Remember the heady days of 2018? When 53 percent of Utah voters passed Proposition 2, allowing the use of medical cannabis by qualified Utah patients? Voters even "green-lit" the growing of up to six plants for certain patients' personal use.
But voters taking such matters into their own hands woke up a sleeping bear—meaning Utah's governor and Legislature then sprang into action approving their own medical cannabis bill that circumvented Prop 2.
And now, after years of advocacy, grueling work to put a referendum to the voters, opposition from conservative and religious leaders, and plenty of growing pains, Utah finally has a medical cannabis program. With more than 23,000 card-holding patients who have purchased nearly $30 million in cannabis products, the program has already established itself in its first year and will only continue to grow.