Bringing Marijuana (Law) into the Legal Writing Classroom

Abstract

Marijuana law is rapidly evolving. In recent years, almost half of the states have legalized marijuana for medicinal and/or recreational use, and the legalization movement continues to gain momentum. The topic, moreover, is of significant interest to many law students. We accordingly propose that marijuana law makes an ideal subject for the legal writing classroom. In this article, we discuss ways in which legal writing instructors can create cutting-edge marijuana law problems for their courses.

Keywords: Marijuana, marijuana law, cannabis, Controlled Substances Act, legalize, medicinal use, First Amendment, free speech, legal writing, legal writing problems, teaching ideas, pedagogy, classroom

JEL Classification: I18, I28, K32, K19, K42