Oklahoma voters recently rejected a measure that would have legalized recreational cannabis in the state and expanded access to adults aged 21 and older. With this decision, Oklahoma joined a group of conservative states that have recently rejected measures to legalize adult-use cannabis, including North Dakota, Arkansas and South Dakota.
The recreational marijuana measure’s failure to pass in Oklahoma was a blow to advocates, who were hoping that changing attitudes among younger voters coupled with laissez-faire economic attitudes would swing the vote in favor of cannabis. Even though 10% of Oklahomans currently hold a medical cannabis card, 63% of voters rejected the measure while only 38% were in favor of legalizing recreational cannabis.
In the wake of their recent setback in Oklahoma, legalization advocates are now turning their attention to Delaware and Hawaii where the prospects of legalization are much greater. Both states are currently host to bills that would legalize recreational cannabis for adults aged 21 and older.
The measure in Hawaii has support from Governor Josh Green while the Delaware measure has a veto-proof majority among state lawmakers. Green noted during his campaign trail that he would sign a recreational cannabis bill into law if he was elected governor and the legislature sent him an adult-use bill.
In Delaware, an adult-use bill was vetoed by Governor John Carney and is now headed to the senate for a vote that could override Carney’s veto.
Even though the prospects of legalizing cannabis in larger states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio are still uncertain, Delaware and Hawaii seem to be on track to legalize cannabis. Democrats have control over the house and senate in both states, and both governors are from the Democratic party, meaning they can effectively pass cannabis legislation with little effective pushback from the GOP.
Minnesota, which also has a legalization bill going through the legislature, has a similar Democratic trifecta.
However, advocates concede that some conservative Democratic senators may have to be convinced to vote in favor of legalizing adult-use cannabis
While successfully passing cannabis legalization measures in small Democratic states such as Hawaii and Delaware would certainly be a solid step in the right direction, it may not have a major domino effect on the rest of the country’s adult-use industry. Succeeding in a conservative state such as Oklahoma would have had a much wider ripple effect and could have even caused lawmakers in other conservative states to rethink their cannabis policies. Furthermore, cannabis reform in conservative states could even pressure lawmakers at the federal level to consider federal cannabis reform.
Companies such as Advanced Container Technologies Inc. (OTC: ACTX), which specialize in meeting the needs of entities within the cannabis industry, will be keeping an eye on the progress of the cannabis legalization movement since it could open more opportunities for them.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Advanced Container Technologies Inc. (OTC: ACTX) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/ACTX
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