- Legalization is generally taken to represent the removal of all government-enforced penalties for possessing and using marijuana. In most, but not all, cases, legalization also paves the way for the legal sales and home-growing of marijuana.
- Decriminalization generally eliminates jail or prison time for limited possession of marijuana, but some other penalties remain in place, treating a minor marijuana offense more like a minor traffic violation. Those caught possessing or selling an amount within the decriminalized limits are still fined — usually no more than a few hundred dollars. States with stricter decriminalization laws can also attach some jail or prison time to possessing larger amounts of marijuana, sales, or trafficking.
- Medical legalization lets doctors recommend marijuana for a variety of conditions, from pain to nausea to inflammatory bowel disease to PTSD. A review of the evidence from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found little evidence for pot’s ability to treat health conditions outside chronic pain, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and patient-reported multiple sclerosis spasticity symptoms. But most states, relying largely on anecdotal evidence, have allowed medical marijuana for many other conditions. And in a few states, medical cannabis laws have been so lax that they may as well be full legalization.
Information copied from Vox.com so all credit to them.
- Decriminalization generally eliminates jail or prison time for limited possession of marijuana, but some other penalties remain in place, treating a minor marijuana offense more like a minor traffic violation. Those caught possessing or selling an amount within the decriminalized limits are still fined — usually no more than a few hundred dollars. States with stricter decriminalization laws can also attach some jail or prison time to possessing larger amounts of marijuana, sales, or trafficking.
- Medical legalization lets doctors recommend marijuana for a variety of conditions, from pain to nausea to inflammatory bowel disease to PTSD. A review of the evidence from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found little evidence for pot’s ability to treat health conditions outside chronic pain, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and patient-reported multiple sclerosis spasticity symptoms. But most states, relying largely on anecdotal evidence, have allowed medical marijuana for many other conditions. And in a few states, medical cannabis laws have been so lax that they may as well be full legalization.
Information copied from Vox.com so all credit to them.