Government
Marijuana Is Now Bigger Than Tobacco in the USA Says New Gallop Poll
For the first time ever, cannabis use has overtaken tobacco use according to Gallop
Gallup Poll Shows That Cannabis Use Has Overtaken Tobacco Use For The First Time Ever In The USA
For the first time in history, more people are smoking cannabis compared to tobacco.
Based on the results of a new Gallup poll, cannabis use is at a record-high. Specifically, they found that just 11% of Americans still smoke cigarettes while it was up to 45% back in the mid 1950’s. Meanwhile, 16% of Americans admitted to using marijuana. Almost half said that they have tried it some time in their lives while in 1969, just 4% they were marijuana consumers.
The Gallup poll has long been a mirror of how consumer behavior changes through the years and the decades, with increasing acceptance and consumption of marijuana a growing trend. This is reflective of the economy and the law as well, with more states legalizing the drug than ever before while more people are giving up tobacco due to its proven risks.
“Smoking cigarettes is clearly on the decline and is most likely to become even more of a rarity in the years ahead,” explains Dr. Frank Newport, Gallup Senior Scientist. “This reflects both public awareness of its negative effects and continuing government efforts at all levels to curtail its use,” he adds.
It’s fantastic news for the general public and overall health that cigarette smoking is at the lowest ever recorded by Gallup, since they first started amassing data back in 1944. It’s even better that Americans are changing their stance on cannabis use; more people now know that it’s safer than tobacco. As of the time of writing, 38 states have already legalized marijuana for medical use while recreational use is still illegal in many states. Despite this, the number of cannabis users continues to rise every year as Gallup discovered that support for legalizing the drug consistently reaches record highs each year.
The first time most Americans supported marijuana legalization, based on their poll, occurred in 2013. Then in 2020, majorities of adults in the United States, regardless of education, gender, income, and age were in favor of legalization. It differed only when one took into account religion and political party.
“It should be noted, some authorities argue that marijuana is quite dangerous, particularly for young adults, and it is possible that attitudes towards its use could change if focus on the downsides of marijuana increases in the years ahead,” said Newport.
Other Polls Show The Same Results
More research, education, and widespread acceptance as well as legal cannabis laws are helping more people access marijuana each day. The numbers are expected to only grow from here onwards, reflected in Americans’ support towards legalizing marijuana.
There have been other polls that reflect similar things.
In May 2022, a YouGov poll found that a significant majority of Americans, no matter what their political beliefs were, either support legalizing marijuana on a nationwide level or believe states should be able to set their own marijuana policies. Additionally, it showed that 7 in every 10 people who voted for President Biden support cannabis legalization even if he is currently opposing it.
The YouGov survey clearly shows that prohibition is no longer appealing to the majority. They also found that 45% of participants think the drug should be legalized around the country, and just 17% think that cannabis should stay illegal. Meanwhile, 13% said they were not sure on the matter.
A few months prior, a poll from SSRS revealed that 69% of the population support recreational cannabis legalization while 92% think it should be legalized for medical purposes. The SSRS poll also showed that 58% of Americans acknowledge that cannabis is safer than alcohol. “Voters support legalizing marijuana regardless of political party affiliation,” says NORML’s deputy director, Paul Armetano. “At a time when national politics remain acutely polarized, elected officials ought to come together in a bipartisan manner to repeal the failed policy of cannabis prohibition. It is one of the few policy reforms that voters on the right and on the left can all agree upon,” he said.
When Will The Federal Government Agree With The American Population?
Pres. Joe Biden repeatedly said he would work on cannabis policy reform during his campaign, but unfortunately he isn’t living up to his promises. However, he does have to listen to his people, who believe that it should be legal.
On the other hand, federal legalization is still somewhat of a dream. But if they do listen to the polls, they will see how popular marijuana legalization already is and we can only hope that it will change Biden’s mind. That’s still something we have to watch out for over the next few months.
Legal cannabis is already one of the quickest growing industries in the United States. In 2021 alone, medical and adult-use sales reached $25 billion, and experts estimate that it could hit $100 billion in 2030. There is a huge financial and economic opportunity that is being missed each day that we aren’t legalizing marijuana on the federal level. We also must be able to first address the banking hurdles that the legal cannabis industry is experiencing, specifically a bill that seeks to change how banking is done: the Safe and Fair Enforcement Banking Act (SAFE), which has already passed 6 times in the house since it was first proposed back in 2013. Once it’s signed into a law, it would prevent federal authorities from penalizing banks that decide to open up business to legal marijuana companies. These cannabis businesses will finally be able to make use of financial services and allow people to pay with debit and credit cards.
There are other countless bills in place that have been making the rounds, all of which seek to help reduce the burden on the legal cannabis industry – which are sorely needed. Let’s see how the next few months plays out.
Source: https://cannabis.net/blog/news/marijuana-is-now-bigger-than-tobacco-in-the-usa-says-new-gallop-poll
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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