This Election Day is shaping up to be a watershed moment for efforts to end marijuana prohibition, with five states voting on marijuana legalization and four more on medical marijuana. The results are expected to have major ramifications for marijuana law reform in states across the U.S., at the federal level, and even internationally.
“California’s looking good, so is medical marijuana in Florida, and I’m confident we’ll prevail on legalization in other states as well,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “We’re fast approaching the day when Americans will look back on the marijuana wars of recent decades the same way we now look back on alcohol Prohibition – as a costly, foolish and deadly mistake.”
The national impact of Tuesday’s votes is likely to be game-changing. Just last week, President Obama said federal prohibition is “not going to be tenable” if California and other states legalize marijuana. Hillary Clinton has said states should decide the issue, and that she will reschedule marijuana. Even among Republicans, support for marijuana reform is rising, as medical marijuana amendments routinely passed the Republican-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate Appropriations Committee over the past three years, while an amendment to end federal marijuana prohibition outright failed by just nine votes last year in the House.
The most significant ballot initiative is California’s Proposition 64, which along with legalizing the adult use of marijuana and enacting across-the-board sentencing reform for marijuana offenses, establishes a comprehensive, strictly-controlled system to tax and regulate businesses to produce and distribute marijuana in a legal market. Experts are calling Prop. 64 the “new gold standard” for marijuana policy because of its cutting edge provisions to undo the most egregious harms of marijuana prohibition on impacted communities of color and the environment as well as its sensible approaches to public health, youth protection, licensing and revenue allocation.
The Drug Policy Alliance and its lobbying arm, Drug Policy Action, played key leadership roles in the California campaign — co-drafting the initiative, coordinating the political mobilization, social media, public relations and more, and raising over $5 million to fund the effort.
WHEN: Wednesday, November 9, 12:30pm (ET) / 9:30am (PT)
HOW: Call Tony Newman for call-in info.: 646-335-5384
WHO:
- Asha Bandele, Senior Director, Drug Policy Alliance (Moderator)
- Lynne Lyman, California State Director, Drug Policy Alliance
- Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director, Drug Policy Alliance
- Tamar Todd, Director of Legal Affairs, Drug Policy Alliance