2014 VICE News Awards: Best Thing to Happen with Legalized Pot in the US — More Pot Legalization

Check out more of the 2014 VICE News Awards here.

The movement to legalize marijuana arguably had its most successful year to date in 2014, kicking off the new year as Colorado officially became the first state to make recreational pot sales legal. In the months since, Congress has halted the war on medical marijuana, Native Americans have been given federal approval to sell weed on their land, and in July the first legal, recreational pot changed hands in Washington.

But among the array of political and societal breakthroughs, the legalization of marijuana in Washington DC, Alaska, and Oregon proved that legalization at the state and municipal level was one of the year's most important policy shifts.

At the most basic, these laws mean there are three new ways to challenge the increasingly vocal opposition to ending pot prohibition both at home, most recently from two states angry about diversion, and abroad from the United Nations. Legalization in these places has also created another way to bring a black market out of the shadows — implementing taxation and regulation, and at the same time giving stakeholders a seat and a voice at the table.

Federally, legal pot at the state level is forcing the government to confront the issue, as it becomes a debate representatives in the capital are going to have to handle. With the addition of the Alaska and Oregon, two more states and their congressional representatives now have a responsibility to their constituents to look out for marijuana legalization policies. There was some important movement in that direction in 2014 too — namely the justice department's guidance on banking, waiving off prosecution of financial institutions which take the marijuana industry's money.

Not to mention that if California ends prohibition in 2016, as is widely speculated — joining its neighbors in Oregon and Washington — we might just see something extremely radical: a legal agreement for interstate shipments between coastal states.

But, there's more to it than simply advancing legalization causes nation-wide. In those three states, second chances may be offered to thousands snared by a criminal justice machine grossly guilty of targeting black and latino men and handing down jail sentences for non-violent marijuana offenses. Simply being arrested, or worse yet, probation or prison time can cause near life-involvement in the criminal justice system, because of nationalized records databases and the inability to clear a drug related arrest from criminal records.

That aside, the growing movement to end prohibition in 2014 was also important because it elicited action from groups and interests opposed to legal weed. In addition to the states bordering Washington and Colorado, law enforcement has been making noise — as they have for a long time in marijuana pioneering states such as California. Cops and feds alike cite rising numbers of trafficking arrests and dispensary licenses as examples of a system spiraling out of control. Not to mention the effects marijuana use has on the brain, effects which have begun to be studied — though it's worth noting that an an enormous amount of more work needs to be done. A researcher, for example, recently compared our scientific knowledge of pot to that of booze during prohibition.

And then there's the smell: that unmistakable odor of marijuana. Federal law men always bring it up, speaking to the fact that opponents of legalizing the drug will use whatever arguments they think will be successful. That particular one about the smell relying on the enduring facet of community living: "not in my backyard," which is a force, when mobilized under the right banner, that should not be underestimated across the US.

There are also the enemies within the movement, so to speak. The growing juggernaut of American drug politics, combined with the Venture Capital cash sloshing around marijuana startups means that legalization if it happens federally, it's probably not going to work out exactly the way supporters hope. Growers in the famed Emerald Triangle region in Northern California have opposed legalization for years, for example, fearing big business will devour what's long been a cottage industry in those parts. And others, seeing the corporate writing on the wall have begun to take steps to ensure "smoke local" becomes baked into the legislative cake of the future.

Make no mistake, should the feds decriminalize weed — or move towards legalization — it will almost immediately become subject to the same tenets of capitalism that have produced self-serving transnational enterprises. The battle lines are already being drawn.

But, despite the uncertain and complex future that lies ahead, 2014 was arguably the most progressive year in history in the way of American policy — at the federal, state, and local levels. Meaning 2014 is an important prologue to whatever follows and critical to the drug's legal status. If opponents win the battle, these will be looked at as the brief years of legalized weed. Or, maybe in the future we'll be able to say 2014 was the first year marijuana users in the US could buy their drug of choice without having to fake a migraine.

More from Max Cherney here.

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Photo via Flickr