City Council will introduce proposal to replace moratorium on new entrants in industry with limits on cultivation, stores

A proposal that would create citywide caps on stores and grow houses to protect marijuana-saturated Denver neighborhoods cleared its first hurdle Monday.

But when the City Council introduces it on the floor April 11 and takes a final vote as early as April 18, the measure isn't guaranteed an easy ride.

Kansas Democratic Rep. John Wilson never thought he’d take up marijuana as a legislative cause, but the struggles of a family in his district to get medical hemp preparations to treat their son’s seizures changed his mind.

Wilson, of Lawrence, is pushing for a House measure that would allow medical hemp to treat seizures. Another pending bill would reduce the penalties for first- and second-time marijuana possession. House-Senate conference committees will continue working on the bills when the Legislature returns April 27 to finish its work for the year.

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

A month ago, Maine’s secretary of state said a ballot question that would have legalized recreational marijuana in the state fell short of the needed number of voter signatures to make this November’s ballot.

Immediately, the campaign behind the ballot effort cried foul and moved to challenge the decision in court, arguing Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap had inappropriately deemed nearly 17,000 signatures invalid. Because the ballot question came up about 10,000 signatures short of moving forward, the question would have been eligible to reach voters if those 17,000 signatures had been counted, the campaign said.

In the past ten years or so, more and more countries are leaning towards legalizing or have legalized the personal use of the drug widely known as marijuana. Even more countries have moved towards decriminalizing the drug.

Decriminalizing, in simple terms, means that there aren’t any criminal consequences for those that use the drug. But the use of the drug remains illegal. At least eight major countries have legalized marijuana and there are 36 other countries where marijuana is either decriminalized, tolerated or the law is ‘unenforceable.’

John Hudak isn’t a politician, a legalization advocate, or a cannabis entrepreneur. He walks unrecognized through industry conferences. But in the past six months, he’s quietly become one of the most influential voices on national cannabis policy.

The year 2008 was momentous. Lehman Brothers collapsed, Radovan Karadžić was arrested, Russian troops massed on the Georgian border, and Barack Obama beat John McCain to the White House. 

But 2008 was also significant for something that didn’t happen. It was the year that the world didn’t eliminate the illicit drugs problem. This quixotic goal had been set a decade earlier at a United Nations general assembly special session when, under the vainglorious slogan “We can do it”, the supranational body pledged that, by 2008, the world would be “drug free”.

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.

Over the same five-year period, cautions fell by 48% and the number of people charged for possession fell by 33%, according to a Freedom of Information request lodged by BBC Breakfast.

According to the figures, provided by 32 of England and Wales’ 43 police forces, arrests for cannabis possession dropped from 35,367 to 19,115.

Arrests for possession with intent to supply saw a minor increase however, from 4,934 in 2010 and 5,012 in 2015.

The Home Office said all reported crimes should be taken seriously, investigated and where necessary taken through the courts.

"Decisions on individual investigations are an operational matter for Chief Constables based on the evidence available to them," a spokesperson said.