Ballot measures to remove or to relax drug restrictions won big on Tuesday.
Marijuana legalization ballot measure efforts in five states prevailed. New Jersey, Arizona, Montana, and South Dakota approved measures to make marijuana legal for recreational purposes. Mississippi voters, meanwhile, gave approval to a measure to establish a medical marijuana program overseen by the state Health Department.
Each measure passed with strong support, even in the states that handed big wins to President Trump. For instance, 55% of Montana voters chose to support Trump, while 57% voted to legalize recreational marijuana.
Successes in red states suggest a shift in Republican attitudes toward marijuana legalization, which has garnered growing support from members of both parties over the past decade. A 2019 survey from the Pew Research Center found that 67% now support marijuana legalization, up from 62% in 2018.
With the passage of Ballot Measure 110, Oregon became the first state to eliminate criminal penalties, including prison time, for possessing small quantities of illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine. Individuals caught with drugs will have the option of either paying a $100 fine or getting a health assessment at an addiction recovery center.
The initiative was spearheaded by Drug Policy Action, the advocacy and political arm of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance.
“Today’s victory is a landmark declaration that the time has come to stop criminalizing people for drug use,” Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
“Measure 110 is arguably the biggest blow to the war on drugs to date,” Frederique added.
The state will also now redirect marijuana sales tax revenues toward designing a more expansive drug addiction treatment and recovery program.
Oregon also legalized the use of psilocybin, a psychedelic drug found in psychedelic mushrooms, for supervised mental health therapy uses.
In Washington, meanwhile, voters passed Initiative 81 to decriminalize a range of psychedelic plants for therapeutic purposes.
