During the 2016 general election, nine states had ballot initiatives for to loosen their marijuana laws. Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada voted on legalization. Arkansas, Florida, and Montana voted on medical marijuana, and North Dakota voted on expanding their medical program. Eight out of nine measures were passed by voters in those states, Arizona being the only one to fail.
After hearing that marijuana got more votes than either presidential candidate (in the states where it was on the ballot), I wanted to quickly double check the numbers. Sure enough, in these nine states, Cannabis had over 18 million votes cast, Trump had over 11 million votes cast, and Clinton had over 14 million votes.
If there’s any mandate in this election, it’s to loosen the cannabis laws.
| State | Cannabis | Trump | Clinton |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | 978,433 | 1,017,166 | 933,655 |
| Arkansas* | 581,259 | 677,904 | 378,729 |
| California | 5,058,404 | 3,021,095 | 5,589,936 |
| Florida* | 6,496,157 | 4,605,515 | 4,485,745 |
| Maine | 756,576 | 334,838 | 354,873 |
| Massachusetts | 3,491,890 | 1,083,069 | 1,964,768 |
| Montana* | 284,531 | 274,120 | 174,521 |
| Nevada | 602,400 | 511,319 | 537,753 |
| North Dakota* | 215,239 | 216,133 | 93,526 |
| TOTALS | 18,464,889 | 11,741,159 | 14,513,506 |
* Medical Marijuana
http://www.politico.com/2016-election/results/map/ballot-measures