As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps across the United States and much of the world, businesses across all industries have struggled to endure the widespread repercussions of the crisis. While the crisis has tested nearly all businesses, it has exposed the unique institutional difficulties facing the cannabis industry in the United States. The complex and fractured legal and regulatory framework that governs the industry’s operations in the United States, coupled with the impact that the crisis has had on legislative initiatives, has led industry participants to question whether the COVID-19 pandemic may open doors for the industry or whether it may halt years of progress.

Prior to the emergence of the crisis, all involved in the industry were hopeful that 2020 would be a monumental year for cannabis. “Optimism” was the theme of virtually every session at the MJ BizCon conference in Las Vegas in December 2019. With a Pew Research Center survey indicating a sustained increase in support for legalization among the American public, and an increase in proposed legislative initiatives in support of legalization, momentum was growing. See, Daniller, Andrew, “Two-Thirds of Americans Support Marijuana Legalization,” PEW RESEARCH CENTER (Nov. 14, 2019). Just prior to the crisis, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York presented a fiscal year 2021 budget that included a comprehensive legalization initiative, see “FY 2021 Executive Budget: Making Progress Happen,” New York (Jan. 21, 2020). Meanwhile, Gov. Ned  Lamont of Connecticut acknowledged the expansive legalization in Connecticut’s neighboring states of Massachusetts and New York, arguing that a “coordinated, regional regulation [on cannabis] is our best chance to protect public health …” Further, the Alabama Senate and Kentucky House of Representatives saw the introduction of legislation calling for legalization of medicinal cannabis. See The Compassion Act, S.B. 135 (Ala. 2020); ”An Act Relating to Medicinal Cannabis and Making an Appropriation Therefore,” H.B. 136 (Ky. 2020).