There’s a whole bunch of industries not down with weed being legal which are actively lobbying to maintain that status quo according to the International Business Times:
The biggest players in the anti-marijuana legalization movement are pharmaceutical, alcohol and beer companies, private prison corporations and police unions, all of whom help fund lobby groups that challenge marijuana law reform
For many of these groups, keeping weed illegal is crucial to their bottom line. Law enforcement for example, doesn’t want anyone messing with their anti-drug budgets or inventory of expensive toys bought with forfeiture dollars. In states where medical weed programs were voted into law, there has been a marked decrease in booze consumption, so it’s pretty obvious why alcohol companies are against the good herb.
Open Secrets details the rest of the haters who benefit from the prohibition of pot and this handy chart (pictured above) expands that footprint even more. One noticeably absent party is big tobacco, apparently they’ve got 23.6 billion issues of their own to deal with.
