Ballot measures across the country gave voters the chance to weigh in on drugs in their states, mainly marijuana. The results were a mixed bag, including in Florida, where a majority of voters wanted to legalize recreational marijuana but couldn’t reach the state’s required 60% threshold.
A Pew Research Center analysis from earlier this year found that 54% of Americans live in states with legal recreational use of marijuana, while about three out of four Americans live in states where cannabis is legal for recreational or medical use. The plant is still illegal federally but is in the process of moving to a less restrictive control status.
Here’s what happened in the elections:
- Florida residents voted against legalizing recreational marijuana for people 21 and older. Amendment 3 was opposed by the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, but supported by President-elect Donald Trump. The majority of voters wanted the measure to pass but Florida has a 60% requirement.
- Nebraska residents voted for legalizing and regulating marijuana for medical use, according to The Associated Press. Although Nebraska’s secretary of state, Bob Evnen, certified the petitions for the ballot, he also warned that they could later be thrown out in court.
- North Dakota residents voted against legalizing recreational marijuana.
- South Dakota residents voted against legalizing recreational marijuana.
- Dallas residents voted for a marijuana reform measure, which included decriminalizing possession and making it the lowest enforcement priority, reported local NBC affiliate NBC 5 Dallas-Forth Worth.
- Massachusetts residents voted against allowing people 21 and older to grow, possess and use a personal amount of psychedelic substances, the AP reported. Residents in Colorado and Oregon previously approved similar measures.
Though an Arkansas medical marijuana measure was on the ballot, it couldn’t pass after a recent state Supreme Court ruling. The court split in deciding that the measure was too misleading, over dissent that observed that “our nation’s founders came to a fork in the road, and rather than following the well-worn path traveled by tyrants and kings throughout history, they chose instead to trust their people with self-governance.”
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