Marijuana Legalization

People are changing their minds about marijuana. In less than a generation, public opinion has turned sharply away from prohibition and penalties in favor of legalization. Canada allowed the sale of weed for recreational use on Oct. 17, becoming the second country to do so after Uruguay. Voters in 10 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational pot, permitting about a quarter of Americans to consume it freely. While marijuana remains illegal on the federal level, President Donald Trump appeared to get out of the states’ way when he endorsed allowing them to decide how to regulate the drug, against his attorney general’s policy. A multi-billion-dollar investment boom is underway in North America.

The U.S. legal cannabis industry is gaining economic and political clout. It employs more than 200,000 workers and is on track to generate $11 billion in sales in 2018, a figure that could reach $75 billion by 2030, by one estimate. It also provides a tax windfall: Colorado collected nearly $250 million in taxes and fees from the cannabis industry in 2017. More than 30 states now allow some form of medical or other use. Trump hasn’t issued any formal policy. Legalization in Canada opened the floodgates for companies to access capital markets through stock offerings and consumers in some provinces can buy pot online. In Latin America — the long-time origin for much of the cannabis consumed in the U.S. — Uruguay was ahead of the curve when it legalized in 2013, in defiance of an international drug treaty. Its president had urged bigger countries to reconsider their strategy in the drug war. Mexico, which like many nations has refrained from pursuing individuals for pot use in recent years, may move toward a legal market under its leftist president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Mayors in the Netherlands, which has tolerated pot smoking in its coffee shops since the 1970s, have called on the Dutch government to start regulating growers and sellers, mirroring the approach of American states.