Marijuana is a contentious drug-there is widespread disagreement on its ills and its legality (or lack thereof). However there has been a shift in public perception of marijuana use in the United States over the course of the last decade. Marijuana had in the past been viewed as a "gateway drug"-the thought being that once an individual began smoking cannabis, he or she was then much more likely to dabble in more addictive substances and fall into the cycle of addiction. However, many highly publicized studies have convinced many that cannabis is not any significantly more addictive than alcohol or cigarettes. All of the aforementioned substances have deleterious effects-why then, many ask, are alcohol and tobacco legal while cannabis is not?
Such shifts in public opinion, often pushed forward by youth voters, have resulted in the slow-but accelerating-state-by-state move to legalize marijuana for leisure use. Fast-forward to the present day, and numerous liberal states have moved to legalize the drug in order to tax the industry and bring in more money for public funding projects. Twenty-three states already allow some form of legalized cannabis use-and twenty more are considering adopting more lenient policies regarding its use in this year alone.
The state of California is well known for having an old, deeply entrenched hippie counter-culture; it has a history of marijuana being grown and sold off the books. However, state voters are largely expected to succeed in legalizing recreational marijuana use come the November elections. California would then join Washington and Colorado as one of the very few states to decriminalize recreational use of the drug. All of the above, coupled with a new law that for the first time allows marijuana businesses to turn a profit, has turned corporate investors' eyes towards California as the world's largest and potentially most profitable market for recreational marijuana. "Californians love cannabis so much," Troy Drayton, chief executive of the Bay Area research group ArcView Group testified; "People are definitely salivating over the California market."
The results? The price of land in the Southern California Desert has tripled. Entrepreneurs have been buying up all the land they can get, as the new law will not only legalize profits but also abolish any limits on just how much cannabis a single farm can cultivate. Celebrities known for their public marijuana use-such as Snoop Dog, for example-have already reached out to corporations in the hopes of creating a brand name. Whole towns are likewise anticipating capital in the form of tax revenue from the soon-to-be market; such revenue alone could double the budget of a small city. The market will also bring jobs to such small towns-sorely needed in this time of extended drought. As Aaron Herzberg, a partner at CalCann Holdings (a medical marijuana holding company), stated on the shift towards cannabis legalization, "We're transitioning out of the complete free-for-all, wild West. It will be like alcohol-you can't just set up a still and produce it in your garage. You have to apply for permits and pay taxes."
