November 1996Reputable sourceWell documented
California's Prop 215: First Medical Cannabis
On the timeline · around November 1996 ·
What happened
In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act — the first U.S. state law allowing patients to use cannabis with a doctor's recommendation, for conditions from cancer and AIDS to chronic pain.
Why it matters
It reopened cannabis as legal medicine in America and set off a state-by-state movement that would eventually challenge federal prohibition itself.