A ballot measure to make recreational marijuana legal for adults was headed for approval in California, opening the most populous U.S. State to a burgeoning commercial cannabis market in a major victory for supporters of liberalised drug laws.
Proposition 64 appeared headed for decisive passage as State-wide returns in Tuesday's election showed nearly 56 per cent of voters favouring the measure and 44 per cent opposing, according to results reported from well over half of all precincts.
Approval in other StatesCalifornia was by far the largest of five States with ballot measures seeking to legalise the use of marijuana for the sheer pleasure of its intoxicating effects, and approval there would extend legalisation to the entire U.S. Pacific Coast.
Recreational marijuana was first approved in 2012 by Washington State and Colorado, and later by voters in Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia.
Victory also was declared on Tuesday by supporters of a similar measure in Massachusetts, giving legalised recreational pot its first toehold in New England.
The Marijuana Policy Project, the nation’s leading organisation supporting liberalisation of cannabis laws, likewise projected passage of measures permitting medical use of marijuana in Florida, Arkansas and North Dakota.
Before Tuesday, 25 States had already legalised cannabis in some way, whether for medical or recreational uses, or both.
California was the first U.S. State to legalise medical marijuana, doing so in 1996.
The new measure allows adults to possess and use up to an ounce of pot for private, recreational use.
Moreover, it would establish a system to license, regulate and tax sales of marijuana, while allowing city governments to exercise local control over commercial distribution within their borders. — Reuters
