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The state is among the most conservative to legalize medical marijuana.

\"PHOTO:
Lars Hagberg/AFP/Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: Flowering medicinal marijuana plants in Smith Falls, Ontario, Dec. 5, 2016.
>

Since 1996, 21 other states have legalized medical marijuana. State laws vary in how tightly they regulate its sale and its use, although most only allow its use for specified conditions and require patients and their caregivers to have a licensed use card.

Most states have set up dispensaries to distribute medical marijuana, although several have restrictions the number of dispensaries and some only allow them to be nonprofits.

Delaware, Michigan, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Arizona extend legal protections to medical marijuana cardholders from other states.

Arizona, where the state’s medical marijuana initiatives narrowly passed, has one of the more strict set of restrictions on who can be granted a medical marijuana card. State courts struck down a law aimed at prohibiting college students from having medical marijuana cards, but in June they ruled that hashish isn’t included in the law.

Laws in New York and West Virginia still prohibit smoking pot. Both allow people to consume marijuana in pills or as vapor, while West Virginia also allows tinctures, topical creams and patches.

Louisiana’s medical marijuana laws go into effect in August. Ohio’s medical marijuana law goes into effect in September, while Arkansas’s dispensaries are expected to be operational next year after being paused for pending litigation.

States where most recreational and medicinal marijuana use is illegal

In 20 remaining states, marijuana use is completely illegal with most still classifying the drug as a schedule I narcotic as it is under the federal Controlled Substances Act.

Four states prohibit marijuana in all of its forms, while the remaining 16 allow the use of cannabidiol oil for medical research into its ability to treat epilepsy and other seizure disorders.

South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Idaho prohibit all marijuana use. In Idaho, a bill that would legalize cannabidiol oil was vetoed by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter in 2015.

States that allow cannabidiol oil range from Texas to Wyoming. Cannabidiol oil and other low THC products provide some of marijuana's medicinal benefits but won’t get you high.

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