What Voting Will Look Like for Cannabis in the U.S.

We all know that November is coming up which is the time where Americans get to decide the future of the coming years. With that said, a large amount of the focus of the upcoming vote has been spent on cannabis and what will happen to individual states in regard to having their own legal markets. It’s clear as many polls have shown that Americans overwhelmingly would like to see marijuana legalized throughout most of the states in the U.S., which makes this election even more interesting. Here’s what the individual ballots will look like throughout various states this November. Across seven states, there are over 30 ballots which all beg different asks about whether or not cannabis should be legalized in the near future.

Colorado has Amendment X, which will effectively help to change the definition of industrial hemp. The industrial hemp industry has become more and more important as it is extremely different than that of cannabis. The need to explain this has meant that industrial hemp has been met with some challenges in various places. Hopefully, this will help to change this.

Michigan has put forward a very important proposal known as Proposal 1. The initiative according to the ballot would “authorize and legalize possession, use and cultivation of marijuana products by individuals who are at least 21 years of age and older, and commercial sales of marijuana through state-licensed retailers.” This is a very important ballot due to the fact that it will allow all adult use of cannabis for anyone over 21 years old. Specifically, this means that adults can possess and use cannabis and edibles containing cannabis. in addition, they would be allowed to grow as many as 12 cannabis plants for their own personal consumption. The hopes are that this ballot will be able to pass as Michigan has shown a very large amount of support for the growth of this industry.

North Dakota interestingly enough has put a similar but less progressive ballot into the vote known as Measure 3. The measure would change the statewide code to remove hashish, cannabis, and THC from Schedule I controlled substance. The vote would also help to amend criminal charges for those involved in owning cannabis or paraphernalia related to such. This has also been a big issue as the criminality of simply possessing cannabis has been a large issue and one that has been overprotected various times. As a more traditional state in the U.S., this would mean a great deal in terms of a paradigm shift for the industry. Cannabis has remained highly controversial for most of its history but in recent times, many people have seen through the propaganda to see that cannabis has the ability to treat a lot of varying illnesses as well as offer a much safer inebriation in comparison to many of the ways that people use today.

The hopes are high that these bills and the other ones that are similar on the coming ballots, will allow the cannabis industry to continue to move forward into the future. Only time will tell how well these ballots can see them public as November approaches.