There is a sprinkling of good news in the otherwise catastrophic 2014 Midterm Election:
Oregonian and Alaskan(!) voters both passed recreational marijuana legalization ballot initiatives. They now join Colorado and Washington State in instituting sane marijuana laws. Considering how conservative 2014 voters were, in general, this is a big deal. It's not much of a stretch to project that the number of states allowing legal recreational marijuana use will double again in the 2016 presidential election year.
A whopping 70% of voters in Washington D.C. also passed a marijuana decriminalization measure.
Meanwhile, a strong 57% majority of voters in Florida voted for medical marijuana in Florida, yet it fell short because it requires a constitutional amendment majority of 60% to pass:
A ballot measure in Florida that aimed to legalize medical marijuana in the state failed to pass. It generated a 57.6 percent yes vote for Amendment 2, but that was 3 points shy of the 60 percent threshold needed to pass the measure into law.
http://www.kjrh.com/...
Medical marijuana regularly is polled at an approval rate of 80% to 90% even in southern states, yet it only garnered 57% of the votes in Florida in this midterm election.... that pretty much shows that a very conservative electorate showed up at the polls there yesterday, which explains why the atrocious Rick Scott was re-elected.
The farce here, of course, is that Crist may have been elected governor and the medical marijuana initiative probably would have passed if numerous Floridians hadn't had their voting rights stripped for marijuana-related "crimes". Nonetheless, 57% is a clear majority and the Florida medical marijuana measure will likely pass if it is on the ballot in 2016 again.
In 2016, the likely candidates for marijuana legalization are: California, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona. Dem candidates would do well to firmly get behind marijuana legalization measures - not just because they poll well and are becoming increasingly more popular, but mainly because it is the right and sensible thing to do.