95% of U.S. Population Lives in a State with Access to Some Form of Legal Marijuana
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95% of the U.S. population currently lives in a state with some form of legal access to marijuana, yet the substance remains illegal on the federal level for all uses.
“While the cannabis industry has been anxious to gain more clarity into how President Trump’s Administration is going to treat the legal cannabis market in the U.S., it has also provided the opportunity for rigorous debate on the issue”, says Giadha Aguirre De Carcer, CEO of New Frontier Data, a data-collection agency which recently released a report on legal marijuana.
“This data highlights the complexity of this debate and the number of Americans that would be impacted by the outcomes of this policy debate,” De Carcer added.
Below are some of the findings of New Frontier’s report:
- 95% of the U.S. population lives in a state where there is some form of legal cannabis (including adult use, medical use, CBD only laws.)
- 93% of Members of Congress represent constituents in markets where some form of cannabis is legal – 412 members in the House of Representatives & 86 Senators.
- Of those, 334 (62%) represent states that have passed full medical or adult use laws. – 276 Representatives & 58 Senators.
- Adult use is legal in eight states including the District of Columbia, covering a population of 69 million people.
- Medical use is legal in 21 states including the District of Columbia, covering a population of 135 million people.
- CBD only use is legal in 15 states, covering a population of 102 million people (CBD only refers to products where THC must be at or lower than 0.3%.)
- If the federal government decided to crack down on the adult use market, this year alone, it could jeopardize $3.4 billion in projected revenue and $8.6 billion by 2020.
- In November 2016, 18 million Americans cast votes in support of either medical or adult use initiatives. These voters represent 6% of the U.S. population.
- In November 2016, voter participation in states which passed adult use initiatives was 4% higher than the national average (62.9% vs 59.3%) suggesting that adult use legalization may have been a motivating factor for voters.
