 You might remember that there was an election recently, not that people have talked much about it since then. One thing that happened in this last election was several more states passed laws legalizing marijuana for medical use or making it completely legal. That's on top of the 26 states plus DC which had already legalized it at least partially. Before we go any further, let's all take a moment and get the pothead jokes out of our system. I know, I'll make them too, it's fun, but we'll never get anywhere if we don't skip the obvious jokes. I have terrible, non-obvious ones instead. And that's why we're calling it marijuana and not weed. There. Feel better? Alright, let's go. First, the new 2016 laws. All of these were passed through ballot measures which means they were voted on directly by everyone rather than being passed through the state legislature like a normal law. If you're curious about ballots and ballot measures, we have a video which explains more about them. First, we'll talk about California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada because they all completely legalized marijuana for adults. All of them added taxes ranging from about 4% to 15% and some states also applied the sales tax to marijuana. California has a cultivation tax on the plants and leeks. Meanwhile, Arkansas, Florida, Montana, and North Dakota all legalized medical marijuana. There was also a ballot measure in Arizona that didn't pass, but they have already legalized medical marijuana beforehand. Here's the full list of states with legalized medical marijuana or completely legal marijuana. There are too many states to cover each one individually, so we'll talk about the general themes and what to look for from state to state. Obviously, lawmakers are pleased to have a new source of money to draw on. Different states do different things with the tax money they get from marijuana sales. Some, like Nevada, Arkansas, or Maine, spend on education or workforce training. Others spend it on the cost of regulating marijuana. When marijuana has been legalized, states also often have rules about where you can open a marijuana store or a medical dispensary. Several states, like Alaska, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington, won't let you open one near schools, churches, or childcare facilities. Some states will only let people grow their own marijuana and other states will limit how much you can have and grow or what kinds of products you can make out of marijuana in that state and sell. One question when you have medical marijuana is what kinds of illnesses and medical conditions are covered, like cancer or glaucoma or even chronic pain. The laws don't cover everything, but certain kinds of medical problems will allow your doctor to prescribe you marijuana. Some states will require you to also register and get an ID card before you even get medical marijuana, so you will have to prove that you qualify in the first place. Some states that have totally legalized marijuana will still require you to register before you can get it. Some states have much looser systems for medical marijuana and have been criticized for not requiring anything more than a simple prescription that might be as general as persistent back pain based on one complaint to the doctor. Generally, the legal age of use for marijuana is 21, so no celebrations at your high school graduation, and you can't get high during the commencement speech. That's right, I'm talking to you teachers. Most of the states that have legal marijuana make it a crime to drive with any marijuana in your system, while a few will have a legal limit, like alcohol. But many ban both marijuana chemicals and the chemicals that your body metabolizes marijuana into. That second category includes things that take a while to exit your body after you ingest marijuana or smoke it, so you could potentially be guilty of driving under the influence even if it's been hours since you were high. So what about the federal government? Regardless of what all these states are doing, marijuana is still illegal under federal law. That's bound to cause some confusion and complications. The Obama administration still prosecuted people for marijuana crimes, but they said they wanted to focus on specific issues and leave most of the policing to the states. Their big focus was keeping minors from getting marijuana, keeping criminal organizations from making money off marijuana sales since they could bring marijuana in from other countries and sell it, stopping people from driving high and keeping people away from using marijuana as a cover for shipping or selling other illegal drugs. They were especially interested in keeping people from growing marijuana on public land, like national parks, which makes you wonder how many people were doing that. You're also not allowed to use marijuana on federal property. There was a criticism that even though they said they were focusing on other things, the federal government was still rating people with legal marijuana, which might include even Native American reservations, and seizing it or threatening them with prosecution. People have even gone so far to say the Obama administration was having federal law enforcement seize marijuana illegally, which means it doesn't matter what the state laws say, the federal government will still go after marijuana. People have also complained that if they started a marijuana business where it was legal, they couldn't use banks or get investment because of federal banking regulations. And some were afraid that as a result, they get robbed because everything they have was in cash. Now, what the Trump administration will do is kind of a big question mark right now. On the one hand, people point to his nominee for attorney general, Senator Jeff Sessions, and say that since he's against legalized marijuana, even for medical uses, that means the Trump administration will crack down. On the other hand, Donald Trump himself is a man who's known for enjoying a good time, and not many people think he cares about marijuana personally or will want to fight the public over it. Time will tell, but while you wait, you can look up your state's laws on marijuana on these websites. And there you have it.