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What are the rules?
Things to know about recreational marijuana
According to CNN Money (New York), since voters in eight states and Washington, D.C., have given it the green light.
Sales of legal pot grew to $6.6 billion in 2016, according to New Frontier Data, a research company that analyzes the marijuana industry. That includes $4.7 billion for medical marijuana and $1.9 billion for recreational. The industry as a whole is projected to exceed $24 billion by 2025.
But there are rules for where you can buy pot and who can smoke it.
Anyone 21 or older can buy recreational marijuana in Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Pot shops for recreational marijuana have been open for business in Colorado and Washington since 2014, in Oregon since 2015 and in Alaska since 2016.
You can possess pot and get high legally in eight states and Washington, D.C., as long as you're at least 21. Recreational marijuana was legalized last year in California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada. It was legalized in Washington, D.C., in 2015. But recreational dispensaries haven't been established in those places yet, and state and local authorities are still working out rules for taxation and zoning.
According to the Marijuana Policy Project, a pro-legalization group, medical marijuana is legal in 29 states and Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam. West Virginia became the 29th in April, the day before 4/20, when the governor signed medical marijuana into law. In 18 other states, medical marijuana laws are so restrictive that the MPP considers them "ineffective or flawed."
The city of North Bonneville, Washington, opened the Cannabis Corner in 2015. It's the first municipally owned pot shop. Profits go to special city projects, like upgrading the local playground.
Pot remains illegal in the eyes of the federal government, which classifies it the same as heroin. Banks are regulated by the feds, which means that most banks won't go near dispensaries, forcing many of them to deal in cash. In 2014, the Justice Department issued guidelines for banks on how to legally provide financial services to state-licensed marijuana businesses. But many banks remain wary of weed.
Even when two legal states share a border, as Washington and Oregon do, carrying weed across state lines runs afoul of federal law. Don't bring it on a plane, and don't mail it.
Driving while stoned is illegal and dangerous, just like drunken driving. But there's no Breathalyzer for weed, a conundrum for cops. That could change, because two companies - Hound Labs and Cannabix Technologies - are testing marijuana Breathalyzers.
Sorry, but those 420 pot parties in city parks are illegal, even in states where cannabis is legal.
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