Drug Policy

Jacob Sullum | 11.6.2024 4:00 PM

The last time voters sent Donald Trump to the White House, I barely noticed on Election Night because I was so pleasantly surprised by the electoral success of marijuana reform. In 2016, voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada approved recreational legalization, while voters in Arkansas, Florida, Montana and North Dakota approved or expanded medical use. Two years later, Michigan joined the first list, while Missouri, Oklahoma, and Utah joined the second.

In 2020, recreational initiatives won in Arizona, Montana, and New Jersey; Mississippi voters approved marijuana as a medicine; South Dakota voters approved both steps simultaneously; Washington, D.C., voters told police to leave psychedelic users alone; and Oregon voters passed two groundbreaking drug policy measures—one authorizing state-licensed "psilocybin service centers," the other decriminalizing low-level possession of all drugs. The 2022 midterms delivered another important victory: Colorado voters approved a measure that decriminalized five naturally occurring psychedelics.

This year's results look quite different. Legalization of recreational marijuana lost in Florida, North Dakota, and South Dakota, where a legal challenge had nixed the 2020 initiative. Nebraska voters overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana, but a pending legal challenge may prevent implementation of that policy. A Massachusetts psychedelic initiative similar to Colorado's went down by a double-digit margin. And California voters overwhelmingly approved an initiative, Proposition........

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