Five states in the United States decide whether to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, in votes that take place this Tuesday during the mid-term legislative elections.
Voters in Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota are called upon to weigh in on a series of reforms to state constitutions that would allow small amounts of cannabis to be possessed and sold by licensed businesses.
In all these states the use of marijuana for medical reasons is already allowed.
In North Dakota, voters already rejected the complete legalization of cannabis in 2018 and in its brother in the South a similar measure was already approved in 2020, which was annulled by the State Justice.
The decriminalization of marijuana use is one of the great bets of the Democratic Party at the national level, but, although at the local level there are also Republican representatives who support it, the majority of the conservatives in the Lower House have opposed the measure, which that has prevented progressives from implementing it.
The lack of progress in this area led US President Joe Biden to announce a series of executive orders last October to advance the decriminalization of cannabis use.
Among them, Biden granted a pardon to all those convicted at the federal level for possession of marijuana and encouraged state administrations to do the same at the state level.
He also ordered the Departments of Health and Justice to begin the process to review the classification of cannabis on the country’s list of controlled substances.
Currently, cannabis occupies level 1 together with drugs such as heroin or LSD, the most restrictive.
Despite its national ranking, recreational marijuana use is legal in 19 states and the nation’s capital, Washington, while medical use is legal in 37 states along with the capital.