Attitudes are changing on cannabis, and as more states legalize marijuana, whether for medical or recreational purposes, it’s clear that it’s not a matter of if marijuana will be legalized in the U.S., only when. And while COVID-19 may stall the progress that individual states have been making on legalizing pot, the pandemic could help push forward the prospect of legalizing pot federally. Here’s why legalization could take place sooner than expected:
A new industry would accelerate the economy’s recovery
According to data as of May 14, as many as 36.5 million people in the U.S. have applied for unemployment benefits over the past two months. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit many industries hard and while many employees will go back to work, some jobs will be lost forever. And the longer it takes for people to find jobs again, the longer it will take for the economy to get back to where it was before the pandemic hit. That’s where legalizing marijuana could give the economy a shot in the arm to get it going again.
Legalizing pot would create many new jobs for Americans and could help turn things around for the country. In a recent interview with CNBC, Cresco Labs (OTC:CRLBF) CEO Charlie Bachtell said, “cannabis has to be part of that discussion” when talking about bringing jobs back. And there’s good reason for including cannabis in those discussions: The growth potential would be massive.
According to New Frontier Data’s estimates from September 2019, the legal pot market in the U.S. could grow to be worth $29.7 billion by 2025. That’s nearly three times the $10.3 billion the market was worth in 2018. That growth factors in legal sales from the existing markets that have already legalized pot and it doesn’t take into account the possibility of federal legalization. If government officials were to legalize marijuana nationwide, it would increase those estimates significantly. Currently, only 11 states have legalized marijuana for recreational use and there are more than 30 that permit cannabis for medical purposes.
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