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Pot report: 18 U.S. states to have legalized marijuana by 2020

Marijuana in the year 2020

The report comes from ArcView, a research firm that provides detailed data to companies that are in, or are looking to get into, the legal marijuana business. The full-report will cost $495 to purchase but a free executive summary can be downloaded here.

The ArcView researchers have done extensive analysis of trends in the recent evolution of marijuana and the law, and on the marijuana market and industry. The report maintains that last year was an especially meaningful one for marijuana legalization and that the tide has essentially turned.

“Twenty-fourteen will be remembered as a year when industry experienced its most significant maturation to date and when a sense of inevitability about national legalization became conventional wisdom among elected officials and the general public,” the ArcView reports states.

This comes after a Gallup poll released in the fall found a majority of Americans favor legalizing pot, though the numbers are only 51 percent in favor to 49 percent not in favor. As Time mag points out, those numbers just two years ago were 58 percent in favor.

States with legal marijuana

Possession of pot is now legal in Colorado, Washington State and Oregon and becomes legal in Alaska on February 24. In addition to those states, medical marijuana is legal in 19 other states and the District of Columbia (where a legalized recreational pot movement is being held up by Congress). More are on the way, ArcView says.

“Over the next 2 years ArcView Market Research expects advocates to run ballot initiatives or support legislative efforts to legalize Adult Use in eight states, including California, Nevada, Florida, and Rhode Island,” the ArcView reports says. “Markets in Nevada, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Illinois are expected to begin operation, while states such as Maryland, New York and Minnesota finalize the regulations required to open in 2016.”

Other states they believe adult pot use will be legal in by 2020 include Hawaii and New Jersey. They even suggest Texas, which has had some of the most draconian marijuana laws in the country, may in the not-too-distant future join the list of states to legalize marijuana.

The report said that in 2014 the legal pot industry grew by 74 percent in the country. The industry is now, ArcView says, the fastest growing industry in America with $2.7 billion in retail and wholesale sales last year.

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