Rising Support for Pot Legalization, Falling Support for Medical Marijuana?

Complicating the narrative of rising public support for marijuana reform, two initiatives that would have permitted medical use of the drug, a policy that consistently draws more approval in polls than full legalization, were defeated yesterday. South Dakota's Measure 13 received support from only 37 percent of voters—11 points lower than the share who voted for medical marijuana in 2006. Even more striking, Arizonans narrowly rejected Proposition 203, which lost by about one percentage point. The result is surprising because Arizona voters approved medical marijuana initiatives in 1996 and 1998. (The first measure was overturned by the state legislature, while the second never took effect because of a fatal drafting error.) Is it possible that the publicity generated by California's marijuana legalization initiative, which included coverage of widespread medical use in that state, worked against these measures?

I noted the Arizona and South Dakota initiatives last month.