How to Use legalize in a Sentence

legalize

verb
  • The government has legalized the use of the new drug.
  • They wanted to legalize gambling in their city.
  • How many states have legalized weed?
    — Katie Wiseman, IndyStar, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Twitter’s more lax rules come as more states legalize cannabis sales.
    — Verne Kopytoff, Fortune, 16 Feb. 2023
  • Race has often been at the heart of the movement to legalize cannabis.
    — New York Times, 15 Mar. 2022
  • Bills to legalize it are pending in about a dozen other states.
    — ABC News, 24 Apr. 2026
  • Mexico will legalize cannabis by the end of the year with a framework.
    — Andrew Deangelo, Forbes, 20 Jan. 2022
  • The effect of legalizing death care is not just the hostile takeover of medicine.
    — Alexander Raikin, National Review, 14 Sep. 2023
  • The changes haven’t and will not legalize the drug at the federal level.
    — Ryan Ermey, CNBC, 23 Apr. 2026
  • That ruling paved the way for states to legalize, license and tax sports betting.
    — Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 5 Feb. 2026
  • Twenty-one states have now legalized the recreational use of cannabis by adults.
    — Gene Johnson, Andrew Selsky, Anchorage Daily News, 20 Apr. 2023
  • On the need to legalize medical cannabis, Khaled is adamant too.
    — Javier Hasse, Forbes, 21 June 2021
  • The push to legalize psychedelics in America is not new.
    — Pardis Mahdavi, The Conversation, 27 Aug. 2025
  • Since then, states across the country have been voting to legalize sports betting.
    — Brad Adgate, Forbes, 9 Sep. 2021
  • In many areas where the units were legalized, aldermen added caveats.
    — Jake Sheridan, Chicago Tribune, 2 Apr. 2026
  • Meanwhile, cannabis has been legalized to varying extents in many states.
    — Lucy Xiaolu Wang, The Conversation, 13 Apr. 2026
  • When the first states began to legalize cannabis, there was no such thing as social equity.
    — Amanda Chicago Lewis, The New Republic, 4 Apr. 2022
  • Nearly half have legalized it for recreational use among adults.
    — Addy Bink, The Hill, 23 Apr. 2026
  • And then all of a sudden, New York state is legalizing cannabis.
    — Angela Andaloro, People.com, 18 Aug. 2025
  • At the time, the state was beginning to consider how to legalize cannabis.
    — Amanda Chicago Lewis, Wired, 15 Feb. 2022
  • After the ban was struck down, states have been allowed to legalize sports betting and launch their own programs.
    — Will Yakowicz, Forbes, 4 Oct. 2024
  • How a fearsome, fast-talking union boss helped legalize pot, took kickbacks and ended up in prison.
    — San Francisco Chronicle, 1 Jan. 2021
  • There is still hope for a few states to legalize sports wagering in 2025.
    — Will Yakowicz, Forbes, 22 Jan. 2025
  • The bill would not have legalized the sale of the substances and would have barred any possession of the substances on school grounds.
    — CBS News, 7 Oct. 2023
  • Each of the 38 states that have legalized sports betting earned D’s or F’s.
    — Suzanne King, Kansas City Star, 12 Mar. 2026
  • Nearly a dozen states have decided so far not to legalize online sports betting, as is their right.
    — Mick Mulvaney, Fortune, 19 Mar. 2026
  • Now, Kentucky is one of 38 states that has legalized sports betting.
    — C.l. Brown, The Courier-Journal, 29 May 2023
  • Illinois showed the country how to legalize cannabis through the legislative process.
    — Sonya M. Harper, Chicago Tribune, 20 Apr. 2026
  • The decline in drinking over the past decade has come as many states have legalized marijuana.
    — Sophie Hills, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 Jan. 2024
  • And then in the subsequent years, 40 states have now legalized sports betting.
    — Torie Bosch, STAT, 11 Apr. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'legalize.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: