CANNABUSINESSI
ƧƚƧƞƫƚof divisive politics and a
notorious lack of cooperation among
lawmakers on Capitol Hill, cannabis
is emerging as a surprisingly bipartisan
issue before the upcoming off-year elec-
tions (and those in 2020).
The results of last year’s midterm elec-
tions welcomed “a record-high majority”
of Americans supporting legalization,
noted Steven W. Hawkins, executive
director of the Marijuana Policy Project,
who added that Michigan’s passage of
an adult-use program underscored just
“how widespread support is for mari-
juana policy reform... on the coasts, but
also in the Midwest and all throughout
the country.”
Such traction may be extended
throughout this year’s elections and
established as a precursor for debates
on the national stage during the 2020
presidential campaign.
Demographic intelligence—from
sources such as New Frontier Data’s
industry-first “2018-2019 Cannabis Con-
sumer Report: Archetypes, Preferences &
Trends”—will be valued at a premium for
foundational insights into who cannabis
consumers are, and why they consume.
In such a dynamic market, it will be
critical for campaigns to understand and
track where consumer attitudes, behav-
iors and preferences stand.
As detailed in the report, “the politi-
cal affiliations of cannabis consumers
are split across the range of political
philosophies. Cannabis use is higher
among strong and moderate liberals
(39%) than among strong and moderate
conservatives (28%), with use highest
among independents and lowest among
staunchly conservative adults. The most
conservative views on cannabis are
often held by older adults, but increased
awareness of the plant’s medical uses—
especially for age-related conditions
such as joint pain—are helping to soften
attitudes toward access and use within
the country’s rapidly aging population.”
Last March, a study conducted by
Civilized polling 1,602 adults from coast
to coast in the United States and Canadafound that 90 percent of self-reporting
American cannabis consumers were
planning to vote. Among them, 60
percent said they have already decided
to vote against Trump in 2020, versus 29
percent who planned to re-elect him next
year. An interesting aspect of those num-
bers is that 31 percent of the respondents
identified as Republican (and 56 percent
of that subset described themselves as
“strong Republicans”). Given this, the
Trump campaign may be motivated to
win back pro-cannabis Republicans by
pressuring Congress to pass the STATES
Act or another cannabis-reform legisla-
tion before November 3, 2020.
In the 2018 elections, Michigan, Mis-
souri and Utah each legalized some form
of marijuana-law reform. Recreational
cannabis passed in Michigan, while
Missouri approved medical cannabis. In
Utah, voters embraced the medical-mari-
juana initiative Proposition 2 (which will
not be instituted until January 1, 2021)
despite moneyed opposition from the
locally influential Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, which previously
came out in favor of medical cannabis
but opposed the measure as overbroad.
The law requires each qualifying patient
to have a recommendation from a
licensed physician, allows for up to six
plants to be grown at home and prohib-
its smokable forms of cannabis.
All three states will enjoy an influx
of created jobs, a perennial campaignissue. New Frontier Data’s updated total
forecast for the US legal market over-
all indicates that the nation’s current
259,000 plant-touching jobs in the legal
cannabis market should now expand to
642,000 (an increase of 148 percent) by- Assuming that the country had
full federal legalization like Canada, New
Frontier Data estimates that total legal-
ized plant-touching jobs would increase
to 1.05 million by 2025.
Results from the 2018 midterm elec-
tions also brought a larger, generally
more liberal caucus in Congress with
stronger advocacy for progressive issues,
including criminal-justice reform.
Likewise, gubernatorial wins by Demo-
crats in several states suggest some
favorability even for those states that
cannot hold ballot initiatives to see any
given legislature-proposed legalization
take effect. Legislative and regulatory
developments are helping accelerate the
expansion of legal cannabis nationwide.
In 2019, Connecticut, Minnesota, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico,
New York, Rhode Island and Ver-
mont could all make major marijuana
decisions.
With the public’s surging support for
legalized cannabis, and soaring sales in
regulated markets as consumers embrace
the quality, selection and convenience
of legal pot, the trend toward further
industry growth is expected to continue
apace. m
by J.J. McCoy
LEGALIZE IT!
ELECTION PROSPECTS IN 2019 REFLECT THE POPULARITY
OF LEGALIZATION ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
NEWFRONTIER^DATAJ.J. McCoy is Senior Managing Editor for New Frontier Data38 HIGH TIMES I OCTOBER 2019