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23 States Legalized Marijuana: Why Not Make It Nationwide?

For years people have been continuously fighting the legalization of Marijuana. Yesterday, was a huge step for weed lovers, voters in Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C. voted to approve sweeping in pro-marijuana legalization.

The three wins have pro-legalization activists very excited and many of them are already looking forward to 2016. This is when ballot initiatives in states like California, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada and Arizona will be given to voters.

In Oregon, personal possession is legal, also, the manufacture and sale of marijuana for people who are 21+. The law is similar to those in Washington State and Colorado. Oregon also plans on creating a commercial regulatory system for the production, distribution and sale of marijuana.

Along with Oregon’s laws, Alaska has very similar laws as well. Washington on the other hand, allows for people 21+ to posses up to two ounces for personal use and also grow up to six cannabis plants in their home. The law also allows people to transfer up to one ounce of marijuana to another person, but they are not allowed to sell it.

The pro-marijuana activists indicated that the victories on Tuesday were “huge”.

“It’s always an uphill battle to win a marijuana legalization initiative in a year like this, when young people are so much less likely to vote, which makes today’s victory all the sweeter,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance as he spoke about Oregon.

“The pace of reform is accelerating, other states are sure to follow, and even congress is poised to wake from its slumber,” he added.

The wins in Washington D.C. have given marijuana activists hope for federal recognition.

“With marijuana legal in the federal government’s backyard, it’s going to be increasingly difficult for national politicians to continue ignoring the growing majority of voters who want to end prohibition,” said Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority.

Along with the good news, there were also some negative outcomes. Voters in Florida neglected medical marijuana earlier in the night.

If it were to pass in Florida, it would have legalized the use of medical marijuana and it also would have tasked the state’s Department of Health with regulating it. Because of the fact that the measure would have altered Florida’s constitution, they needed 60% of voters to agree, yet only 57% said yes, 43% said no and this left only 91% of voters reporting.

As of lately marijuana has been a continuous issue in the United States. Statistics show that in 2013 more Americans supported the legalization than those who opposed it. Yet 14 years prior to that people who opposed to it had over a 2-to-1 advantage.

A 2014 Pew Research poll found that 54% of Americans support making marijuana legal.

Ever since Colorado and Washington allowed the scale of legalized marijuana in 2014, the push for more marijuana legalization has become a nationwide effort.

What do you think about this? Should we just make it legal nationwide? With 24 states already supporting the legalization of Marijuana it would make sense right? What is your opinion? Are there more positive or more negative outcomes to this legalization?

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