Has America Reached a ‘Tipping Point’ on Marijuana Legalization?

What’s the story?

• “Has the U.S. reached the ‘tipping point’ in marijuana legalization?” that’s the question two professors are asking in a recent analysis in the Washington Post.
• The query is in reference to a CNN commentator who said a tipping point had been reached when voters in Oklahoma approved a ballot initiative last month to legalize medicinal marijuana— making it the 30th state to allow the use of cannabis for medical purposes.
• So: was it a tipping point?

The case for the tipping point

• Citing research on “policy diffusion,” Daniel J. Mallinson and A. Lee Hannah write in the Post that “as neighboring states, provinces, or countries adopt a policy, the pressure for adoption increases among lagging jurisdictions.”
• Canada legalized recreational marijuana on June 19.
• Public support for marijuana has grown from 25 percent in 1996 to 64 percent in 2018. Responding this shift in public opinion, “members of Congress have introduced several proposals to liberalize marijuana policy and passed a limit on the Department of Justice’s discretion in enforcing federal marijuana laws.”

The case against the tipping point

• Oklahoma voters approved medical marijuana directly, but “fewer and fewer of the remaining 20 states without any legal marijuana use have mechanisms for such direct referendums.” As a result, “it becomes less and less likely that those states will liberalize cannabis policy.”

Final analysis

“Whether Oklahoma’s new law is indeed a tipping point, changing public opinion and industry pressures seem to be pushing the federal government and the remaining states to make marijuana available for medical use—and probably, from there, recreational use as well.”

What do you think?

Do you support legalizing recreational pot? What about medicinal marijuana? Hit Take Action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: wildpixel / iStock)