Legal cannabis (also referred to as “marijuana”) is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. California became the first site of the United States modern legal cannabis market in 1996 when it legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes. Fast forward to 2020, more than half of the states have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes, and eleven states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational use of marijuana for adults. A recent Gallup survey conducted in October 2019 found that 66% of Americans currently support legalization of marijuana and that support crosses party lines and is unlikely to stall as cannabis becomes more normalized in American society.
2020: New Decade, New Financial Crisis?
The start of a new decade sparked hope that something good was coming. 2020 started off seemingly normal for most people: celebrating New Year’s, making strides towards their resolutions, and going about their normal lives as they had done in 2019. That is until COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, tilted the world on its axis. Even though the coronavirus approached the United States slowly, it hit hard. The effects have been felt in all aspects of people’s lives: the country went on lockdown, once-booming businesses permanently closed their doors, and the economy grinded to a halt; indeed, COVID-19 is the biggest economic crisis since the Great Recession nearly a decade ago.