Marijuana fared a lot better than Democrats did at the polls yesterday. Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C. passed recreational marijuana measures closely modeled on Colorado’s, and while a medical marijuana amendment failed in Florida, it still managed to collect 58 percent support. (Under Florida law, 60 percent was required for approval). But even as marijuana reformers across the country celebrate, could Colorado be facing a pot crackdown? That’s a very real possibility.
Conventional wisdom has suggested that marijuana initiatives struggle during non-presidential years, when younger voters often stay home and the electorate skews older. Witness the defeat of a legalization push in California circa 2010 but the passage of ones in Colorado and Washington in 2012. But this year’s results suggest that the perceived success of the Colorado-Washington experiment is producing enough momentum to overcome such a scenario.
Read more at the Denver Westword.
