Not Everybody Must Get Stoned (But Votes Mean More People Can)

Marijuana laws in the United States have shifted again, with voters in several areas of the country — including in the nation’s capital — deciding it’s OK to possess at least small quantities of herb for personal use.

Voters in Oregon and Alaska joined Colorado and Washington state in approving regulated pot shops that will be allowed to sell marijuana for recreational use. The District of Columbia legalized smallish quantities, and a pending measure could allow vendors to sell weed in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol.

In Florida, voters rejected an amendment that would have made the Sunshine State the 24th in the country to approve medical cannabis, South Tampa (FL) Patch reports. Because the vote would have amended the state constitution, a 60 percent approval was required.

Florida was the first state in the South to consider allowing medical cannabis, and conservatives mounted a well-funded campaign against it, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

Voters in Michigan’s Huntington Woods and Berkley county approved initiatives to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana possessed by adults, and a third Oakland County community, Pleasant Ridge, voted by a nearly 3-to-1 margin to make marijuana related crimes a low priority for law enforcement.

The communities were among 11 statewide considering marijuana ballot proposals in the midterm elections.

In Berkley alone, 62 percent of voters approved decriminalization, compared with 38 percent who opposed it. The actual vote count was 3,811 to 2,311, according to unofficial Oakland County election results.

In Huntington Woods, 70 percent of the 3,288 voters who cast ballots on the proposal voted for legalization of small amounts of pot. Thirty percent opposed it.

Before Tuesday, the Safer Michigan Coalition had taken marijuana initiatives to the ballot 16 times without a single defeat.

On Tuesday, voters in the cities of Clare, Frankford, Harrison, Lapeer and Onaway said no to marijuana legalization. Saginaw, Mount Pleasant, and Port Huron voted in favor of marijuana decriminalization.

The results in Michigan support what recent polling demonstrate is a gradual shift of Americans’ attitudes about marijuana.

A 2013 Gallup Poll found that 58 percent Americans think cannabis should be legalized, while 39 percent oppose it, MSNBC reports. When Gallup first polled Americans on the topic in 1969, only 12 percent endorsed legalization.

Those results generally follow the findings in Pew Research Center report last month that found support for marijuana legalization is slowly outpacing opposition. That poll said 52 percent support legal weed, while 45 percent oppose it.

The Safer Michigan Coalition, which backed the marijuana initiatives, is taking a community-by-community approach to pot legalization. The group would prefer a statewide ballot proposal, but concedes it’s politically unrealistic.

Terry Jungel, director of the Michigan Sheriff’s Association, told Michigan Public Radio. that the campaigns for marijuana reform are “economically and emotionally driven, which are two really bad reasons to be making decisions on anything dealing with public safety issues.”

Local communities that vote to legalize small amounts of marijuana are co-conspirators in state and federal crimes, because despite votes at the local level, it’s still against Michigan and U.S. law to possess marijuana.