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Announcer: This is The Takeaway with Melissa Harris-Perry.
Melissa Harris-Perry: When the clock struck midnight on January 1, it ushered in, not only a new year but also many new regulations, laws, and policies across the country. Let's check out some of them. Just before the close of 2022, several states moved to legalize and to sell recreational marijuana. On December 8th, possession of up to three ounces of marijuana became legal in Missouri. On December 29th, New York's first legal dispensary for recreational marijuana made its initial sales. New York's PIX11 News was live on the scene.
Speaker 2: Thousands waited on a three and a half block long line to get a chance to buy legal recreational marijuana for the first time in New York State.
Melissa Harris-Perry: All right, sure, there are plenty of bro jokes to be made about a long line to buy weed, but legalization could be a meaningful step in criminal justice reform but only a step. Last year we spoke with Chelsea Higgs Wise, Founder of Marijuana Justice, and she reminded us of the larger structure that must be dismantled to achieve racial justice in this area.
Chelsea Higgs Wise: Really means that we have to be more intentional with truly repealing the prohibition of marijuana and that goes from the enforcement of possession. It goes into whether we are firing workers who are testing positive because marijuana stays in our system for 30 days. It goes into are we separating families and removing children for responsible adult use of cannabis.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Just to note that in Maryland, voters also chose to legalize recreational marijuana for adults over 21, but Marylanders will have to wait until July 1 for the new law to go into effect. On January 1st, another important drug policy went into effect, and this one is national in scope. As of the first of the year, seniors on Medicare will not have to pay more than $35 monthly for insulin. Here's Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, speaking on the Senate floor in October.
Senator Patty Muray: 37 million people in our country have diabetes, and it's absolutely wrong that many of them cannot afford the insulin they need to live. I've heard from people in my state who risk their life and ration their insulin to make ends meet. All the while, drug companies are jacking up prices. We have an opportunity here to make a difference and permanently cap insulin at $35 a month. It will save money. It will save lives. This should not be a hard vote to cast.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Unfortunately, that vote proved harder to cast than Senator Murray would have liked, and congressional Republicans blocked the measure in the bill that would have extended this benefit to everyone with private insurance. Still, there's room for celebration that insulin prices are now capped for people on Medicare. For some of Murray's constituents, some other monthly costs are a bit more affordable because as of January 1, the minimum wage in Washington state is now $15.74 an hour. If you're working in Seattle, the floor is set even higher.
While the federal minimum wage remains stuck at 7.25 an hour, more than half of American states, 27 in total, now have new wage floors in this new year, but still, Washington stands out not only for having the highest state minimum wage but also because minimum wage in Washington is tied to the cost of living index. Wages move up in a stepwise pattern to ensure that those who work full-time don't have to live in poverty. Here's Governor Jay Inslee back in 2019 at the We The People Summit fiercely defending the robust wages.
Governor Jay Inslee: If anybody tells you that raising the minimum wage wrecks your economy, you send them my way. We got the highest minimum wage in America tied with Massachusetts. The best wage growth, the best job growth, the best GDP growth. We've been listed as the best place to do business and the best place to work. You send them to Washington. I'll show you a good place to work.
Melissa Harris-Perry: All right, we're going to be bringing you the big takeaways on these and many other new laws in this new year, so be sure to keep joining us right here.
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