Which Of These Five States Will Make History On Tuesday? Midterm Elections Guide To Cannabis Legalization

Voters in five mostly red states will vote in Tuesday's on whether or not to legalize cannabis for adult use: Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota. And, despite their conservative leanings, there’s a good chance most of them could say yes to cannabis, which underscores the increasingly bipartisan support for legalization. 

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke, speaking at 2022 SXSW, said it best: “I’ll let you in on a secret: Republicans like to get high just as much as Democrats.” Naturally, if O’Rourke is elected as Governor of Texas, he says he’ll legalize weed posthaste so as to join “most of the rest of the country, most of the rest of the free world.” 

Clearly, success across the board is not guaranteed but recent history has shown that cannabis legalization has enjoyed significant victories at the polls. 

Five States That Will Ask Voters To Say Yes-Or-No On Cannabis Legalization:

• Arkansas Issue 4 Marijuana Legalization Initiative Ballot Question
• Maryland Question 4 Marijuana Legalization Amendment Ballot Question
• Missouri Amendment 3 Marijuana Legalization Initiative Ballot Question
• North Dakota Statutory Measure 2 Marijuana Legalization Initiative Ballot Question
• South Dakota Initiated Measure 27 Marijuana Legalization Initiative Ballot Question

In addition to these five states, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin will be voting on local cannabis ballot questions and Colorado is voting on whether or not to legalize psychedelics. 

Legal Cannabis Is On The Rise And The Sky Has Not Fallen

If adult-use cannabis legalization indeed passes in these five states, the number of fully legal weed states could jump from 19 to 24, not counting D.C. and two US territories and this could fortify the case for legalizing weed at the federal level. Another 18 states and one US territory have legal medical marijuana programs. That’s quite a broad swath of the United States with legal weed in one form or another.

President Biden’s pardon last month of simple federal cannabis violations notwithstanding, many say that full federal decriminalization and across-the-board expungement would do wonders for the country, the economy and ghastly over-crowded prisons. After all, national polling suggests that most Americans think marijuana should be legal in some form as well as cannabis banking. 

So stay tuned right here to Benzinga cannabis news and get the results as they come in.