Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

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Marijuana Legalization: Bringing a Lucrative Market Out of the Shadows

Fri, November 2, 2018
Lunch Program
Karen O’Keefe

Since 2012, nine states, including California, have made marijuana legal for adults who are 21 or older. Karen O’Keefe, who directs state lobbying efforts for the Marijuana Policy Project, will examine how states are legalizing, taxing, and regulating the multi billion-dollar cannabis market and how legalization and regulation promotes customer, worker, and environmental safety. She will also discuss challenges that remain, including local bans, federal marijuana prohibition, and continued demand for illegally grown marijuana from states that still prohibit it.

As the director of state policies at the Marijuana Policy Project, Karen O’Keefe manages grassroots and direct lobbying efforts in state legislatures for the largest nonprofit that is focused solely on marijuana policy reform. In her 15-year career at MPP, O’Keefe and her team have played a leading role in more than a dozen successful advocacy campaigns, including the first legalization law to pass a state legislature.

O'Keefe earned her J.D. from Loyola School of Law, New Orleans.

Ms. O'Keefe's talk is the second in a series hosted by the Rose Institute of State and Local Government on the topic of the public policy implications of marijuana legalization.

View Video: YouTube with Karen O'Keefe

Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum

Claremont McKenna College
385 E. Eighth Street
Claremont, CA 91711

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