Lawmaker Predicts Marijuana Will Be Legal Within 5 Years

Photo Credit: Ed Andrieski
“I think it’s game over in less than five years,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said Monday during an interview with The Huffington Post.
“There’s no question that we’re likely to see another state or two this year legalizing [recreational] use,” Blumenauer said. “We’re going to see more medical marijuana progress. The crazy prohibitions on bank services and probably the tax disparities — these are all eroding.”
As of now, 20 states have legalized marijuana for medical purposes, and voters in Colorado and Washington have approved marijuana for recreational use. About a dozen more states are expected to legalize marijuana in some form over the next several years. One recent study has projected a $10 billion legal marijuana industry by 2018.
Despite a growing and profitable legal marijuana industry, the federal government continues to ban the plant, classifying it as a Schedule I substance alongside drugs like heroin and LSD, and maintaining that it has “no currently accepted medical use.”
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