There was a clear winner on election night: Marijuana

Voters in various states across the country approved a series of statewide ballot proposals on Election Day legalizing the use and distribution of marijuana for either medical or adult-use purposes.

Their voices were unmistakable and emphatic. Majorities of Americans decided in favor of every marijuana-related proposition placed before them — a clean sweep.

Specifically, voters legalized the possession of marijuana by adults in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota. The measures in Arizona, Montana, and South Dakota each permit adults to possess and cultivate marijuana for personal use and establish a regulated retail market. In New Jersey, voters decided on a public ballot question. Garden State lawmakers must now enact enabling legislation in order to amend state law to comport it with the voters’ decision.

Additionally, voters approved the legalization of medical cannabis access in two states, Mississippi and South Dakota. In Mississippi, voters chose between two dueling initiatives — favoring a measure placed on the ballot by patient advocates and rejecting a more restrictive alternative measure placed on the ballot by state lawmakers.

Voters’ actions last evening were an unequivocal rebuke to the longstanding policy of federal marijuana prohibition, and is an indication that marijuana legalization is far from a fringe issue, but rather one that is now embraced by mainstream America. [Read more at The Hill]