In the mid-2010s, families across the country uprooted themselves to move to Colorado for reasons unrelated to outdoor adventures or craft beer. Instead, they moved for the state’s first-in-the-nation legal marijuana laws, which allowed access to cannabis-derived products they said were essential to their or their children’s health.
With marijuana now legal for medical purposes in 40 states and legal altogether in 24, Colorado’s role as a haven for families of children with epilepsy or adults with chronic pain, among other conditions, has waned.
But newly passed legislation that closes the “hemp loophole” threatens to turn back the clock, advocates say, leaving many Americans suddenly without access to products they say are essential to their well-being.
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