Illinois is a signature away from becoming the 11th U.S. state to legalize recreational cannabis for adults over age 21. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has yet to sign the bill that will allow the state’s already existing 55 medical marijuana dispensaries to make application to sell weed for non-medical purposes on Jan. 1, 2020.
Pritzker has said he will sign the bill, making Illinois the second state to approve recreational weed through the legislative process. Vermont also took that route in 2018.
“In the interest of equity and criminal justice reform, I look forward to signing this monumental legislation,” Pritzker said in a statement.
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Here are five things to know about legal weed:
Where else can people get high legally? Ten other states — Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington — and the District of Columbia allow adult residents to possess small amounts of cannabis for recreational purposes. The U.S. territory of Guam also legalized recreational weed this year.
Colorado and Washington were the first states to legalize weed, and voters in both states approved it on ballot measures, as they did everywhere but Vermont and Illinois.
Medical marijuana is legal in all the states that have OK’d recreational pot use, but also in Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia and Utah.
Where else could recreational pot become legal in 2019 or 2020? The Marijuana Policy Project notes that only 23 states allow citizen-initiated referendums. States with active marijuana legalization ballot measures include Arizona, Mississippi, Nebraska and South Dakota.
The 2018 midterm elections brought a wave of pro-legalization candidates into state office and, with them, efforts to legalize recreational pot. Besides Illinois, 23 other states considered bills this year. Here’s where they stand:
In Connecticut, legislative packages made it to the floor for debate, but weren’t expected to get a vote before adjournment on Wednesday.
Lawmakers in four states — Florida, Maryland, Minnesota and Texas — considered constitutional amendments that would go before voters. The Minnesota measure was killed and committee, and the Florida, Maryland and Texas legislatures adjourned without voting on the bills.
Lawmakers killed recreational marijuana bills in Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico and Virginia.
Bills failed to advance before the required deadline in Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana and West Virginia.
Measures were also introduced in Delaware, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
Despite the states’ moves to legalize recreational weed, it’s still illegal at the federal level. U.S. Attorney General William Barr pledged during his Senate confirmation hearing that he won’t “go after” state-compliant marijuana businesses, a departure of his predecessor, Jeff Sessions, who rescinded protections that prevented federal prosecutors from interfering with states that have legalized weed.
But without protections in place, a bipartisan group of governors from 12 states appealed to congressional leaders in a letter Monday that asked them asking them to pass the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act. That would allow the states to set their own marijuana policies without fear of federal intervention.
“The STATES Act is a logical step for Congress because it honors state action by codifying protection at the federal level for those businesses and consumers operating in accordance with state law,” they wrote. “The STATES Act is not about whether marijuana should be legal or illegal; it is about respecting the authority of states to act, lead and respond to the evolving needs and attitudes of their citizens.”
The governors said that “whether a state maintains its prohibition of cannabis or chooses a different path, the STATES Act ensures that the federal government is a partner rather than an impediment — an objective the federal government should always strive to achieve.”
The letter was signed by governors in seven states where recreational marijuana is legal — California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Vermont — as well as by their counterparts in Maryland, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Utah.
The legal business of marijuana is already huge and growing. One reason behind the flurry of pro-legalization measures in state legislatures is the amount of money associated with the industry. An economist from New Frontier Data, a cannabis market-research and data-analysis firm, told The Associated Press that legal marijuana — both for medical and recreational purposes — was a $10.4 billion industry in the United States in 2018, and by the end of this year, that figure could soar to $16 billion.
The Marijuana Business Factbook estimates the economic impact of the legal marijuana industry could soar to $77 billion by 2022.
At least 250,000 people have marijuana industry jobs — and that’s just people whose jobs involve handling marijuana plants. Other jobs are more difficult to quantify, the New Frontier economist said.
By 2022, the industry could employ at least 330,000 people, according to a study by BDS Economics. That would outpace U.S. steel and iron mills, which employ more than 268,000 people, the study said.
Some publicly traded cannabis stocks are causing a buzz. Investors are increasingly attracted to marijuana companies trading on Wall Street. Investors Business Daily offers a snapshot of the top cannabis stocks to watch.
On the Nasdaq, analysts advise keeping an eye on Canadian pot producer Cronos Group, which also has a partnership with MedMen, a large California-based cannabis retailer and cultivator, and got a $1.8 billion investment from Altria, the company behind Marlboro and other tobacco products.
Also on the list is Canada’s Tilray, the Nasdaq’s first marijuana IPO, which is controlled by Seattle-based Privateer Holdings. Analysts from Cowen & Co. say that being under Privateer’s umbrella could give Tilray access to Leafy’s consumer data on consumer tastes, giving it an advantage over rivals.
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Cannabis companies trading on the New York Stock Exchange include Canopy Growth, Aurora Cannabis, Aphria and CannTrust. Canopy is the most flush with cash after a multibillion-dollar investment from Constellation Brands, Business Insider said.
Most investors are individuals interested in the retail industry, and they “can be very fickle,” Nick Kovacevich, CEO of cannabis packaging and supplies company KushCo told Business Insider.
It could be “a decade or so” before speculation becomes less of a factor, Kris Krane, president of 4Front, a cannabis investment and management firm, told the magazine.
“I think we’re still fairly far from this being an established industry where we know exactly what those things are,” Krane said of the cannabis industry.