Hoping many more folks will focus on "how" as marijuana reform continues to gain momentum

German Lopez has this new Vox piece, headlined "Marijuana legalization has won," that I find both effective and frustrating. The piece is effective because it reviews well the modern political realities of marijuana reform, while not even mentioning the modern policy and practical realities of reform. Here is how the piece starts:

The US is nearing a tipping point of sorts on marijuana legalization: Almost half the country — about 43 percent of the population — now lives in a state where marijuana is legal to consume just for fun.

The past two months alone have seen a burst of activity as four states across the US legalized marijuana for recreational use: New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and, on Monday, New Mexico.

It’s a massive shift that took place over just a few years. A decade ago, no states allowed marijuana for recreational use; the first states to legalize cannabis in 2012, Colorado and Washington, did so through voter-driven initiatives.  Now, 17 states and Washington, DC, have legalized marijuana (although DC doesn’t yet allow sales), with five enacting their laws through legislatures, showing even typically cautious politicians are embracing the issue.

At this point, the question of nationwide marijuana legalization is more a matter of when, not if.

I started teaching a new law school class and started a new law blog about marijuana reform topics way back in 2013 because I had reason to believe, even back, then that political and social forces were already lining up to make marijuana reform "more a matter of when, not if."  But, as I have paid ever more attention to these issues for now nearly a decade (and even helped start a new law school center to study these issues), I have grown even more aware of the many challenges surrounding the "how" of marijuana legalization.  And, as the title of this post suggests, I keep hoping that even more and more serious people will start spending more and more time examining and reviewing the pros and cons of different approaches to reform.  Though there has been a growing number of public health and criminal justice researchers and academics paying more attention to these topics, I still see so much important "how" work that needs to be done and still relatively few folks on the job.

That said, as I try to highlight over at Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform, I suppose I should celebrate that this even more policy discussion and academic writing about the "how" 

• "Nowhere to Now, Where? Reconciling Public Cannabis Use in a Public Health Legal Framework"
• "New Market Entrants and Uncertain Drug Policy in the United States"
• "American Edibles: How Cannabis Regulatory Policy Rehashes Prohibitionist Fears and What to do About It"
• Notable new group, the Cannabis Freedom Alliance, seeks to advance end of marijuana prohibition
• "Economic Recovery Through Interstate Cannabis Commerce"
• "Inequitable Marijuana Criminalization, COVID-19, and Socioeconomic Disparities: The Case for Community Reinvestment in New York"
• "Legal Strategy During Legal Uncertainty: The Case of Cannabis Regulation"
• "Interstate Commerce in Cannabis"
• Effective accounting (with great visuals) of marijuana "legalization in three degrees"
• Seeking more information and input on teaching about marijuana reform and drug issues in law school