BALTIMORE, Md. — Voters in five states considered ballot measures to legalize recreational marijuana in the Nov. 8 midterm elections, and only two passed. Despite this, one cannabis regulatory experts told CSP Daily News the tides are turning for the future of cannabis in the United States.
Maryland and Missouri voters approved measures to legalize the substance, according to preliminary results, while efforts failed in South Dakota, North Dakota and Arkansas. This brings the total number of states with legal recreational marijuana to 21 and ones with only medical programs to 17.
“Opinions are definitely changing and as it becomes more mainstream, I think they will continue to change,” said Jonathan Havens, a partner at Saul, Ewing, Arnstein and Lehr LLP, Baltimore.
Most of the legalized states start first with medical use, Havens said, so he thinks many of those 17 states eventually will move to allow recreational marijuana, as well.
Havens said he wasn’t surprised but was encouraged, that voters in Maryland and Missouri approved recreational marijuana. Both states also have plans on how to implement the new laws, he said.
“It’s heartening to see these two states are not kind of sitting on their hands and waiting for something bigger to happen. They’re recognizing that voters supported this, and they’re moving forward,” Havens said.
South Dakota, though, was a surprise, he said. Voters in 2020 approved an amendment to the state constitution that would have allowed recreational use, but about a year later, the South Dakota Supreme Court struck down the amendment. In the most recent election, voters rejected it 53% to 47%, preliminary results from the South Dakota Secretary of State’s Office show.
It likely won’t be the last time the state tries to legalize marijuana, Havens said.
“I expect all three of these states that weren’t successful this go around to introduce it again,” he said, adding sometimes it takes multiple election cycles to be successful.
When it comes to federal policy, there are still a lot of questions. President Joe Biden said on Oct. 6 that in addition to pardoning all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana, and asking states to do the same, he was also asking the secretary of health and human services and the attorney general to initiate the administrative process to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.
“What are those agencies going to say? What is congress going to do in response? How is it going to impact those state programs?” Havens said.
All remain to be seen, but there could be more discussions, and potential action, during the lame duck session in Congress, he said. Most recently, the House Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties held a hearing on Nov. 15 to discuss developments in state cannabis laws and bipartisan cannabis reforms at the federal level.
“All eyes are on what Congress is doing right now, and hopefully there’ll be some policies there,” he said.