Voters across the US accelerate unprecedented momentum to legalise marijuana

Voters across the country have accelerated the unprecedented momentum to legalise marijuana and end the wider drug war, with marijuana legalisation measures passing in Oregon and Washington, D.C., while groundbreaking criminal justice reforms passed in California and New Jersey.

“This Election Day was an extraordinary one for the marijuana and criminal justice reform movements,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “Oregon proved that Colorado and Washington were no flukes. Washington, D.C. voters sent a powerful message to Congress that federal marijuana prohibition has no place in the nation’s capital. Voters in Florida and Guam demonstrated that medical marijuana could win big even in fairly conservative jurisdictions. And California and New Jersey revealed an electorate eager to reduce prison populations and the power of the prison industrial complex.”

“These victories are even more notable for having happened in a year when Democrats were trounced at the polls,” added Nadelmann. “Reform of marijuana and criminal justice policies is no longer just a liberal cause but a conservative and bipartisan one as well. On these issues at least, the nation is at last coming to its senses.”

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