What to expect as you anticipate cannabis legalization in the midterms on Tuesday

Through Maureen Meihan

Voters in five mostly red states will vote Tuesday on whether or not to legalize cannabis for adult use: Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota. And despite their conservative leanings, there’s a good chance most of them could say yes to cannabis, underscoring the growing bipartisan support for legalization.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke put it best at SXSW 2022: “I’ll tell you a secret: Republicans love to get high just as much as Democrats do.” Of course, if O’Rourke is elected governor of Texas, he’ll say that he will legalize weed in the blink of an eye to join “most of the country, most of the free world.”

Of course, broad-based success isn’t guaranteed, but recent history has shown that cannabis legalization has had significant electoral gains.

Photo by JGI/Jamie Grill/Getty Images

Legal cannabis is on the rise and the sky hasn’t fallen

If adult cannabis legalization is indeed passed in these five states, the number of fully legal cannabis states could increase from 19 to 24, not counting DC and two US territories, and this could strengthen the case for legalizing cannabis at the federal level . Another 18 states and one US territory have legal medical marijuana programs. That’s a pretty wide swath of the United States with legal weed in one form or another, and luckily the sky hasn’t fallen.

RELATED: How Many States Will Legalize Cannabis On Election Night?

All of this raises an important question: Why hasn’t the President, who needs every ounce of support he can get, legalized the use and possession of cannabis nationwide? Notwithstanding the President’s pardon for simple federal cannabis infractions last month, a full federal decriminalization and general wipeout would do wonders for the country, the economy, the appallingly overcrowded prisons, not to mention the ratings of the current Oval Office resident and his party. Finally, national polls suggest that most Americans think marijuana should be legal in some form, as is cannabis banking.

In addition to these five states that will vote to legalize cannabis, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin will vote on local cannabis-related voting issues, and Colorado will vote on whether or not to legalize psychedelics.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.