USA TODAY International Edition
4 states set to debate pot laws on Election Day
Public support broad for legal recreational weed
DENVER – Legal pot is poised to spread further across the country this Election Day, with millions of voters casting ballots that could roll back marijuana prohibition in two states and expand access to medical cannabis in two others.
In North Dakota, voters may approve what would be the nation’s most permissive recreational marijuana laws, allowing adults to grow, consume and possess as much pot as they want, without government oversight.
And in Utah, the state’s conservative residents are virtually guaranteed to see medical cannabis laws approved thanks to a deal struck between legalization advocates and religious leaders staunchly opposed to even alcohol and caffeine.
Meanwhile, Michiganders are widely expected to approve a system to legalize, tax and regulate recreational pot, and Missourians are considering three competing measures permitting medical use.
The ballot measures come at a time when the majority of U.S. states have already embraced some form of legal pot.
Nine states permit recreational marijuana use, along with the District of Columbia. And 29 states plus D.C. permit medical marijuana use by large numbers of people. Alabama and Mississippi have also allowed its use, but only by a small number of extremely sick people.
Marijuana remains entirely illegal at the federal level, although 66 percent of Americans support legal recreational cannabis, according to an October poll by Gallup.
“Clearly the national momentum is on our side, and we see that in national polls, but national polls don’t dictate state-level results,” said Matthew Schweich, deputy director of the prolegalization Marijuana Policy Project. “We still have a fight on our hands in every single state where we’re trying to legalize.”