John Boehner, former house speaker and presently one of the board members of the Acreage Holdings, voiced his opinion on the current legal marijuana scenario in the country during the on-going South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas (SXSW).
Boehner is of the view that the federal government needs to look up and realize that they are way out of step in making decisions governing the legalization of marijuana. He further added that since the market is expanding at a rapid pace, the federal government should rather ‘get out of the way’ and let states take control.
A proposal, named STATES Act – proposed by Senators Cory Gardner and Elizabeth Warren – though, is in works, which if passed, would grant individual states the authority to decide whether their residents can legally possess, manufacture and sell cannabis sans federal intervention.
A former Republican leader, Boehner bid adieu to national politics four years ago. In 2018, he joined the board of Acreage Holdings, a publicly traded, multistate cannabis company based in New York. Notably, just the last week, Acreage reported fourth-quarter revenue of $10.5 million and full-year sales of $21.1 million- an increase of 173% over the last 12 months.
He was joined by Acreage Holdings CEO Kevin Murphy on Friday, and together they were quoted as saying, “95% of this country would like to be using cannabis or believe it should be used at least for medical purposes. And with those types of numbers, we think we appeal to both the right and the left. From our vantage point, it’s just a matter of time.”
As of March 2019, 10 states and the District of Columbia have allowed the recreational use of marijuana. 66% of the survey respondents to the recent Gallup Poll support legalization of the drug at the federal level.
