By Tim Hermes
If you're a fan of the FX drama "Justified," you know that the central character, Raylan Givens (played by Timothy Olyphant), is a Deputy U.S. Marshal who works catching the bad guys in his hometown of Harlan, Ky. Over the past five seasons, Raylan's been taking on the worst the Bluegrass state can throw at him:Â Dixie Mafia, bank robbers, moonshiners, white supremacists, Big Coal. This season, the plot revolves around a gang of unpleasant paramilitary dudes who want to buy as much property in Harlan as they can, quickly, even if it means by force, intimidation or worse. Knowing the coal seam that kept Harlan's citizens working has run out, Raylan works to uncover the "why" of the sudden land grab.
It's not what's under the land, he comes to find out, it is the land itself. Knowing that this area of Kentucky has some of the richest soil in the country, the band of baddies is making a play for what they see as the inevitable–Kentucky legalizing marijuana. And they want their piece of the "grow" revenue.
What so surprised me watching this was not just that MJ's inevitable march toward legalization was integrated into a Hollywood plot line, but the fact that this was the South, a region of the country not known as especially progressive when it comes to social issues.
However if you took a look at state-level legislative efforts (for medical or recreational marijuana) in just the past few months, quite a few have come from southern states, including Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, and West Virginia. And while legalization–especially for the retail sale of marijuana–is still a pipe dream for many, if not all, of these states, there is also a more base-level driver here. That, of course, is money.
Some of the richest farmland in the country is in the Bible Belt, much of which is highly conducive to marijuana growing and harvesting. No matter how red the state, everyone likes to see the green. Many southern states already have legal growing facilities for medical marijuana. Of course, Virginia and North Carolina are home to big tobacco with its massive infrastructure. Florida has been dancing on the periphery of legalization. And several states in the Deep South are the poorest in the country, with no foreseeable way out. Until now.
While most of these states are deeply red (with the exception of Virginia), there are certainly legislators in the state houses of Montgomery, Richmond, Nashville, and Jackson who are struggling with how to tap into America's "fastest-growing industry in the country" without alienating their base. The revenue potential is absolutely massive. The Republican platform is pro-business, anti-federal government, which dovetails well with the business side of marijuana, but hits a brick wall on the community governance side with some of the harshest possession laws on the books. However a state like Mississippi–that is working to get legalization legislation on the ballot for 2016–could see itself move from one of the poorest states in the union to one of the wealthiest by enacting laws that make marijuana cultivation legal. There are, no doubt, eyes on the prize here.
When it comes to weed, there are so many variables to consider. The right tone needs to be struck. Marijuana needs to be viewed in the same light as tobacco and alcohol, two staples of Southern culture that share many of the same traits. But in the South, even more opportunity exists, as many Southern states are agriculture-based, with rich farmland just waiting for marijuana cultivation. And the river of money that will follow. Southern states may be the first states to look at the business upside first, the community upside second.
At some point, the chance to raise their states' revenues will become too much to resist, and a gutsy state senator or two will start the push toward legalizing marijuana. It will not be an easy fight. Marijuana has a stigma that is hard to shake. As of this writing, it is still federally illegal. But soon enough, the revenue potential of marijuana as a cash crop will prove irresistible.
