With Illinois Legalization, Over 90 Million Americans Live In States That Have Adopted Marijuana Legalization – OpEd

By

On Tuesday, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law a marijuana legalization bill. Due to the enactment of this legislation, over 12 million more Americans now live in a state where marijuana legalization has been adopted. In total, well over 90 million Americans live in the 11 states that have legalized marijuana.

That legalization all took place in just the seven years since legalization was approved by voters through ballot measures in Colorado and Washington in November of 2012.

Together with legalization in Washington, DC, as well as in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, the presence of marijuana legalization in 11 states means that about 3 in 10 Americans live in a jurisdiction where marijuana legalization has been adopted.

The continuing adoption of legalization through the states, as well as the recent movement of state legislatures and governors, first in Vermont and then in Illinois, to provide a means in addition to ballot measures for adopting legalization, suggest that we may soon see well beyond half of Americans living in jurisdictions with legal marijuana.

Illinois is one of six states I mentioned in January that seemed likely to legalize soon.


This article was published by RonPaul Institute.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *