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Where is marijuana legalization now?
This appeared in The Millennial Source
The politics on marijuana are clear. Legalization is no longer a question of if, but when.
While news of marijuana legalization in the United States has largely fallen by the wayside as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to dominate headlines, that didn’t stop advocates for its legalization from making huge gains in the 2020 election.
Every state ballot initiative on the legalization or decriminalization of marijuana passed in November. New Jersey and Arizona legalized recreational marijuana usage, voters in Mississippi legalized medical marijuana and South Dakota made marijuana legal for both recreational and medical use.
Several additional state initiatives covering other hard drugs were passed, including one in Oregon that decriminalized the possession of heroin, cocaine and other methamphetamines in small quantities (the new initiative does not make dealing these drugs legal). Meanwhile, an initiative in Washington, DC was passed that legalized psilocybin, a compound in psychedelic mushrooms.
These results bring the total number of states that have legalized recreational marijuana to 15 (in addition to Washington, DC) and the total number of states that have legalized medical marijuana to 36.
