Prior to COVID-19, the legalization of marijuana across 50 states seemed highly unlikely. However, American economists now believe that by the end of 2021, all states will have legalized cannabis for both recreational and medicinal purposes in order to boost a failing economy.
The majority of Americans support the use of cannabis, and resistance to its legalization likely will be limited.
In fact, the majority of Americans believe marijuana should be legal. In November 2019, 91 percent of Americans approved the legalization of recreational and medicinal marijuana in all 50-states, according to a recent survey conducted by Pew Research Center.
The Silent Gen were among the naysayers who believe marijuana should remain inaccessible and illegal for recreational and medicinal use. Generation Xers, Millennials and Boomers support the decriminalization and legalization of cannabis in all states. Political party affiliation did not seem to vary in the attitudes of weed legalization. Both Republicans and Democrats have proposed full legalization in both state and federal level by the end of 2021.
Currently only eleven states allow the sale and use of legal marijuana for recreational purposes:
Alaska, California, Colorado, Washington D.C., Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
Currently thirty-three permit cannabis for medical purposes under the care of a physician.
State laws are changing to decriminalize possession of cannabis, and according to the 2020 Marijuna Policy Reform Policy, several states have already hastened the process of legalizing marijuana for both medicinal and recreational use to help stimulate a healthy economy.