There had been one statewide instance of voters choosing to criminalize marijuana through a ballot measure. In , voters in Alaska decided to make all marijuana possession illegal. Prior to the passage of the Alaska Marijuana Criminalization Initiative, adults over 18 were legally allowed to possess up to four ounces of marijuana in their homes and up to one ounce of marijuana in public.
Eight years later, Alaskans ultimately decided to decriminalize medical marijuana, and in , Alaska voters to legalize recreational marijuana as well. Gallup, a national polling firm, first began surveying Americans about legalizing marijuana use in At that time, only 12 percent of all adults supported legalization.
Since then, support for legalization has increased significantly. In , a majority of American adults—66 percent—supported legalization. The table below breaks down support for legalization by age bracket.
Click a year below to see all marijuana-related ballot measures that appeared on the ballot in a given year. Election results via: Colorado Secretary of State. Election results via: Ohio Secretary of State.
Election results via: Washington Secretary of State. The following chart is sortable by column, and shows pre marijuana-realted measures and their corresponding election results:.
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Voting on Marijuana Ballot Measures By state By year Not on ballot Local Local marijuana Local marijuana tax The federal government has classified marijuana as an illegal controlled substance since The ruling was appealed.
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When are polls open? For the marijuana industry, that makes the heaviest users the most lucrative customers. But I think we have a horrible history of dealing with these kinds of things.
Drug policy experts say there are alternatives to commercial legalization, like putting state governments in charge of marijuana production and sales, which could tame the for-profit incentive and give states more direct control over prices and who buys pot. But legalization opponents worry that any move toward legalization will inevitably attract powerful for-profit forces, especially since the marijuana industry has already taken off in several states.
When I look at how things are set up in states like Colorado, where the marijuana industry gets a seat at the table for every state decision on marijuana policy, it troubles me. Given these concerns, opponents favor more limited reforms than legalization. Other critics of legalization support legalizing marijuana for medical purposes but not recreational use. SAM, for instance, broadly agrees that current drug and criminal justice policies are far too punitive and costly.
But while they may support some reforms, they feel that legalization simply goes too far — and could lead to worse consequences than the alternatives.
In total, millions of people across the US report wanting to quit marijuana and being unable to despite negative consequences. The most thorough review of the research yet, from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine , linked marijuana use to a variety of other potential downsides, including respiratory issues if smoked , schizophrenia and psychosis , car crashes, lagging academic and other social achievements, and lower birth weight if smoked during pregnancy.
The studies reviewed also suggest it carries several benefits, particularly for chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. The National Academies report emphasized that more research is needed, with a lot of unknowns remaining about marijuana use and its effects. For one, the research has yet to prove if all the problems correlated with cannabis use are actually caused by pot.
After all, correlation is not causation. According to surveys from Gallup , support for legalization rose from 12 percent in to 31 percent in to 66 percent in The Pew Research Center found that support varies from generation to generation, although it has been rising among all age groups over the past few years. As it stands, more than two-thirds of millennials back legalizing marijuana, while support is lower among older groups.
The change in public opinion is part of a broader pushback against punitive criminal justice policies and the war on drugs in general. A Pew survey found 63 percent of Americans agree states should move away from harsh mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug crimes, and 67 percent said drug policy should focus more on providing treatment over prosecuting drug users. Instead, Americans are broadly fed up with drug and criminal justice policies that have contributed to higher incarceration rates while doing little to solve ongoing drug crises.
Even as several states and Washington, DC, allow marijuana, the federal government still strictly prohibits pot. That classification puts marijuana in the same category as heroin and a more restrictive category than schedule 2 drugs like cocaine and meth. The big distinction between schedule 1 and 2 substances, instead, is whether the federal government thinks a drug has medical value.
The DEA says schedule 2 substances have some medical value and schedule 1 substances do not, so schedule 1 drugs receive more regulatory scrutiny even though they may not be more dangerous. Those kinds of studies are traditionally required to prove a drug has medical value to the federal government. But these studies are also much more difficult to conduct when a substance is strictly regulated by the federal government as a schedule 1 drug.
Congress can also pass legislation to reschedule marijuana, which legalization advocates have been lobbying legislators to do for decades. The Trump administration suggested it would take a tougher line under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, but current Attorney General William Barr backed off the tougher approach and said he would more or less go back to the Obama-era policies. Many state-legal marijuana businesses, for instance, must function as cash-only enterprises , since many banks are nervous about dealing with businesses that are essentially breaking federal law.
One concern here is whether the federal government would be in violation of international law if it legalized marijuana. A host of international treaties explicitly ban the legalization of marijuana sales for recreational purposes.
As states have legalized, the US has argued that it remains in good standing of these treaties by keeping pot illegal at the federal level. But that would change if Congress and the president legalized marijuana. So far, Canada and Uruguay have generally dodged scrutiny over their violation of these treaties. But the US is a much bigger country than either. So even as states and voters back marijuana legalization, the federal government remains in the way.
So far, it seems to be going fine. Then-Colorado Gov. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page.
These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification. I Accept Show Purposes. Your Money. Personal Finance. Your Practice. Popular Courses. Table of Contents Expand. Impact on Tax Revenue. Income and Jobs. Investment Opportunities. Saved Money. Bottom Line. Key Takeaways There has been a growing popular movement in the United States to legalize marijuana for medicinal and recreational uses, with several states adopting such measures already.
One motivation for legalization is the economic benefits that can come from the regulated commercial availability of marijuana. Increased tax revenues, job growth, and investment opportunities all are powerful incentives to push for legalization. Article Sources. Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work. These include white papers, government data, original reporting, and interviews with industry experts. We also reference original research from other reputable publishers where appropriate.
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