7 Reasons Marijuana Has Virtually No Chance of Being Legalized in the U.S. Before 2021

No green flag for cannabis in the U.S., at least at the federal level, anytime soon.

If investors were to look around, they’d probably find a number of fast-growing trends, such as blockchain, cloud computing, and gene therapy in the healthcare sector. But there’s perhaps no industry with a more impressive growth rate at the moment than marijuana.

It would appear that sales for the cannabis industry are only limited by our imagination. Whereas I personally thought that Cowen Group‘s estimate of $75 billion in global sales by 2030 was fairly aggressive, I was blown out of the water by Stifel analyst Andrew Carter’s recent report calling for $200 billion in yearly sales in a decade. Such a scenario has one key cog if it’s to be successful: the United States has to legalize marijuana at the federal level.

Make no mistake about it: We’ve come an incredibly long way in the U.S. since 1995, when no states had legalized medical or recreational pot, and support for legalization stood at roughly 25%. Today, two-thirds of respondents to Gallup’s annual poll favor legalizing marijuana, with 33 states having approved medical cannabis in some capacity. Of these 33 states, a third (11) also allow recreational consumption, with Illinois being the latest to legalize marijuana last month. Retail sales in the Land of Lincoln will commence on Jan. 1, 2020. [Read More @ The Motley Fool]