Marijuana wins big on election night

(Photo by Linda Davidson / The Washington Post)

Voters in California and Massachusetts approved recreational marijuana initiatives Tuesday night, and several other states passed medical marijuana provisions in what is turning out to be the biggest electoral victory for marijuana reform since  when Colorado and Washington first approved the drug's recreational use.

Of the five recreational marijuana initiatives on the ballot, two passed and two more -- in Nevada and Maine -- were at midnight in preliminary vote totals. A similar measure in Arizona was trailing with 53 percent of votes counted.

On the medical side, voters in Florida, North  and Arkansas have approved medical marijuana initiatives. A separate measure in Montana that would loosen restrictions on an existing medical pot law is currently leading with only 9 percent of votes counted so far.

Reformers were jubilant. "This represents a monumental victory for the marijuana reform movement," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, in a statement. "With California’s leadership now, the end of marijuana prohibition nationally, and even internationally, is fast approaching."

California has long been seen as a bellwether by both supporters and opponents of marijuana reform. The state is home to about 12 percent of the U.S. population. Given the size of the state's economy and the economic impact of the marijuana industry there, California's adoption of legal marijuana could prompt federal authorities to rethink their decades-long prohibition on the use of marijuana for any purposes.

In a recent interview with Bill Maher, President Barack Obama said that legalization in California could make the current federal approach to the drug "untenable."

Still, the likelihood of a Trump White House leaves a lot of uncertainty about the fate of marijuana measures in the next four years. Under Obama, federal authorities largely took a hands-off approach to state-level legalization efforts. But an incoming administration more skeptical of drug reform could easily reverse that approach.

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