California next for pot proponents emboldened by election victories
Activists also hope to bring legal pot to Massachusetts, Maine and other states
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Marijuana advocates, fresh off victories for legal recreational pot in Oregon, Alaska and the nation’s capital, are already preparing for their next target, and it’s a big one: California. They are aiming to ask voters in the nation’s largest state to legalize marijuana for recreational use in 2016, hoping to draw on a more liberal and larger electorate during a presidential election to help them avoid a repeat of their 2010 failed pot measure. The 2014 ballots were considered by many to be the first real test of marijuana reform’s popularity since Washington state and Colorado passed the first legal pot laws in 2012. (See also: Marijuana legalization wave will hit California in 733 days, supporters say)