Since 2021 began, perhaps no industry has created more buzz than cannabis. It's certainly not hard to understand why, with some estimates suggesting that annual U.S. pot sales could triple between 2019 and 2025 to more than $41 billion.
In the November election, 36 states waved the green flag on medical marijuana, 15 of which also allow for the consumption and/or retail sale of adult-use weed. You could rightly say that the U.S. is going green at an extraordinarily fast pace.
Marijuana is still illicit in more than a dozen states
But even with an all-time record 68% of respondents in Gallup's annual survey favoring nationwide legalization of cannabis, more than a dozen states have resisted these calls to legalize pot. In alphabetical order, the states where marijuana remains entirely illegal are:
- Alabama
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Lowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Nebraska
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Gallup's annual cannabis survey shows that support for legalization is far-reaching. All household income levels, all attained levels of education, all genders, and all age groups are in favor of legalization. Individuals who identify as Republican are the holdouts: 83% of Democrats and 72% of Independents want to see marijuana legalized nationally, compared to only 48% of Republicans. These 14 states all either currently have Republican leadership or have often leaned red in past elections.
Furthermore, only three of these 14 states (Idaho, Nebraska, and Wyoming) use the initiative and referendum process. This means state residents have the option of introducing a ballot measure, collecting signatures, and potentially having that measure put to the vote in a general election. The other 11 states rely wholly on their respective GOP-led legislatures to enact change on the cannabis front.
Source: https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/01/24/14-states-where-marijuana-remains-entirely-illegal/
