Legalisation
The law moving. California in 1996, Colorado and Washington in 2012, the first legal recreational sale on New Year's Day 2014, Uruguay first as a country, then Canada, Thailand, Malta, Luxembourg and Germany, alongside the banking problems, the expungement fights and the illicit market that legal shops never quite replaced.
Part of Marijuana
109 moments in this segment.
- - Vote Yes on 19, California 1972. Campaign poster for California Proposition 19 of 1972, the first US state ballot measure to legalise cannabis. It was defeated.
- - Licensed bhang shop, 1983. A licensed bhang shop in Varanasi photographed in January 1983.
- - Proposition 215: The Medical Marijuana Initiative. Short explainer from the UCI Center for the Study of Cannabis on Proposition 215, the 1996 California ballot measure that legalised medical marijuana.
- - California After Prop 215: A Reporter's Look at the New Medical Marijuana Law. Local TV news report on how California's 1996 Compassionate Use Act played out in practice, and the legal ambiguity it created between state and federal authorities.
- - Legalising Medical Marijuana (2003). Journeyman Pictures documentary on California's medical-cannabis laws and the resulting conflict between state permission and federal prohibition.
- - Republic of Cannabis. KQED and the Center for Investigative Reporting on California's medical-marijuana growing boom and the federal law-enforcement pushback against it.
- - Colorado Votes to Legalize Pot. Denver7's 10pm election-night report as Colorado voters approved Amendment 64 on 6 November 2012.
- - Colorado and Washington vote to legalise marijuana. ABC News report from the night of 6 November 2012, when Amendment 64 and Initiative 502 passed, the first recreational legalisation votes anywhere.
- - After Colorado and Washington: Preparing for a Federal Showdown. Democracy Now! on what the Colorado and Washington legalisation votes meant for the conflict with federal drug law.
- - Raw: Colorado Grapples With Its New Marijuana Law. AP Archive footage from December 2012 as Colorado worked out how to implement the law voters had just passed.
- - Tiny Uruguay Plans Groundbreaking Cannabis Legalisation. AFP report from January 2013 as Uruguay's parliament prepared to debate the state-run cannabis market first proposed in July 2012.
- - CNN: Uruguay Legalises Marijuana. CNN's Rafael Romo reports on Uruguay's landmark cannabis law.
- - Uruguay Makes History by Legalising the Entire Marijuana Market. Euronews on Uruguay becoming the first country to legalise cultivation, distribution and consumption of cannabis.
- - BBC: Uruguay, the First Country to Legalise Marijuana. BBC News report as Uruguay's Senate passed the law making it the first country in the world to legalise cannabis production and sale.
- - Uruguay Legalizes Pot to Quell Drug Trafficking. WSJ report on the Uruguayan state agency created to oversee cannabis distribution, and the anti-trafficking rationale behind the law.
- - Uruguay Becomes the First Country to Fully Legalise Marijuana. The Real News on Uruguay's December 2013 law, the first anywhere to legalise growing, selling and consuming cannabis nationwide.
- - Colorado Prepares for Legal Pot Starting January 1. CBS report from December 2013 on the supply and demand questions facing Colorado in the weeks before recreational sales opened.
- - Colorado Becomes the First State to Allow Recreational Marijuana. PBS NewsHour on the opening morning of legal recreational sales in Colorado.
- - Eager Customers Line Up Outside Colorado Marijuana Shops. AFP footage of the queues outside America's first retail recreational marijuana stores on the morning of 1 January 2014.
- - Euronews: Colorado Starts Selling Pot for Recreational Use. Euronews report on Colorado's first day of legal recreational sales, including Sean Azzariti's first purchase.
- - Colorado Embraces Newly Legalised Marijuana. PBS NewsHour interviews Ricardo Baca, the Denver Post's first marijuana editor, on the first day of legal retail sales in Colorado.
- - Unedited: Colorado's First Legal Marijuana Sale. Raw, unedited footage of the first legal recreational marijuana purchase in the United States, just after 8am on 1 January 2014.
- - AP: Legal Retail Marijuana Sales Begin in Colorado. Associated Press report on the opening day of legal retail marijuana sales, with shops rationing how much each customer could buy.
- - Colorado Becomes the First US State to Permit Recreational Sale. AP Archive footage from 1 January 2014 of America's first recreational marijuana industry opening for business.
- - An Iraq Veteran Among the First to Buy Recreational Marijuana in Denver. CBS Evening News on Sean Azzariti, the Iraq War veteran who made the first legal recreational purchase in Denver on 1 January 2014.
- - Pot Now Legal in Colorado: A Milestone for Marijuana. Wall Street Journal panel on what Colorado's first day of legal sales meant for the emerging cannabis industry.
- - Uruguay Sets Out How Legal Cannabis Will Work. Al Jazeera on the regulations Uruguay published for growing, selling and using cannabis, part of the slow rollout after the 2013 law.
- - Peter Hecht on How California Became the Epicentre of Pot Legalisation. Interview with journalist Peter Hecht about his reporting on California's medical-marijuana industry and its role in the national legalisation movement.
- - Washington Issues Its First Legal Marijuana Business Licence. Associated Press on the state issuing the first licence in its new regulated cannabis system, four months before shops opened.
- - Washington State Prepares for Its First Legal Marijuana Sales. Scripps News on the eve of Washington becoming the second US state where cannabis could be bought legally for recreational use.
- - Washington's Legal Weed Shops Face a Supply Shortage. CBS Evening News on opening day in Washington state, where approved shops had little product to sell.
- - Doors Open at Seattle's First Cannabis Store. Extended KING 5 coverage of opening day at Washington state's first recreational cannabis store.
- - First Legal Marijuana Stores Open in Washington State. CBC's The National on Washington's opening day, and the shops hoping to draw customers from across the Canadian border.
- - Opening Day of Cannabis Sales in Seattle. KPTV footage of the first day of legal recreational cannabis sales in Washington state, 8 July 2014.
- - Pot Sales Begin in Washington, But Supplies Are Short. CBS on the crowds and the shortages in Washington state on the second day of legal sales.
- - Washington State's First Recreational Marijuana Stores Open. AP Archive footage of Washington becoming the second US state where cannabis could be bought without a doctor's note.
- - Highs and Lows of Colorado's First Year of Legal Pot. CBS review of Colorado's first year of legal recreational marijuana, including Governor Hickenlooper's assessment.
- - Government bhang shop, Mirzapur. A state-licensed bhang shop on Jangi Road, Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh. Bhang remains legally sold through government outlets in parts of India.
- - Over-the-Counter Marijuana Goes on Sale in Uruguay. CGTN on the July 2017 start of pharmacy sales in Uruguay, nearly four years after the law passed, with only 16 pharmacies authorised.
- - Uruguay's Legal Marijuana Business Runs Into the Banks. Al Jazeera on Uruguayan pharmacies losing bank accounts over US anti-money-laundering rules, months after retail sales finally began in July 2017.
- - What Section 280E does to cannabis businesses. Industry association explainer on the tax code provision that bars cannabis companies from deducting ordinary business expenses.
- - The cannabis industry's banking crisis explained. Industry association explainer on why federally regulated banks refuse cannabis accounts and what that means for cash-only dispensaries.
- - Financial Times: First Legal Sale of Recreational Cannabis in Canada. FT report noting Canada as the second country after Uruguay to run a national experiment in cannabis liberalisation.
- - Saskatchewan Shoppers Drive to the Suburbs on Day One of Legal Cannabis. CBC Saskatchewan on customers travelling out of the cities to find stock, as urban stores waited on supply.
- - APTN National News on legal cannabis in Canada. Indigenous broadcaster's newscast from 17 October 2018 covering legalisation and its uneven rollout across provinces and First Nations.
- - TIME: Canadians Can Now Legally Buy Recreational Marijuana. TIME's report as sales began in the early hours in Newfoundland, making Canada the largest country with a legal national market.
- - What Happens on Cannabis Legalisation Day. CPAC explainer on exactly what became legal in Canada under the Cannabis Act on 17 October 2018.
- - The National, 17 October 2018: legalisation day. Full CBC flagship newscast from Canada's cannabis legalisation day.
- - Online Pot Shops Sell Out on Canada's First Day of Legal Sales. CBC on the supply shortages that hit Canadian online cannabis retailers within hours of legalisation.
- - Canada's First Legal Recreational Cannabis Sale. CBC News covers the first legal recreational cannabis sold in Canada, to Ian Power and Nikki Rose in Newfoundland just after midnight on 17 October 2018.
- - ITV: Canada becomes the largest country to legalise cannabis. British broadcast report on Canada's legalisation taking effect on 17 October 2018.
- - Canada's first day of cannabis legalisation. CBC report from 17 October 2018, the day Canada became the second country and the largest economy to legalise recreational cannabis nationally.
- - Should Canada's Pot Convicts Get Amnesty?. BBC News asks what happens to the roughly 500,000 Canadians carrying criminal records for cannabis possession after legalisation.
- - AP: Legal Marijuana Sales Begin in Canada. Associated Press report as Canada became the largest country with a legal national cannabis marketplace, with 111 shops expected to open.
- - Uruguay's Cannabis Business Six Years After Legalisation. CGTN America's assessment of Uruguay's state-run cannabis market six years on, with mixed results for the country of three million.
- - How Proposition 215 Was Written, Told by Co-Author John Entwistle. Co-author John Entwistle recounts the drafting of California's Proposition 215, the first successful US medical-marijuana ballot initiative.
- - Dennis Peron and Proposition 215. Profile of Dennis Peron, the San Francisco activist behind the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, and the AIDS-era buyers' club movement that produced it.
- - DW: Germany on the brink of legalising cannabis. Report from the 2021 coalition negotiations in which all three incoming governing parties backed legalisation.
- - Prop 215 at twenty-five: the legal struggle. Panel from California NORML's 5 November 2021 anniversary event on the litigation and federal conflict that followed the 1996 initiative.
- - Reuters: Malta legalises cannabis for personal use. Wire report from the day of the Maltese parliamentary vote allowing limited cultivation and possession.
- - Malta becomes the first EU nation to legalise cannabis. BBC report from December 2021 on Malta legalising cultivation and personal possession, the first EU member state to do so.
- - Prop 215 at 25: Medical Marijuana Pioneers. Cal NORML panel marking the 25th anniversary of Proposition 215, with the doctors, patients and caregivers who built California's medical-cannabis system.
- - Thailand Wants to Ban Recreational Cannabis Use. DW News as the Thai government moved to restrict cannabis to medical use, two years after decriminalising it.
- - Thailand Removes Cannabis From Its Narcotics List. ABC Australia on Thailand delisting cannabis in June 2022, a delisting that left recreational use in a legal vacuum rather than creating a regulated market.
- - CBS: Thailand legalises growing and consuming marijuana. American network report on 9 June 2022, the day Thai decriminalisation took effect.
- - Thailand becomes the first Asian country to decriminalise cannabis. DW report from June 2022 on Thailand removing cannabis from its narcotics list and distributing a million seedlings.
- - Thailand's Cannabis Boom After Decriminalisation. Thai PBS World on the rapid growth of cultivation, sales and use in the weeks after the June 2022 delisting.
- - Explained: Thailand's Cannabis Legalisation. Thai PBS World explains what the 9 June 2022 delisting actually did, and the absence of a governing law behind the boom.
- - The Hazy Legalisation of Marijuana in Thailand. TIME on Thailand becoming the third country in the world to decriminalise cannabis, and the regulatory vacuum that followed.
- - Thailand's Public Health Minister on Decriminalising Cannabis. Anutin Charnvirakul, the minister who drove the policy, explains the decision to The Straits Times.
- - Biden pardons federal marijuana possession offences. Broadcast report on the 6 October 2022 pardon of prior federal simple-possession convictions, with a call for governors to do the same.
- - Foreign Correspondent: is Thailand the new weed capital?. Australian documentary from October 2022 on the billion-dollar industry that sprang up within months of Thai decriminalisation.
- - AP: activists say the pardons do not go far enough. Associated Press interview of 7 October 2022 with Oakland cannabis entrepreneur Evelyn LaChapelle on the limits of the federal pardons for people convicted of distribution.
- - New York's first legal recreational dispensary opens. Report on the 29 December 2022 opening of Manhattan's first licensed adult-use dispensary, run by a nonprofit under the state's equity programme.
- - Schumer promotes the SAFE Banking Act. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer argues for legislation to give legal cannabis retailers access to the banking system.
- - German Lawmakers Vote to Legalise Cannabis for Private Use. DW News on the Bundestag vote passing the CanG cannabis law, weeks before it came into force.
- - Reuters: Thailand to ban recreational cannabis. Report from February 2024 on the Thai health minister's plan to re-restrict cannabis to medical use only.
- - Germany to Partially Legalise Cannabis from April 1. Bloomberg previews the German law days before it took effect, setting out what adults would be allowed to possess and grow.
- - After Germany's Partial Legalisation: The Pros and Cons. DW News from the Berlin celebrations at midnight on 1 April 2024, with debate over what the partial law does and does not permit.
- - Germany Partially Decriminalises Cannabis. BBC News on the rules that came into force on 1 April 2024 permitting over-18s to possess and cultivate limited amounts.
- - CGTN: Germany Has Now Partially Legalised Marijuana. CGTN Europe on Germany's new rules allowing adults to grow up to three plants for personal use.
- - Germany Legalises Limited Amounts of Marijuana. Euronews on the German rules permitting adults 25g of cannabis and three home-grown plants from April 2024.
- - Germany's new cannabis rules take effect. Channel 4 News explainer published on 1 April 2024, the day German adults could legally possess and grow small amounts.
- - Forbes: what rescheduling would mean for the cannabis industry. Business analysis of how a move to Schedule III would relieve cannabis companies of the punitive federal tax treatment under section 280E.
- - Cannabis Clubs Allowed to Open in Germany. BBC News on the second stage of the German law, the non-profit cultivation associations permitted from July 2024.
- - German Conservatives Threaten to Reverse Cannabis Legalisation. Euronews on the political backlash against the German law and the licensing problems facing cannabis clubs.
- - Italy's cannabis-light trade threatened by a law change. Reuters report from November 2024 on the Meloni government's bill to shut down Italy's low-THC hemp flower industry.
- - How cannabis is regulated across Europe. Euronews explainer mapping the patchwork of European cannabis laws, from decriminalisation to regulated sale.
- - Could German legalisation change European drug policy?. Euronews interview with an EU drugs agency analyst on whether Germany's law shifts policy across the bloc.
- - Forbes: US cannabis companies chase a green rush in Europe. Report from May 2025 on American cannabis operators expanding into European markets with friendlier regulation and lower taxes.
- - Thailand Moves to Recriminalise Cannabis. Reuters on the June 2025 order restricting cannabis to prescription-only use, upending a billion-dollar industry built after the 2022 delisting.
- - Thailand Set to Reverse Decriminalisation of Cannabis. ABC Australia on the Thai government reimposing controls and leaving the industry in limbo.
- - CNN: why Thailand reversed its cannabis policy. Report from June 2025 on new Thai rules requiring a prescription, three years after decriminalisation.
- - The crumbling business of marijuana. Long-form business analysis of why many legal cannabis companies lost money despite legalisation, covering taxation, oversupply and the persistent illicit market.
- - The come-down from Thailand's cannabis experiment. SBS report from August 2025 on the Thai government moving to outlaw recreational cannabis after a three-year boom.
- - Thailand's policy U-turn leaves the industry dazed. SBS report on the Thai health minister's order re-restricting cannabis and its effect on thousands of dispensaries.
- - New York cannabis retail sales pass one billion dollars. Local news item from September 2025 reporting New York's legal cannabis retail sales reaching 1.06 billion dollars for the year to date.
- - What Schedule III would mean for medical cannabis. NBC report from December 2025 ahead of an executive order fast-tracking cannabis reclassification.
- - Lawmakers react to the cannabis rescheduling order. Broadcast report the day after the December 2025 executive order directing that marijuana no longer be treated as a Schedule I drug.
- - What the rescheduling of cannabis actually means. Denver station explainer on the executive order moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III and the limits of that change.
- - New Czech rules on cannabis cultivation and possession. Prague news item from 1 January 2026, the day a Czech criminal-law reform legalising limited home cultivation took effect.
- - Thailand's push to recriminalise cannabis. Bloomberg report from February 2026, four years after decriminalisation, on the crossroads facing Thailand's cannabis market.
- - Inside Thailand's cannabis industry. Documentary following three cannabis farmers in northern Thailand as the country's legal framework shifts under them.
- - Pavel Bém on Czechia's next wave of drug policy reform. Interview with the Czech national drug policy coordinator, a psychiatrist and former mayor of Prague, on the country's regulated-market plans.
- - ARTE: should the state legalise and regulate cannabis?. European public-broadcaster debate documentary weighing state regulation against leaving the market to illicit dealers.
- - ABC News: the legalisation debate shifts as reclassification looms. Interview with policy analyst Shanita Penny on how federal reclassification changes the state-by-state legalisation picture.
- - Attorney General reclassifies medical marijuana to Schedule III. Breaking report on the April 2026 Justice Department order moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III.
- - DEA hearing on marijuana reclassification opens. Washington broadcast report from 29 June 2026 as federal officials convened to examine whether marijuana should be reclassified.
- - Democrats reintroduce federal cannabis legalisation legislation. Report from July 2026 on a bill backed by eighteen Democrats seeking full federal legalisation.