How did this massive shift in public opinion happen?
In the October 2003 Elliott Wave Theorist, Robert Prechter identified a link between social mood and drug decriminalization -- and predicted that “eventually possession and sale of recreational drugs will be decriminalized.”
The July 2009 Socionomist report “The Coming Collapse of Modern Prohibition” echoed that forecast, saying: “The public will become open to what may now seem like radical ideas about how best to deal with marijuana use in society.”
By 2011, the majority of public opinion had reversed itself in one of the largest public opinion shifts of the past 60 years. The 2010s saw many U.S. states vote to approve medical marijuana and/or decriminalize cannabis possession.
As of 2026, cannabis is legal in 40 states for medical use and 24 states for recreational use.
You could have been reading us THEN -- before the marijuana industry grew to $38 billion in the U.S.
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