Canada's Sixth Largest City May Allow Cannabis Stores
Mississauga, Canada's sixth-largest city by population, will have a chance to reconsider its existing ban on legal cannabis stores in early June, according to MJBizDaily. When adult-use cannabis was legalized in 2018, Mississauga was one of the nearly 70 municipalities which banned regulated stores. The city is currently the largest city in Canada which has a cannabis store ban in place. Lifting the ban would finally allow legal stores to compete with illegal sellers currently operating in the city. With a population of 721,600, we estimate a change in the legislature will result in an increase of $75 Million in annual sales for legal recreational use.
Despite Overwhelming Support, Prohibition is Stubborn
It's no secret that most Americans believe cannabis should be fully legal. Despite this, prohibition remains in many states and nationally. In these states, elected leaders are doing their best to preserve this prohibition. “Consistently, when it comes to measures specific to reforming marijuana laws, Republican leaders are seeking to either overturn a decision of the majority of their electorate, prevent them from voting on the issue altogether, or they are asking the Courts to nullify an election outcome,” says Paul Armentano, the deputy director of NORML. Take Mississippi, for example. 73% of Mississippians approved the medical marijuana ballot initiative during the November election. Weed was, in fact, more popular than Donald Trump in Mississippi, where just 58% of residents voted for him. The state supreme court of MS struck down the ballot initiative.
Some have compared this prohibition to the ban on same-sex marriage, which was overturned in 2015. “It’s the same kind of nuts who were saying, ‘Over my dead body gay marriage. “We have gay marriage, and the world didn’t spin off its axis,” said John Fetterman, Lieutenant Gov. of PA. Same-sex marriage was quite shocking to some before it was legalized, but now it is the norm. Cannabis is the same way most Americans support it, but many lawmakers prevent prohibition from ending.
LA Settling
Louisiana recently failed to pass a full legalization bill after it fell far short of the 70 votes required to pass. This would have made LA the only southern state to have recreational access except for Virginia. Although full legalization did not pass, a decriminalization bill will advance to the Senate floor, which is one step from the governor's desk. The legislation would allow possession of up to 14 grams of cannabis with a $100 fine instead of jail time. It recently passed the Senate judiciary committee in a 3-2 vote. The governor stated he does believe full legalization will happen eventually, even though it did not advance last week. The decriminalization bill is a step in the right direction.
