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Purple Hyacinth · 04-20-2021, 06:01 PM

The Southern Journal
The Official News Outlet of the South Pacific

Marijuana legalization has yet to be stopped

By Qvait

In 2011, no country or subnational division allowed people to possess and use recreational marijuana. If someone in the United States possessed marijuana, state and federal law enforcement had grounds to arrest the person in question and send them to prison. The same applied elsewhere in any country other than the US. These prohibitive drug policies, especially for marijuana, served as the legacy of a 20th-century effort to crack down on drug abuse, which US President Richard Nixon referred to as the "war on drugs".

Successive US presidents followed Nixon's lead on prohibitive drug policy, with Barack Obama on record in 2011 saying that he was "not in favor of legalization". It was not until that same year that the Global Commission on Drug Policy published a report that stated "the global war on drugs has failed" and recommended far-reaching reforms to the international drug regime. In 2011, Gallup found that 50% of Americans supported marijuana legalization than 46% who opposed it, which marked the first time since asking that particular question that the polling firm found Americans favored legalization over prohibition.

On this fateful year, activists in the US states of Colorado and Washington were gathering signatures to get a referendum on the 2012 ballot in their respective states, which was the question of legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. Arguably, 2011 was a critical year for marijuana legalization because it was the last year that no national or subnational division allowed people to possess and use recreational marijuana.

Ten years later, four countries, 17 US states, and the Australian Capital Territory have legalized the recreational use of marijuana within their respective jurisdictions, but how did we get here?

For the most part, marijuana legalization has depended greatly on social activism and voter mobilization instead of legislative action. On the course to 2021, national and subnational legislatures showed a disinclination to pass legislation that legalized marijuana. In November 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first US states to legalize the recreational use of marijuana after voters respectively passed Amendment 64 and Initiative 502 and did so when no country had done the same. With state and federal legislators showing no appetite for marijuana legalization, the voters took it upon themselves to legalize it state-by-state.

Before Vermont legalized the recreational use of marijuana through legislation in 2018, eight US states legalized marijuana through the referendum process, an element of direct democracy created during the Progressive Era of American history. Of the 17 states that have legalized marijuana, 12 of those states used the referendum process. Heading into 2021, it was 12 out of 14 states utilizing direct democracy. One could argue that the wave of legalization prompted New Mexico, New York, and Virginia to pass legislation that legalized marijuana. However, another factor worth consideration is that none of these three states allow citizen-led referendums like the 12 that legalized before them.

It is questionable whether 17 states would have legalized marijuana without 12 of those states allowing private citizens to gather signatures and get a referendum on the ballot and whether Uruguay, the first country in the world to legalize marijuana, would have announced in June 2012 their intent to do what they inevitably did. By that time, Colorado and Washington were set to vote in November that year on marijuana legalization. However, it is also open to debate the fate of Uruguay's legalization legislation if Colorado and Washington failed to legalize marijuana in November 2012.

After nine US states and Uruguay's legalization of recreational marijuana, Canada became the second country in the world to legalize it in June 2018, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau being the biggest proponent of legalization. When the Canadian Parliament was drafting the legislation, they looked to the US states and Uruguay to determine the appropriate legal framework. In Canada's case, their path to legalization depended on the very referendums passed by eight US states before them. In the months that followed the Canadian Parliament's passage of the Cannabis Act, constitutional courts in the countries of Georgia and South Africa ruled that possession of marijuana was legal, increasing the number of countries that have legalized marijuana to four. One year later, in 2019, the Australian Capital Territory passed legislation that legalized the recreational use of marijuana.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm and interrupted signature gathering for state referendums in that year's US elections. Activists in various states had to stop gathering signatures as social distancing and stay-at-home orders were put in place. These activists were not just hoping to get marijuana legalization on the 2020 ballot in various states, but some were also campaigning for the legalization of psilocybin mushrooms. However, some campaigns succeeded in getting these referendums on the November ballot, and when the election unfolded, they all passed. Arizona, Montana, and New Jersey voted to legalize recreational marijuana, Mississippi voted to legalize medical marijuana, and South Dakota voted to legalize both in two separate referendums. However, a state court in South Dakota struck null the referendum that legalized recreational marijuana because it allegedly violated a single-issue provision on referendums. As for Oregon, the voters legalized psilocybin mushrooms.

Off the heels of five US states legalizing marijuana either for recreational or medical use in 2020 and the several states that came before, state legislators in New Mexico, New York, and Virginia found the political will to pass legislation that legalized the recreational use of marijuana in their respective states. However, New York's timely legalization could have been a convenient opportunity for Governor Andrew Cuomo to score a political victory amidst sexual misconduct allegations. Regardless, the world heads into 4/20 with four countries, 17 US states, and the Australian Capital Territory as the only places in the world where people can use recreational marijuana in 2021.

The future of marijuana legalization is bright, both in the United States and elsewhere. In October 2020, Gallup found that 68% of Americans favored legalization over the 32% who preferred prohibition. That same month, New Zealand voters nearly legalized the recreational use of marijuana, and the country arguably would have done so if Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who personally voted for legalization, had publicly endorsed the campaign to do just that. A June 2019 YouGov poll found that 48% of British people supported marijuana legalization than the 24% who believed it should remain illegal. That same year, an Australian national survey also found that a plurality of Australians, 41% of them, supported marijuana legalization.

11 US states remain that allow citizen-led referendums and have yet to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, and marijuana legalization activists have plenty of time to get these referendums on the ballot in the years to come. Even if a marijuana legalization referendum fails in some states one year, several years down the road, marijuana advocates continue gathering signatures and getting referendums on the ballot until most voters agree to legalize. None of the states that have already legalized the recreational use of marijuana have yet to reverse the legalization, not unless one counts the South Dakota court ruling on Amendment A. With each state that legalizes marijuana through the referendum process, additional states will more likely seek legislative legalization, such as Hawaii and Maryland. Furthermore, the possibility of the US federal government legalizing recreational marijuana grows with each passing state that legalizes it.

Beyond the United States, Mexico is in the best position to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in 2021, which is notable for a country that has historically struggled with the illicit drug trade. With President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's support, the Chamber of Deputies passed legislation to legalize recreational marijuana, and the Senate will consider the bill in the latter half of 2021. If marijuana legalization becomes a reality in Mexico, it will strike a blow to the cartels that have profited from the illicit drug trade and mean that the United States will be flanked north and south by countries that have legalized recreational marijuana, adding more pressure on the US to follow suit. Other states intent on legalizing marijuana in 2021 are Israel and Luxembourg, which follow the respective governments' long-term plans on the issue.

A new global, liberal drug regime is taking form and rising from the ashes of the previous regime centered on prohibition. Nearly a decade after the Global Commission on Drug Policy called for reform, several countries and subnational divisions have changed the rules on marijuana and set a new tone on drug policy. Today, we are witnessing what is essentially a domino effect surrounding marijuana legalization, and there does not seem to be any force strong enough to counter this wave. More US states are all but certain to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, and such legalization will pressure other states to do the same, and if the United States legalizes marijuana federally, other countries will follow.

Without social activism, marijuana legalization may have been an impossibility, and it is because of such activism that the trend will continue in favor of legalization. For years, marijuana was seen as the cause of social breakdowns and a gateway to more addictive drugs. However, the mere act of prohibiting marijuana has contributed more to people's suffering, and we cannot begin to mention how pharmaceutical companies have contributed more to drug abuse through opioids. Marijuana legalization is a correction to a system that proscribed and stigmatized a drug that was never the subject of a fair and nuanced inquiry, and we will find that more jurisdictions will legalize in the years to come.

Disclaimer: The author of this article has smoked marijuana and voted yes on California Proposition 64 in 2016, which legalized recreational marijuana in the state.