Marijuana legalized in four more U.S. states

Presidential elections in some U.S. states have been combined with ballots on legalizing recreational marijuana. Voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada approved the legal use of marijuana at the polls while voters in Arizona were against it. Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Washington, D.C. already earlier opted for legal pot.

Especially California with a population of 39 million people, which represents the sixth largest economy in the world, could give the movement also in the remaining U.S. states and in other regions of the world a major push forward.

Major alcohol producing companies fear the effect of legalizing marijuana because they believe in a substitution of alcohol drinking by marijuana smoking. Already earlier this year The Boston Beer Company, maker of Samuel Adams beer, informed investors that the “sale and distribution of marijuana” could “adversely impact the demand” for beer. Even researchers like Daniel Rees, a professor of economics at the University of Colorado, Denver, found out that many consumers will most likely substitute marijuana for alcohol when given the chance. But physical evidence in the state of Colorado, where the use of marijuana was legalized in 2012, showed that consumption of alcohol has been stable since then.

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