Fast Eddy Aki'a of Hawaii smokes a joint to celebrate the state's medicinal marijuana laws. (Credit: Marc Piscotty/Getty Images.)
Image: Washington Post

If you’re trying to figure out which states will be next to relax restrictions on marijuana, it makes sense to keep tabs on the people most interested in seeing it happen.

The Marijuana Policy Project, which was active in helping pass Colorado’s legalization law last November, announced Monday that it would support similar efforts in 10 additional states by 2017.

MPP’s Director of State Policies Karen O’Keefe said the group breaks its 10 priority states into two general groups: the five states that have a voter-initiative process and the five states where only lawmakers can introduce such rules and laws. The group’s basic point is an economic one: States are throwing away money by not legalizing and taxing pot like alcohol, they argue.

Here are the five so-called legislative states — the ones where MPP expects change to come through the state legislature — and why the group is focused on them:

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