Eight in ten People now dwell in a county with at the least one marijuana dispensary, in line with a brand new report from the Pew Analysis Heart. The evaluation additionally exhibits that top concentrations of outlets typically “cluster” close to borders abutting different states which have “much less permissive hashish legal guidelines”—indicating that there’s a big market of people that dwell in still-criminalized jurisdictions who cross state strains to buy regulated merchandise.
With hashish nonetheless federally unlawful, the report underscores the evident coverage disconnect because the variety of states which have enacted legalization continues to develop.
Utilizing knowledge from the market analysis agency SafeGraph and the U.S. Census Bureau, Pew discovered that 79 p.c of People dwell in a county with at the least one medical or adult-use marijuana dispensary.
Since Ohio grew to become the newest state to enact legalization final November, 54 p.c of the U.S. inhabitants resides in a state the place leisure hashish is permitted, Pew stated. And 74 p.c now dwell in a state the place marijuana is authorized for both medical or adult-use functions.
California stands out amongst different authorized states, with 3,659 dispensaries—”greater than double the quantity within the next-closest state.” A whole quarter of all hashish retailers within the U.S. are situated in California, and 99.5 p.c of Californians have at the least one dispensary of their county.
“The truth is, a single county in California—Los Angeles County—has extra dispensaries (1,481) than any state apart from California itself,” Pew found.
Altogether, the U.S. now has practically 15,000 dispensaries, the evaluation concluded.
Oklahoma, in the meantime, holds the report for many medical marijuana dispensaries per capita, with 36 retailers for each 100,000 residents.
Notably, the report additionally discovered that one in 5 dispensaries throughout the nation are “situated inside 20 miles of a state border,” with 29 p.c of these border dispensaries neighboring states with “much less permissive hashish legal guidelines.”
That indicators some strategic pondering on the a part of the trade, with companies seemingly aiming to seize the out-of-state shopper base in locations the place hashish both isn’t obtainable or with restrictive medical packages.
“For instance, Indiana, Kansas and Texas all have restrictive marijuana legal guidelines however are bordered by a number of states which have legalized the drug for leisure or medical functions,” Pew stated. “The truth is, an individual residing in one in every of these three states can discover greater than 100 dispensaries inside 20 miles of the state’s borders.”
Additionally, whereas early within the legalization motion some raised issues that the trade could be overly represented in low-income areas, as has been the case for liquor shops, the evaluation discovered that the scenario is extra nuanced.
“In 4 states which have legalized marijuana for each leisure and medical functions—Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland and Virginia—median annual family incomes are at the least $20,000 decrease in areas with excessive concentrations of dispensaries than areas within the state with low concentrations of dispensaries,” it stated. “In New Hampshire and New York, against this, median family incomes are round $20,000 or extra increased in areas with many dispensaries than in areas with few dispensaries.”
In the meantime, a Gallup ballot launched final November discovered that help for marijuana legalization has reached a brand new report excessive nationally, with seven in 10 People—together with a large majority of Republicans, Democrats and independents—now backing an finish to prohibition.