Most of the results of the 2024 elections are in, and while a large majority of Americans support legalization, cannabis policy reform ballot initiatives received mixed results across the country.
In Nebraska, voters overwhelmingly approved companion medical cannabis ballot measures — Measure 437 and 438! Both measures received more than two-thirds majority. Nebraska is now the 39th state to legalize medical cannabis. However, prohibitionists filed suit to try to block the will of the voters from taking effect. A trial is underway and relief remains uncertain.
2024 marked the third attempt to take medical cannabis to the ballot in Nebraska. In 2020, advocates collected enough signatures to put a constitutional medical cannabis initiative on the ballot. Just three months before Election Day, the state Supreme Court issued a deeply flawed court ruling that prevented voters from deciding the issue. In 2022, families tried again. The 2022 effort, which was largely volunteer, came just a few thousand signatures away from meeting the required threshold to qualify.
In Texas, there were local measures to decriminalize cannabis in Dallas, Bastrop, and Lockhart, all of which passed. Meanwhile, voters in over 100 counties and cities in Kentucky passed local measures to allow medical cannabis businesses to operate in their jurisdiction.
Three states had measures that would have legalized cannabis for adults 21 and over on the ballot. Unfortunately, these measures came up short.
In Florida, just shy of six million Floridians voted in favor of Amendment 3, which would have ended cannabis prohibition in the Sunshine State. But after receiving 55.9% of the votes cast, it was short of the 60% needed for passage. The legislature continues to have the authority to improve cannabis policies, including incremental steps, such as decriminalization and/or allowing homegrow for medical patients. However, so far it has shown no appetite to do so.
Adult-use cannabis legalization also fell shy of passage in South Dakota. This comes after a long and hard-fought battle by South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, on a shoestring budget. MPP was proud to have its own Matthew Schweich serve as the leader and spokesperson on the ground in South Dakota.
South Dakota voters had approved an MPP-backed legalization measure in 2020, only to have the state Supreme Court outrageously throw out the measure based on a “single subject” ruling. That forced 2024’s Measure 29 to be extremely simple, and to lack many features of other legalization laws that can help build popular support. It simply included legal possession and cultivation, without any regulated sales or taxation.
In North Dakota, voters rejected Measure 5, a legalization ballot measure that would have allowed adults 21 and older to use cannabis at home without punishment – while also allowing possession of limited amounts of cannabis.
While these defeats are a major disappointment, several other states where voters ultimately legalized cannabis saw defeats before success, including Colorado, California, Alaska, Oregon, and Nevada.
With the mixed results of this election, it’s important to take stock of how far we’ve come. Twenty-four states have legalized cannabis for adults since 2012 — and six of those states have been added to the list in just the past two years. Support for cannabis policy reform has sky-rocketed over the last decade, with 68% of Americans now in favor of legalization. Additionally, both major party presidential candidates prominently featured the issue of legalization in their campaigns in an unprecedented manner this election season, and while Florida didn’t cross the 60% threshold needed for passage, it was the first time a majority of voters in a Southern state voted to legalize cannabis.
Our movement continues to advance with each election cycle, and we won’t stop fighting to end cannabis prohibition in every corner of the country.
