It looks like the pot legalization movement will be coming to California next, in the form of a 2016 statewide ballot measure.
While some pro-marijuana organizations have already begun the fundraising necessary to place an initiative on the 2016 ballot, polls increasingly indicate that Californians, and the rest of the nation, are ready for legal weed, reports the Orange County Register.
“Polls show public support growing in the state and nation, and advocates have repeatedly proven much better at fundraising than their foes. With momentum on their side, proponents are targeting California and four other states in the next election cycle.
In 2010, Californians rejected Proposition 19, which would have legalized pot
But “people’s attitudes are changing and it’s happening much more quickly than we would have thought five years ago,” said Corey Cook, a political scientist at the University of San Francisco.
Cook made comparisons between pot legalization and gay marriage. He pointed out that Proposition 8 passed in a close election in 2008, only to precipitate a wholesale shift in attitudes on gay marriage. The measure was eventually overturned by the state Supreme Court.
In 1996, California became the first state in the nation to legalize marijuana for medicinal use under Proposition 215. Since then, several ballot initiatives that would have fully legalized marijuana for recreational use have failed in the state, while four other states–Colorado, Washington, Alaska, and Oregon–have passed measures legalizing the drug for recreational purposes.