Billions And Millions
  • News
  • Economy
  • Editor’s Pick
  • Investing
  • Stock
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Economy
  • Editor’s Pick
  • Investing
  • Stock
No Result
View All Result
Billions And Millions
No Result
View All Result
Home News

144 Million Americans Now Live in States with Legal Recreational Marijuana

by
June 20, 2022
in News
0
144 Million Americans Now Live in States with Legal Recreational Marijuana

Advocates of marijuana legalization won another victory last month when Governor Dan McKee signed new legislation legalizing recreational marijuana in Rhode Island. New Hampshire—where cannabis is “only” decriminalized and legal for medical purposes—is now the only state in New England where recreational marijuana is not legal. 

With Rhode Island now added to the legalization bloc, this means more than 144 million Americans now live in states where recreational cannabis has been legalized. That’s 43 percent of the US population.

Proportion of US Population by Cannabis Legalization Status

Rhode Island is also one of a growing number of states where recreational cannabis has been legalized through the legislative process rather than through statewide referenda or voter initiatives. Initially, recreational legalization was only politically possible through voter initiatives, as legislators refused to approve legalization themselves. The first successful cases of this were in Colorado and Washington State in 2012, and they were followed by Alaska and Oregon in 2014. Since then, recreational cannabis has been legalized through a variety of methods in fifteen other states for a total of nineteen.

Were these states to combine to form their own country, it would be—in terms of population—the tenth-largest country in the world, and only slightly smaller than Russia.
 

As with gun policy, school vouchers, and apparently abortion policy, cannabis policy is increasingly dominated by state-level legislation. With cannabis, this comes in spite of the fact that federal policy has not actually been changed. Marijuana is still formally targeted by federal bureaucrats as an illegal substance. This continues to hamper commerce in the states in many ways. For example, it remains illegal for federally regulated financial institutions to deal directly with cannabis-related businesses. 

Some Republican politicians have even attempted to ratchet up federal prosecutions. For example, in 2018, then attorney general Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole Memo. This was part of an effort to reassert greater federal control of cannabis policy. Yet congressional delegations from states where recreational cannabis is legal—both Republican and Democrat—have shown an unwillingness to support federal efforts in this regard. As a result, Congress voted to deny the Justice Department funds to enforce federal laws against medicinal marijuana in 2017. Sessions’s plan received bipartisan opposition in Congress. Bipartisan efforts at federal legalization have been repeatedly introduced, such as the “Strengthening the Tenth Amendment through Entrusting States (STATES) Act” which, is essentially a “states’ rights” bill supported by both parties in the name of reining in the drug war. (An antilegalization bloc, based mostly in southern states, has been able to kill efforts to strengthen more localized control in drug policy.)

These state-level movements to ignore or oppose federal policy are all firmly rooted in ideas of federalism, decentralization, and the Tenth Amendment of the Bill of Rights. From the prohibitionists who cling to centralized political power, however, we routinely hear the same slogans and pro-Washington legal theories about “federal supremacy” or how whatever Congress says is “the law of the land.”

Both conservatives and the Left support these ideas when it serves their purposes. The Left, of course, wants uniform rule from Washington when it comes to guns. Conservatives have wanted the same for drugs. Republican attorneys general even sued Colorado in an attempt to impose federal drug laws on the state. What these Republicans wanted was essentially a federal ruling rendering localism and the Tenth Amendment null and void. Fortunately, they failed. 

This centralizing impulse, of course, is very popular in Washington. We hear it frequently from those deeply mistaken constitutional scholars who want federal judges to use the “Incorporation Doctrine” to decide what is and what is not legal in every state. These people—both conservatives and leftists—can often be found angrily declaring that federal law is essentially sacrosanct and that state-level nullification “ain’t gonna happen.” The reality, however, is that it has happened and is happening.

After all, political and ideological realities are such that state-level legalization has effectively meant marijuana has become de facto legal in nearly half of the country. The strategy has also helped to illustrate the potential for success with state-level legal efforts at weakening or nullifying federal law. Proimmigration groups have tried similar tactics in some states, such as California. Similarly, some anti-gun-control policy makers—as in Missouri—have passed legislation in which state officials are prevented from enforcing federal law within state borders. Those who love the Washington regime and the status quo will no doubt continue to press for reform only at the center. These people continue to cling to the long-discredited idea that Washington will be “fixed” if we “elect the right people.” Good luck with that. 

Previous Post

Powell’s “Soft Landing” Is Impossible

Next Post

In Defense of Defaulting on the National Debt

Next Post
In Defense of Defaulting on the National Debt

In Defense of Defaulting on the National Debt

Get the daily email that makes reading the news actually enjoyable. Stay informed and entertained, for free.
Your information is secure and your privacy is protected. By opting in you agree to receive emails from us. Remember that you can opt-out any time, we hate spam too!
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Regime Pseudoscientists Enforce Climate Change Narrative

Regime Pseudoscientists Enforce Climate Change Narrative

October 10, 2022

Instead of Uniting the World, Globalization Has Set Nation against Nation

June 14, 2022
Mandatory Vaccines vs. Logic and Kantian Ethics

Mandatory Vaccines vs. Logic and Kantian Ethics

September 7, 2022

The New Green Economy Is Little More than a Keynesian Spending Scheme

August 23, 2022

The State Will Always Set the Rules in Its Favor

0

Instead of Uniting the World, Globalization Has Set Nation against Nation

0
On the Digital Future of Markets and Money

On the Digital Future of Markets and Money

0
The Great Reset: Turning Back the Clock on Civilization

The Great Reset: Turning Back the Clock on Civilization

0

The State Will Always Set the Rules in Its Favor

January 28, 2023
How Trump Plans to Attack DeSantis During Primaries…

How Trump Plans to Attack DeSantis During Primaries…

January 28, 2023

The Fed Is a Purely Political Institution, and It’s Definitely Not a Bank.

January 28, 2023

Concentrate Where the Murders Are Concentrated

January 28, 2023

Recent News

The State Will Always Set the Rules in Its Favor

January 28, 2023
How Trump Plans to Attack DeSantis During Primaries…

How Trump Plans to Attack DeSantis During Primaries…

January 28, 2023

The Fed Is a Purely Political Institution, and It’s Definitely Not a Bank.

January 28, 2023

Concentrate Where the Murders Are Concentrated

January 28, 2023

Disclaimer: BillionsAndMillions.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively "The Company") do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Email Whitelisting

Copyright © 2021 BillionsAndMillions. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Economy
  • Editor’s Pick
  • Investing
  • Stock

Copyright © 2021 BillionsAndMillions. All Rights Reserved.