Five states will vote to legalize marijuana in some capacity next month, which would give state governments stakes in the industry worth roughly $13 billion.
Voters in New Jersey, Arizona, and South Dakota will decide whether to legalize the possession and cultivation of small amounts of cannabis for adults who are at least 21 years old.
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Montana voters will decide if the state legislature has the authority to establish the legal age for purchasing, consuming, or possessing marijuana by way of a constitutional amendment. A second ballot measure asks voters to decide if people 21 and older may legally possess and use up to 1 ounce of marijuana. A “yes” vote would also grant the revenue department the power to develop rules to regulate marijuana businesses.
Two initiatives in Mississippi would amend the state constitution to establish a medical marijuana program for people dealing with a “debilitating medical condition,” such as cancer, epilepsy or seizures, and Parkinson’s disease.
Legalized marijuana would be taxable. In Montana, for example, there would be a 20% sales tax on recreational marijuana, and the tax on medical cannabis products would be reduced from 2% to 1%. Revenue from legal cannabis sales would go to land, water, and wildlife conservation programs, veteran services, substance abuse treatment, healthcare, and more state-funded programs.
Several states have taken steps to lift restrictions on marijuana use and possession. Only eight states have yet to legalize the drug in any way, while 28 states have decriminalized marijuana use. Eleven states and Washington, D.C., have legalized marijuana.
States stand to gain a lot from the legal marijuana industry. In 2019, legal wages in the cannabis industry surpassed $12 billion, with an estimated legal-market demand forecast of $13.6 billion, according to New Frontier Data. Marijuana is still a Schedule 1 drug under federal law, which asserts that the drug currently has no “accepted medical use” and a “high potential for abuse.”
Support for marijuana legalization has steadily increased over the past decade, according to a Pew Research Center survey published in November 2019. An overwhelming majority of adults, 91%, say marijuana should be legal, either for medical and recreational use, at 59%, or that it should be legal just for medical use, at 32%. Meanwhile, fewer than 1 in 10 people prefer to keep marijuana illegal in all circumstances.
