California, Massachusetts, and Nevada have voted for legalization of recreational sales, with Maine’s ballot on cannabis still too close to call.
The day after the American election that decided on president Trump, the U.S. is also waking up to a handful of new states that have drastically overhauled their positions on cannabis.
Nine states voted on medical or recreational cannabis, with the majority of those measures looking to be successful as final tallies are made.
Only in Arizona were attempts to legalize defeated, with the state voting 52.14 per cent against Proposition 205. Maine’s Question 1, supporting the legalization of recreational cannabis for adults over the age of 21, is still too close to call, with 725,374 voting “Yes” and 720,392 “No” at 93.9 per cent of the vote counted on Wednesday morning.
Otherwise, all seven other ballot initiatives were successful and now California, Massachusetts, and Nevada will allow recreational sales to adults over 21 while North Dakota, Arkansas, Florida and Montana have passed measures that will expand or allow medical cannabis access.
The states join Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Colorado and the District of Columbia that had all previously voted to allow recreational sales.
The results mean millions of Americans are now able to legally purchase, carry and consume cannabis products adding almost a quarter of the U.S. population to recreational sales.