans pass by a store selling liquor, beer, or wine, they barely think twice about it. That’s because its existence isn’t novel; we all know plenty of folks who drink and buy alcohol. Outside of a few select cities, seeing a marijuana dispensary on a street corner still causes heads to turn.

What are they going to do about the oversupply in Oregon!?

All year, this question has dominated news sources peddling the saga of Oregon’s more than six-year oversupply of cannabis -- when, in fact, the market had an undersupply in some sectors and is certainly gaining in value overall. Anyone looking at day-to-day sales data currently in Oregon knows that it reflects way higher averages than reported even as recently as September in Vice. So, where is the press getting this seemingly false information? By being ignorant of the caveats associated with the industry and relying only on numbers pulled from an OLCC report calculated on flawed methodology.