The marijuana reform group NORML is leading an effort to encourage states to deprioritize the enforcement of cannabis criminalization amid the coronavirus pandemic.
So far, more than 4,000 constituents across the country have participated in the organization’s action campaign launched on Wednesday by sending messages to their governors, urging them to take steps to minimize the spread of the virus by avoiding unnecessary marijuana arrests.
At the start of 2020, more than a dozen states seemed very likely to legalize marijuana for recreational or medical purposes by the end of the year. Now that a coronavirus pandemic has overwhelmed just about every aspect of American life, it seems only a handful of states will be able to enact marijuana reform.
The coronavirus COVID-19 has many in the country on edge, working from home, and ordering lots of delivery weed.
This is to be expected. In times of economic downturn, sales increase for "vice" industries such as alcohol and tobacco. Marijuana use increased in the European economic recession of 2008. The United States hasn't seen a downturn quite like this one since cannabis has become legal in many states.
While the data for the month is still being collected, cannabis companies across the country have confirmed to Green Entrepreneur a rise in sales.
New York’s effort to legalize cannabis this year didn’t need another obstacle, but then came the novel coronavirus. Yes, the effects of COVID-19 now threaten to derail Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s fact-finding tour de cannabis in other legal states. “I hope that we can get that done on time, but this is a priority,” Cuomo said of the outbreak in comments to reporters last week. The governor had planned to tour legal states, including Massachusetts, Illinois, and California or Colorado.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) indicated on Thursday that the state’s response to the coronavirus outbreak could interfere with plans he had to tour legal marijuana states and learn from their experiences as his own states moves ahead on reform.
During a press conference on the status of combating the spread of the virus, Cuomo was asked whether the situation meant negotiations on the state budget—though which he hopes to enact legalization— would be impacted and whether he still intends to embark on the cannabis learning tour, as he announced last month.