Five state medical marijuana markets that could get a boost through reforms in 2021
Here’s a summary of five key states to watch:
Here’s a summary of five key states to watch:
Today, talk of legalization knows no bounds. Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania have reportedly flirted with the idea of forming a "bloc" that will legalize adult-use marijuana at the same time and by imposing the same statutory scheme. Activists are pushing measures to put legalization on the ballot in 2020 in Arizona, Arkansas, Montana, and Oklahoma.
Here are three factors to keep in mind as states address either recreational or medical legalization this year:
A number of states aim to legalize adult-use cannabis in 2020
However, this hasn't stopped individual states from legalizing cannabis in some capacity over the past 23 years. Beginning with California in 1996, a grand total of 33 states have legalized medical marijuana. Of these 33 states, 11 have passed legislation allowing for the legal consumption and/or sale of recreational weed. And this could be just the beginning.
So you’ve been watching the cannabis industry and seeing amazing projections of multi-billion growth over the next few years. You have about $5,000 or $10,000 or maybe even $25,000 to invest.
Time to jump in, right? Well, before you take that leap, take a long, careful look at the cannabis market first.
The numbers 11 and 33 come up quite often when the topic of marijuana legalization is discussed. Currently, 11 U.S. states allow the legal use of recreational marijuana, while 33 states have legalized medical cannabis. But those numbers could soon change.
Nine states could be on track to hold key votes on some form of marijuana legalization in 2020. Here are the states that could be next on the marijuana map -- and the stocks that could be poised to profit the most.
One of the signs of cannabis-related change next year is the new political committee Make It Legal Florida, which registered with the state earlier this month. It’s chaired by Nick Hansen, a longtime advisor to Republican State Sen. Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg, who recently took on the role of southeastern director of government affairs at MedMen, the California company that’s attempting to take the retail pot world by storm.
Gather up all the people legally allowed to smoke marijuana in Florida and they would be the state’s seventh largest city, with more people than Tallahassee, Fort Lauderdale or Cape Coral.
But the 212,000 people on Florida’s medical marijuana patient registry cannot get health insurance to cover the cost of their medicine.
“Our constitution recognizes that marijuana is medicine, and if it is in our constitution then companies that provide health insurance to Florida patients should be covering it,” Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried told the Democrat.
Acreage Holdings has licenses in 17 states, of which 12 are operational, while the company has licenses to process in 12 states, seven of which are now in operation. The company has licenses to operate 68 retail dispensaries in 12 states, of which 21 are currently operational in 10 states. The Botanist is its retail concept designed to appeal to both adult use and medicinal consumers.
“The states to watch are New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Florida, with New York and New Jersey really being the ones that are more likely, I think, to go recreational in the next year or so,” said Ian Stewart, partner at Wilson Elser and speaker at the Cannabis Cover Masterclass Denver in March 2019.
get your FL Office of Medical Marijuana Use card!
get your MD Medical Cannabis Commission card!