This week's election results are a discouraging sign for drug policy reformers

The last time voters sent Donald Trump to the White House, I barely noticed on election night because I was so pleasantly surprised by the electoral success of marijuana reform. In 2016, voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada approved recreational legalization, while voters in Arkansas, Florida, Montana and North Dakota approved or expanded medical use. Two years later, Michigan joined the first list, while Missouri, Oklahoma and Utah joined the second.

In 2020, recreation initiatives won in Arizona, Montana and New Jersey; Mississippi voters approved marijuana as medicine; South Dakota voters approved both moves simultaneously; Voters in Washington, DC called on police to leave psychedelic users alone; and Oregon voters passed two landmark drug policy measures – one authorizing state-licensed “psilocybin service centers,” the other decriminalizing minor possession of all drugs. The 2022 midterm elections brought another important victory: Colorado voters approved a measure that decriminalized five naturally occurring psychedelic drugs.

This year's results look very different. Recreational marijuana legalization failed in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota, where a legal challenge killed the 2020 initiative. Nebraska voters overwhelmingly supported medical marijuana, but a pending legal challenge could prevent the policy from being implemented. A psychedelic initiative in Massachusetts similar to the one in Colorado saw a double-digit decline. And California voters overwhelmingly approved an initiative, Proposition 36, that would reinstate penalties for some drug crimes. This reinforces the message Oregon lawmakers sent when they repealed decriminalization earlier this year.

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 punitive mentality of the War on Drugs still appeals to many Americans, even in… blue states. But there are a few bright spots.

When California became the first state to approve marijuana in 1996, medical use of marijuana was so controversial that a Democratic administration threatened to punish doctors if they recommended cannabis to their patients. Today, medical marijuana is widely accepted even in deep red states.

Florida's legalization initiative fell short of the 60 percent threshold required for a constitutional amendment, but was still supported by 56 percent of voters, including the Republican who won the presidential election. In fact, the marijuana initiative proved just as popular as Trump in Florida, which is striking given the state's increasingly red political demographics. The appeal of legalization in Florida is consistent with national polling data that suggests Republicans are moving against marijuana prohibition despite the backlash represented by Gov. Ron DeSantis' olfactory opposition to allowing recreational marijuana.

According to Gallup, 70 percent of Americans — including 87 percent of Democrats, 70 percent of Independents and 55 percent of Republicans — believe marijuana should be legal. Medical use is legal in 38 states (not including Nebraska), 24 of which, where most of the U.S. population lives, also allow recreational use. For the first time ever, both major party presidential candidates this year were supporters of state or federal legalization.

Reformers inclined to optimism can also point to the election results in Dallas, where I live. Two-thirds of Dallas voters approved an initiative that would direct local police not to arrest people for marijuana possession offenses, which include mere possession of less than four ounces, unless the offenses are investigated Violent crime or discovered during a “high priority” investigation. Investigations into drug crimes. Except in these circumstances, the initiative also states: “Dallas police may not consider the odor of marijuana or hemp as probable cause for a search or seizure.”

Dallas voters are much more likely to be Democrats than voters in Texas in general. But the position that cannabis users should not be treated as criminals has bipartisan appeal, even as politicians and voters appear concerned about eliminating or reducing penalties for users of other drugs. Both Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R–Ohio), have repeatedly stated that people should not be arrested for marijuana use.

However, the findings from Massachusetts suggest that both Democrats and Republicans have reservations about eliminating criminal penalties for psychedelic users. Colorado's Psychedelic Initiative 2022 won by more than seven points, which is impressive given that registered Democrats have only a small lead over registered Republicans in that state. But in Massachusetts, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 3 to 1, a similar initiative lost by 14 points this week.

The Massachusetts initiative, like the Colorado initiative, would have allowed adults 21 and older to obtain limited amounts of psilocybin, psilocyn (another psychoactive ingredient in “magic mushrooms”), dimethyltryptamine (DMT, the active ingredient in ayahuasca), and ibogaine (a psychedelic). produce and possess obtained from the root bark of the Iboga tree) and mescaline (the active ingredient in peyote). The initiative would also have allowed people to support other adults in these activities and transfer amounts to them for personal use “without compensation.” Like Colorado's initiative, Massachusetts' measure would have allowed state-licensed businesses where adults could use the covered psychedelics under the supervision of trained “facilitators.”

Proponents of the measure “now recognize that the initiative’s dual goals may have created additional confusion among voters.” Benzinga Reports. It said a campaign spokesman “pointed out that the home-growing initiative's provisions may have turned off some voters.” But Colorado's initiative included the same basic elements. Perhaps voters in this Western nation, regardless of party, are more inclined to favor individual freedom over technocratic regulation.

Like the campaigns in Colorado and Oregon, the Massachusetts campaign, led by a group called Massachusetts for Mental Health Options (MMHO), emphasized the psychotherapeutic potential of psychedelics. “We look forward to working with lawmakers in the new session to continue advocating for access, hope and healing,” the MMHO spokesperson said Benzinga. “We will continue to fight to find new pathways for everyone struggling with their mental health.”

Just as the medical use of marijuana opened the door to broader legalization, this strategy could undermine the premises of the War on Drugs and pave the way to broader cognitive freedom. However, there is a rhetorical tension between the argument that supervised “treatment” should be available to people “struggling with their mental health” and the argument that adults should be free to use psychedelics independently for whatever reason Whatever reasons they seem sufficient. In retrospect, it makes sense that voters in Massachusetts, a state that doesn't even allow adults to use flavored tobacco or nicotine products, would rebel against the latter proposal.