Brookings Institute blog post by Sabina Morris, John Hudak, and Christine Stenglein Friday, April 16, 2021.
The most recent wave of successful legalization efforts has demonstrated the effectiveness of pro-cannabis reformers to frame cannabis policy as a civil rights and racial justice issue....

ACLU article by Charlotte Resing, Policy Analyst, Washington Legislative Office
April 20, 2019
Marijuana has been a key driver of mass criminalization in this country and hundreds of thousands of people, the majority of whom are Black or Latinx, have their lives impacted by a marijuana arrest each year....

Barrons article by By Connor Smith
April 30, 2021.
In 2019, New Jersey and New York were expected to be the first states to legalize cannabis sales without a voter referendum. But the bills flopped in their state legislatures—defeated not by conservatives but by progressive Democrats....

Deborah M. Ahrens, Retroactive Legality: Marijuana Convictions and Restorative Justice in an Era of Criminal Justice Reform, 110 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 379 (2020).
The last decade has seen the beginning of a new era in United States criminal justice policy, one characterized by a waning commitment to over-criminalization, mass incarceration, and a punitive War on Drugs as well as a growing regret for the consequences of our prior policies....