This was supposed to be the year of Pot-Palooza, when five states are set to hold ballot initiatives that would make marijuana legal for recreational users. If all passed, it would bring the number of states offering pot for sale to nine, following similar measures that passed in Colorado and Washington in 2012 and in Alaska and Oregon in 2014.

In November, voters in as many as 12 states will see a marijuana legalization initiative on their ballots. Marijuana is already legal for recreational use in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Washington, D.C. Another 25 states have legalized medical marijuana. The era of marijuana prohibition is rapidly coming to a close.

Unfortunately, lawmakers lack easy answers to tough questions facing the marijuana industry. Legalization presents challenges on a number of fronts, including distribution, taxation, consumption, security and public health.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced on Thursday, Aug. 11, that the executive agency will allow marijuana researchers to use “a more varied and robust supply” of the drug by allowing more institutions to conduct scientific experiments and grow their own cannabis plants.

Acting DEA administrator, Chuck Rosenberg, however, formally rejected a 2011 petition from the states of Rhode Island and Washington, which sought to remove marijuana from the Schedule I federal list of banned substances under the Controlled Substances Act (1970).

In a letter addressed to both states, Rosenberg wrote:

The evidence is conclusive: Marijuana causes blindness. At least if you work at the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Responding to a pair of petitions by two Democratic governors and a nurse practitioner, the DEA flatly declined to change how marijuana is classified under federal drug control laws. The petitioners asked that it be moved out of Schedule I, a classification for drugs that come with a high potential for abuse and no accepted clinical application. This places marijuana in the company of substances like heroin and LSD, and means it is a more highly regulated substance than cocaine.

The Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons after officials concluded the facilities are both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services than those run by the government.

Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced the decision on Thursday in a memo that instructs officials to either decline to renew the contracts for private prison operators when they expire or “substantially reduce” the contracts’ scope. The goal, Yates wrote, is “reducing — and ultimately ending — our use of privately operated prisons.”

The protection of intellectual property (IP), such as trademarks and creative marketing innovations, is a benefit of federal law denied to participants in the nascent marijuana industry emerging under state-level legalization reforms.

The issue of “Trademark Laundering, Useless Patents and Other IP Challenges for the Marijuana Industry” is explored by Sam Kamin and Viva Moffat, law professors at the University of Denver College of Law, in the Winter, 2016 issue of the Washington and Lee Law Review.

One of Gary Johnson's signature issues is the legalization of marijuana. Do most Americans favor the legalization of marijuana? Surveys say yes.

In a Medium post touting his Libertarian presidential candidacy, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson addressed a variety of policies in his platform, including fiscally conservative policies, criminal justice reform and caution before committing troops overseas.

He also returned to what has become one of his signature issues: the legalization of marijuana.

The Drug Enforcement Agency refused to relax restrictions on cannabis last week, meaning marijuana will remain Schedule 1 — the strictest category of the Controlled Substances Act, designated for dangerous and addictive drugs with no medical value — in spite of growing evidence that marijuana is relatively safe and medically useful.

The DEA is claiming marijuana lacks medical value. If that’s true, why did the U.S. government file a patent for cannabis — stating that the plant has multiple therapeutic benefits — way back in 1999?

New Theory Magazine visualizes the recent sales of legal marijuana in America with the release of the new infographic. It was just two years ago that the first ever recreational marijuana dispensaries opened their doors for business in Colorado, but ever since, the growth in the industry has been shocking!

In fact, CBS News even reported that “the growing acceptance and legalization of marijuana is helping the U.S. cannabis industry expand well beyond niche status,” with it’s forecast expected “to pump from $24 billion to $44 billion annually into the country’s economy by 2020.”

Twenty-five states, including California, allow marijuana to be used for medical purposes.

On Nov. 8, voters in California and eight other states will cast ballots to decide if they’ll join Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Washington, D.C. to allow recreational use of marijuana.

According to an article published in The Hill [Poll: Majority of voters support marijuana legalization, June 6, 2016] which cited a Quinnipiac University poll, 54% of those surveyed said marijuana should be legalized. The same poll also showed that 89% of respondents believe people should be allowed to use medically prescribed marijuana.