By the end of this year, several more states in the U.S. could be among those who have legalized cannabis for medical and recreational purposes. Of course, their success is up to the activists and voters in each state. If you’re in one of these states, here is what you need to know.

States where recreational legalization is on the ballot: Nevada

States where medical legalization is on the ballot: Florida

States where activists are going through the legislature or attempting to make the ballot for recreational or medical legalization: California, Vermont, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan, Rhode Island, Maine, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Utah, Arkansas

Long Shots

Tommy Chong, the 77-year-old stoner comedy legend of "Cheech and Chong" fame," sang Ann Arbor's praises on Saturday during the 45th annual Hash Bash rally on the University of Michigan Diag.

"Ann Arbor was the first, the very first, to stand up and tell everybody there's nothing wrong with this plant," Chong told a crowd of thousands gathered for the large pro-marijuana rally held here every year since 1972.

Comedian Tommy Chong speaks at the 45th annual Hash Bash in Ann Arbor on April 2, 2016.Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News  Though still illegal in many places, marijuana has been decriminalized in Ann Arbor since the 1970s.

March 31 marks a new day in Detroit for medical marijuana. It's the last day for Medical Marijuana Caregiver Centers to apply for a license to operate in the city.

Before this, provisioning centers multiplied in a gray area of the law where they weren't exactly legal but were tolerated. That's an outgrowth of how Michigan's medical marijuana law played out when the courts ruled patients can have marijuana but didn't allow for venues to sell it. It's right in line with the weird machinations prohibitionists have always gone through to keep people away from the weed.

As multiple campaigns to collect signatures necessary to get a measure to legalize the use of recreational marijuana on the 2016 ballot pushes on, the demand for medical marijuana keeps growing.

In 2008, Michigan voters approved making the use of marijuana for medical purposes legal in the state.

Since then many local communities across Michigan have enacted measures that have both lessened the criminalization of the drug, while others have gone in the opposite direction to slow or block the availability of it.

But through all that, the number of patients who have registered to receive marijuana — as well as the number of caregivers licensed to provide — has grown.

Does your state make the list?

Which are the marijuana-friendliest states in the nation? Where would a pot person want to buy a home and settle down?

The online national real estate search site Estately has taken a crack at answering those burning questions. The site's blog's Ultimate Lists cranks out all sorts of creative comparative data—cities with the most romantic homes for sale, states with the most pizza—and now it's done the same with weed. 

Grassroots groups in Michigan say they’re about to achieve something big. This year, if they get enough petition signatures, voters might get to decide at the ballot box whether to ban fracking and legalize marijuana.

There’s just one problem: the state’s Republican lawmakers are now trying to change the rules in the middle of the game.

They are trying to cut us off and force us into court.

Ever wonder how your state stands up to the others in terms of marijuana tolerance? We don't mean how much your state can smoke, but how tolerant the locals are toward cannabis. The real-estate website Estately has the answer. 

Using specialized metrics, they put together rankings for all 50 states in their "Marijuana Enthusiasm Index." The criteria are: the percentage of monthly marijuana users, the average price of cannabis, the average number of marijuana-related Google searches, the legal status of marijuana and expressions of public interest (based on Facebook user data). 

Here are five interesting findings.

Chronic pain patients with legal access to medicinal cannabis significantly decrease their use of opioids, according to data published online ahead of print in The Journal of Pain.

Investigators at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor conducted a retrospective survey of 244 chronic pain patients. All of the subjects in the survey were qualified under Michigan law to consume medicinal cannabis and frequented an area dispensary to obtain it. 

Authors reported that respondents often substituted cannabis for opiates and that many rated marijuana to be more effective. 

Establishing a regulatory framework for the sale of medical marijuana could generate between $44.3 million and $63.5 million annually in tax revenue for Michigan, according to a new report. 

Over time, the industry could create 10,000 jobs through processing plants, growth and testing facilities, delivery services, and dispensaries. 

For the report, Dr. Gary Wolfram, director of economics at Hillsdale College, based his findings on a statewide free market plan proposed in a three-bill package currently before the Michigan Legislature. If passed, the legislation would set in place a regulated, private and taxable marketplace for the sale of medical marijuana. 

For the week ended Friday, March 11, the spot price index for a pound of cannabis was essentially unchanged from $1,920 in the prior week to $1,918. The simple average price for a gram slipped a penny from $4.57 to $4.56.

The futures price for the near month (April) rose 1% from $2,010 to $2,030. For the month of May, the forward price remained flat at $2,110 a pound. The six-month forward price for September also remained unchanged at $2,200.

About two-thirds of the past week’s transactions occurred in a range of $1,564 to $2,577 per pound, according to the analysts at Cannabis Benchmarks. The analysts also commented on the forward price curve: