Utah has issued its first registration cards Tuesday morning under a limited medical marijuana program allowing those with severe epilepsy to possess a low-potency extract.
Washington has become the second US state to allow people to buy legal recreational marijuana, as customers lined up outside pot shops to snap up samples.
It now looks extremely likely that the residents of the nation's capitol will vote in November on whether to legalize the possession and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana.
New York is now the 23rd state to authorize marijuana as a medical treatment — though it will have one of the more restrictive programs in the country.
Gov. Pat McCrory says a new law he signed allowing some physicians to treat epilepsy in North Carolina using an extract from a marijuana plant could also lead to the discovery of other therapies.