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 Proposition 64 appeared headed for decisive passage as statewide
returns in Tuesday's election showed nearly 56 percent of voters
favoring the measure and 44 percent opposed, according to results
reported from well over half of all precincts.
California was by far the largest of five states with ballot
measures seeking to legalize the use of marijuana for the sheer
pleasure of its intoxicating effects, and approval there would
extend legalization to the entire U.S. Pacific Coast.
Recreational marijuana was first approved in 2012 by Washington
state and Colorado, and later by voters in Oregon, Alaska and the
District of Columbia.
Victory also was declared on Tuesday by supporters of a similar
measure in Massachusetts, giving legalized recreational pot its
first toehold in New England.
The Marijuana Policy Project, the nation's leading organization
supporting liberalization of cannabis laws, likewise projected
passage of measures permitting medical use of marijuana in Florida,
Arkansas and North Dakota.
The outcome was less certain for recreational marijuana initiatives
in Maine, Arizona and Nevada, and for a medical cannabis measure in
Montana.
Before Tuesday, 25 states had already legalized cannabis in some
way, whether for medical or recreational uses, or both. [http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/USA-ELECTION-MARIJUANA/010030C80QP/index.html]
Approval Tuesday in California alone, home to 39 million people,
would put nearly a fifth of all Americans in states where
recreational marijuana is legal, according to U.S. Census figures.
California was the first U.S. state to legalize medical marijuana,
doing so in 1996.
'BEING LIKE BEER'
The new measure, spearheaded by a coalition of supporters that
included Democratic Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom and billionaire
high-tech entrepreneur Sean Parker, allows adults to possess and use
up to an ounce of pot for private, recreational use. It also permits
personal cultivation of as many as six cannabis plants.
Moreover, it would establish a system to license, regulate and tax
sales of marijuana, while allowing city governments to exercise
local control over commercial distribution within their borders.
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California voters defeated a similar initiative in 2010, but public
opinion polls show attitudes have since shifted.
Opponents of liberalized marijuana laws have argued that such
measures carry major public safety risks and would make pot more
accessible to youngsters.
Experts say the latest initiatives include more sophisticated
regulatory mechanisms aimed at keeping cannabis away from children
and banning the involvement of criminal gangs and drug cartels.
They also point to the potential for hundreds of millions in
additional state tax revenue from pot sales and billions in economic
activity.
Investors new to the sector said they are eager for a piece of a
recreational marijuana market that by some estimates will reach $50
billion over the next decade.
"It's changed in the minds of these voters from being like cocaine
to being like beer," said University of Southern California
political scientist John Matsusaka.
Civil rights groups have also embraced legalization, arguing that
current marijuana laws have led to a disproportionate number of
minorities being incarcerated for minor drug offenses.
Legalization by even a few of the states where measures are on the
ballot could prod the federal government, which still classifies
marijuana in the same category as heroin, to begin rethinking its
laws and policies, Matsusaka said.
(Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by
Peter Cooney and Mary Milliken)
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