Only six months after medical cannabis became legal for purchase inside conservative Utah, the program has already surpassed enrollment projections. “I don’t think that anybody had an idea as to the number of patients that Utah was going to see this early...” said Cody James, manager of the Utah Department of Agriculture’s Industrial Hemp and Medical Cannabis Program.

At a virtual forum, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) put several questions to Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton (D) and Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist (D), on how to enact a legal cannabis system. “Pennsylvania can learn from Michigan… You do not have to piecemeal this together,” Gilchrist said. “When you do it in the right way, it sets you up to create the systems and infrastructure to truly support people as this comes online, to create opportunities for those who have been oppressed and cut out of opportunity because they’ve been incarcerated or criminalized in the system to be able to participate in the potential prosperity that adult-use cannabis can create for communities” he said.

A recreational marijuana industry in New Jersey itself could reach $850 million-$950 million in sales a year by 2024, according to Marijuana Business Daily projections. Approval is expected to cause a domino effect along the Eastern Seaboard, creating an adult-use marijuana region covering 37 million, among the biggest in the world.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis plans to mass-pardon 2,732 convictions of low-level marijuana possession through an executive order Thursday after signing a bill earlier this year that gave him that authority.

“Cannabis investors know there are two reasons why leading cannabis companies in the U.S. are outperforming even the manic market moves of Apple and Amazon over the last six months: opportunity and execution… for investors looking to November, it will be up to Congress to determine the future of cannabis. By safeguarding existing state laws on cannabis and providing future access to legitimate financial institutions, lawmakers will lock in progress and pave the way for full legalization and a more sensible justice system. When that legislation is ultimately combined with the operational execution/profitability we are currently seeing by top companies in the sector (see Curaleaf, Cresco Labs, Trulieve, GTI, Terrascend), the next wave of rerating will be here.”