Despite 2024 Setbacks, Drug Policy Is Still on a Long-Term Trend Toward Reform
Recent election results show the drug war’s punitive mentality still appeals to many Americans, even in blue states.
In 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022, voters approved a raft of drug policy reforms. They included legalization of recreational marijuana in 11 states, authorization of medical use in eight, decriminalization of low-level drug possession in Oregon, approval of "psilocybin service centers" in the same state, and decriminalization of five naturally occurring psychedelics in Colorado.
The 2024 election results were a different story. Legalization of recreational marijuana lost in Florida, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Nebraska voters overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana, but a pending legal challenge may prevent implementation of that policy. A Massachusetts psychedelic initiative similar to Colorado's went down by a double-digit margin. And California voters resoundingly approved an initiative that increased penalties for several drug offenses, reinforcing the message that Oregon legislators sent when they overturned decriminalization in March 2024.
These disappointing developments suggest that the collapse of pot prohibition is slowing, that the road to broader pharmacological freedom will be bumpier than reformers hoped, and that the drug war's punitive mentality still appeals to many Americans, even in blue states. But the setbacks should not obscure the long-term trend toward less punishment and more tolerance.
When California became the first state to approve medical marijuana in 1996, the idea was so controversial that a Democratic administration threatened to punish doctors for recommending cannabis to their patients. Today medical marijuana is widely accepted even in many deep red states.
While Florida's legalization initiative fell short of the 60 percent threshold required for a constitutional amendment, it was favored by 56 percent of voters, including the Republican who won the presidential election. In fact, the marijuana initiative was just as popular in Florida as Donald Trump, despite the state's increasingly red political demographics. The appeal of legalization in Florida is consistent with national polling data indicating that Republicans, notwithstanding the backlash epitomized by Gov. Ron DeSantis' odor-focused opposition to recreational marijuana, are turning against pot prohibition.
According to Gallup, 70 percent of Americans—including 87 percent of Democrats, 70 percent of independents, and 55 percent of Republicans—think marijuana should be legal. Medical use is legal in 38 states (not including Nebraska), 24 of which also allow recreational use. For the first time ever, both major-party presidential candidates in 2024 supported state or federal legalization.
Reformers inclined toward optimism also could cite the election results in Dallas. Two-thirds of Dallas voters approved an initiative that instructs local police to refrain from arresting people for marijuana possession misdemeanors unless the offenses are discovered while investigating a violent felony or during a "high priority" drug felony investigation. Except in those circumstances, the initiative also says, "Dallas police shall not consider the odor of marijuana or hemp to constitute probable cause for any search or seizure."
Dallas voters are much more likely to be Democrats than Texas voters generally. But the position that cannabis consumers should not be treated as criminals has strong bipartisan appeal, even though politicians and voters seem to be having second thoughts about eliminating or reducing penalties for users of other drugs. Both Trump and his running mate said people should not be arrested for using marijuana.
The Massachusetts results nevertheless suggest that Democrats as well as Republicans have reservations about eliminating criminal penalties for psychedelic users. Colorado's 2022 psychedelic initiative won by more than seven points, which was impressive given that registered Democrats have just a small edge over registered Republicans in that state. But in Massachusetts, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 3–1, a similar initiative lost by 14 points two years later.
The Massachusetts initiative, like Colorado's, would have allowed adults 21 or older to produce and possess limited amounts of psilocybin, psilocyn, DMT, ibogaine, and mescaline. The initiative also would have let people assist other adults in those activities and transfer personal-use amounts to them "without remuneration." Also like Colorado's initiative, the Massachusetts measure would have authorized state-licensed businesses where adults could use the covered psychedelics under the supervision of trained "facilitators."
Like the campaigns in Colorado and Oregon, the Massachusetts campaign—spearheaded by a group called Massachusetts for Mental Health Options—emphasized the psychotherapeutic potential of psychedelics. But there was a rhetorical tension between the argument for supervised "treatment" and the argument that adults should be free to consume psychedelics independently. It makes sense that voters in Massachusetts, a state that does not even allow adults to use flavored tobacco or nicotine products, would rebel at the latter proposition.
This article originally appeared in print under the headline "Setbacks for Drug Policy Reform."
