Hello, friends, and welcome to the Bill Press pod and today's podcast, or maybe we should call it a podcast, because that's what we're going to be talking about.

The stunning rise of legalized marijuana.

Five years ago, you would never have thought that same-sex marriage would be legally recognized

in all 50 states.

But it is today.

And today, you might never think that the recreational use of marijuana would ever be legally

recognized in all 50 states.

But you know what? Five years from now, it may very well be.

Medical use of marijuana has long been approved in a majority of states,

but state approval of recreational use of marijuana is now moving quickly across the country.

So we thought it was a good time to take a deep dive into the world of pot.

How many states have legalized recreational use of marijuana? How's it going? What problems,

if any, have been encountered? And which states are about to join the club? We sat down with

Justin Strachal, political director of the National Organization

for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or Normal, at Normals headquarters, in downtown Washington.

Hi, Justin, good to see you. Thanks for joining us. Hey, Bill. It's great to see you as well. Thanks for having

So one of your members, staffers that I've known for a long time, Keith Strew, told me that

when Normal started in 1970, there was 12% support for legalized recreational use of marijuana.

What is it today?

It's gotten a little better, hasn't it?

It's much higher.

You know, we're very fortunate.

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