Will Coronavirus Bring Nationwide Cannabis Legalization in 2020?
March 27, 2020 There have been rumors flying around cannabis industry message boards and LinkedIn of late that the Trump Administration is considering a federal rescheduling of cannabis in the coming months as part of its greater response to the ongoing COVID-19 situation.
Yahoo Finance’s Ethan Wolf-Mann even went as far as to put his name to the rumors, speculating that a looming federal tax deficit due largely to the economic downturn in the U.S. from Coronavirus could end up being the impetus that spurs action on federal cannabis legalization.
Now, it bears noting that this is all purely speculation at this point. And surely, the federal government probably has a lot bigger fish to fry than legalizing cannabis at the time being.
Yet, even before coronavirus became a household name, there were many who already believed the Trump Administration was planning for a nationwide cannabis legalization effort in the weeks and days leading up to the 2020 Presidential Election, as an effort to convert younger moderate and still-on-the-fence voters to support the incumbent candidate.
I posed that very question recently to Grove Bags founder and CEO Jack Grover, whose cannabis packaging company is reportedly seeing an uptick in interest from growers that no longer wish to source packaging material from China or from overseas due to the crisis. Here’s what he had to say:
“I would agree with that (notion). I mean, we’ve long been at the point now where it’s accurate to say that the overwhelming majority of Americans support full adult-use legalization and the normalization of cannabis in general,” Grover shares. “It’s a civil rights issue, it’s a states rights issue, and I think we’ll see a shift change soon that mirrors the liquor industry in that it’s going to eventually controlled by and taxed by the state for the greater good of society.”
Please, let us know what you think
We want to know your opinion, greenhouse cannabis grower (or any grower, really): Do you agree that the COVID-19 crisis could indeed spur a renewed interest in federal cannabis legalization here in the U.S.?
Please let us know your opinion by leaving a comment in the comment box below this article, or you can email your take to [email protected]
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