There are a number of highly charged political issues that have dominated the pre Republican debates, some of these emotional issues have cut across to the Democratic Party debate, but none of them have captured as much attention as the marijuana debate. Marijuana may not be among the biggest issues compared to the United States economy, immigration, foreign policy or social security but the greater public expects that it should feature in the next presidential elections.
Most of the affected public expected that this issue should feature in the debate so much as to lead to the eventual marijuana legalization. In the recent national polls conducted by Pew Research, Gallup and General Social Survey results released all indicate that a very slim figure of Americans have the same favorable view about marijuana, while other polls, independents make the suggestion that a very big number of Americans support marijuana legalization especially for medicinal use.
With all these said and given the scenario above, it should not come as a surprise that almost two dozen states have already legalized medicinal marijuana while four others have also allowed the use of marijuana for recreational use. As President Barack Obama has said in the recent past, when the residents of more states pass the marijuana legalization for recreational use it can go a long way in pushing Congress in the eventual direction of reforming marijuana federal laws.
As things stand currently, there are three potential states that could legalize marijuana for recreational use by 2016. Even though this issue is still being debated, when one goes by the number of collected signatures, of course this will not be the same when you go state by state but going by the percentage votes proposing for legalization, we will give you these three states that should have legalized recreational marijuana by 2016. As a disclaimer, just because we see these as potential states to legalize recreational marijuana this does not necessarily mean it will happen as we have stated. We are just trying to bring out potential factors that could point to the legalization of marijuana in these states and potential expansion of the industry in the near future.
Our first state being California, this state is the logical place to start especially given that it recently passed the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (popularly known as Proposition 215). This law allows the use of medical use of marijuana and was prescribed by medical practitioners in the first time ever.
Another state that has already passed marijuana legalization and is among the 23 states that have legalized medicinal marijuana is the state of Nevada which could be on the way to becoming the next recreational use state after next year’s elections. The marijuana movement is being spearheaded by the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol and already has the initiative on the ballot. This is what makes the Nevada issue more distinct from the other potential states. The group has already surpassed the required signatures by 100%.
