The votes were counted, the oath was taken and Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States Friday. However, a new president isn’t the only thing Americans received as a result of the 2016 election — a slew of citizens got sweet changes to marijuana laws after nine states legalized cannabis in some capacity.

With a new leader of the republic, there are bound to be changes ahead regarding many policies and practices in the U.S. Trump has already said the first of his executive orders would change immigration rules and Obamacare, and advance plans to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Meanwhile,  states where marijuana was legalized were beginning to structure and implement regulations.

Legislators in more than a dozen states have introduced measures to loosen laws restricting access to or criminalizing marijuana, a rush of legislative activity that supporters hope reflects a newfound willingness by public officials to embrace a trend toward legalization.

The gamut covered by measures introduced in the early days of legislative sessions underscores the patchwork approach to marijuana by states across the country — and the possibility that the different ways states treat marijuana could come to a head at the federal Justice Department, where President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to become attorney general is a staunch opponent of legal pot.

Patients suffering from painful ailments that include fibromyalgia, muscular dystrophy, shingles and rheumatoid arthritis should be able to get medical marijuana in Connecticut, a state panel of doctors urged Wednesday.

The proposed expansion of Connecticut's medical marijuana program to cover more types of diseases and conditions is part of a national surge toward making pot more available to help ease severe medical problems.

Approximately 3,500 patients, adults and children, in New Haven County alone are approved and using medical marijuana. Over 15,000 state-wide are using it for 22 serious conditions; including cancer, Parkinsons, Multiple Sclerosis, and Cerebral Palsy.

This week, there will be a move to expand it to seven more ailments like; Eczema, Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Fibromyalgia.

Jonathan Harris, the Commissioner of the State Department of Consumer Protection, the agency that oversees the medical marijuana program, said that the program is gaining more acceptance.

Military veterans can suffer from just about every medical condition imaginable. Many, if not all, of those conditions can be effectively treated with medical marijuana. Marijuana can help veterans who suffer from PTSD to chronic pain, which is why veterans are increasingly turning to cannabis for relief. Marijuana does not come with the harmful side effects that accompany most pharmaceutical medications.

Easing pain and improving quality of life for end of life patients — the focus of a groundbreaking medical marijuana study.

The first of its kind in New England.

The research will soon be underway at America’s first hospice, The Connecticut Hospice in Branford.

This is a federally approved medical marijuana study.

Governor Dannel Malloy and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, among those at a news conference, announcing the federally approved medical marijuana study.

The 66 hospice patients, who are yet to be enrolled, will help determine the benefits and safety of using medical marijuana for pain management.

Somebody's got to be the first state to free the weed through the legislature.

Four states, including California, the nation’s most populous, voted to legalize marijuana on November 8. That doubles the number of legal states to eight, and more than quadruples the number of people living in legal marijuana states, bringing the number to something around 64 million.

Every one of those states legalized marijuana through the initiative process, but we’re not going to see anymore initiatives on state ballots until 2018, and perhaps 2020. That means that if we are to make more progress on spreading marijuana legalization in the next couple of years, it’s going to have to come at the state house instead of the ballot box.

Early this year, a disabled former automobile body worker named Greg Vialpando explained to lawmakers in New Mexico how medical marijuana helped his chronic back pain.

State legislators were considering a bill backed by workers’ compensation insurers that would have exempted them from paying for medical marijuana. But Mr. Vialpando and another patient described how smoking the drug let them escape years of stupor caused by powerful prescription narcotic drugs known as opioids.

The lawmakers ended up dropping the bill, and Mr. Vialpando’s expenses for buying marijuana are covered by insurance.

“I would recommend that people use medical marijuana over opioids any day,” Mr. Vialpando, 58, said in a telephone interview.

Voters in Massachusetts approved the recreational use of marijuana starting in 2018. It's a measure some Connecticut legislators have pushed for in the past without success. But now proponents think the tide might be changing in Connecticut. 

The approval of recreational pot in neighboring Massachusetts is already sparking conversation to the south. New Haven Rep. Juan Candelaria, who’s introduced legislation in the past, said the biggest attraction to legalization is tax revenue.