Howard Husock examines states’ contrasting approaches toward highlighting the documented health risks of cannabis use.
The legalization of recreational marijuana sale and use has spread dramatically since it was first adopted by Colorado in 2012. As of 2025, 24 states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis or passed enabling legislation to do so. The majority of the US population lives in these jurisdictions. Owing in part to those changes, Americans’ use of marijuana and cannabis-based products has increased dramatically. Survey research has found that self-reported daily marijuana use increased by 15 times between 1992 and 2022, becoming more common than daily alcohol use.
At the same time, ongoing medical research continues to reveal new health risks related to marijuana use, including increased risk of “major cardiovascular events.” …
… The combination of increased use and collateral health effects of recreational marijuana raises the questions of how government should educate the public and whether it should discourage or limit cannabis use as it does with tobacco, another legal but dangerous product. Unlike tobacco, however, marijuana’s unusual legal standing means any attempts to discourage its use must be undertaken not by the federal government but by each state that has legalized the drug. Although marijuana is technically still illegal under federal law, “the federal response to states’ legalizing marijuana largely has been to allow states to implement their own laws.” The absence of federal policy means there is no standard nationwide package warning for cannabis products as there is for tobacco. …
… No states cite all the concerns. The closest any states get to citing all of them is listing seven of the 12 concerns. Those states are Nevada and California. Nine states merely note that the products should be kept away from children and avoided by pregnant women.
