Support for marijuana legalization has grown dramatically over the past decade since California first passed laws permitting its use for medical reasons, but not everyone is on board. Aside from groups you'd expect to be opposed to it, like those in the healthcare industry, many were surprised to learn the alcohol industry was also aligned against it. Considering the failure of Prohibition to curb alcohol usage, you'd think the industry would understand the drive to legalize marijuana.

Massachusetts is in position to establish one of the lowest consumer tax rates on recreational marijuana in the country.

This November, Massachusetts voters will decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and over.

The initiative, Question 4, would assign a 3.75 percent excise tax on recreational marijuana products.

When combined with the state’s standard sales tax, the total tax rate for consumers would be just 10 percent.

This rate is extremely low compared to the 37 percent tax on all marijuana sales in Washington State and Oregon’s 25 percent tax on such products.

The rise of Donald Trump can be largely attributed to how dumb and unreasonably angry the American people have become over the past few years.

Much of the US population appears to be flagrantly racist or too ignorant to acknowledge their own racism.

This wouldn’t be the case, however, if all Americans were legally permitted to smoke marijuana on a regular basis.

Nationwide legalization would have greatly diminished the chances of someone like Donald Trump even becoming a serious presidential candidate.

The misery and fear he capitalized on would have only existed in right-wing extremists, while the rest of the country cherished the levelheaded morality shielding them from madness.

The Canadian government claims that the black market for marijuana is essentially a cash buffet for organized crime. But the feds aren't offering numbers to backup their argument, so it's hard to tell if they're portrayal of the nation's illegal cannabis industry is realistic or simply hysterical rhetoric.

You would think it would be a slam dunk in the Bay State, but recent polls are making for some nail-biting. Still, this thing should win.

No matter how you slice it, there’s a stark statistical reality regarding marijuana reform in Massachusetts over the past decade: it’s undefeated at the ballot box. This includes binding state-wide initiatives that were passed by voters (decriminalization in 2008, medical marijuana in 2012), and a large number of non-binding public policy question (PPQs) that were also run in state House and Senate districts since 2000.

The fact cannabis isn't legalised is perplexing for many reasons.

Let me start with the perception that legalisation will throw our country into ruin and lead to our children being hopeless drug addicts. This sort of talk comes from people who may mean well, but have a loose grip on the reality of the situation.

I recently visited Denver, Colorado in the United States, where cannabis has been legal in the city since 2005 and state-wide since 2013, and I actively sought information on the transition.

What Colorado has now is an orderly, well-regulated system and a cannabis industry of responsible tax-paying employers that have added a considerable amount of funds to state coffers.

Even Jay-Z is weighing in.

America’s legal marijuana industry has a huge diversity problem—and it couldn’t be more ironic.

The Drug Policy Alliance estimates that less than 1% of the market to grow legal weed is owned or operated by people of color, a startling statistic considering millions of African-American and Hispanic men have been sent to prison for selling the same drug. This has been a trend since the national war on drugs began more than 40 years ago.

Nashville’s Metro Council made history Tuesday by approving the city’s first measure to allow lesser civil penalties for people caught with small amounts of marijuana, but it may set the stage for a confrontation with the state.

Meanwhile, some Nashville judges are now raising concerns that moving minor marijuana possession cases from criminal to civil court may give people fewer options to later erase those encounters from the public record.

Nearly half of the US has already legalized marijuana for either medical or recreational use. This November, nine states could continue the trend.

Of those nine states, five have ballot initiatives that could result in legal recreational use. Most significantly, California could legalize recreational use — thus making the entire West Coast a legal enclave for recreational cannabis.

All the initiatives below will be voted on this November, alongside the presidential election. Here's everything we know:

Flying a bit under the radar in August, the federal National Institute on Drug Abuse wrote an explainer to a significant longitudinal study involving young twins and marijuana pointing out that marijuana did not cause a decrease in IQ.

In the explainer titled "Study Questions Role for Marijuana in Teen Users' IQ Decline," the agency wrote: