As Weed Legalization Momentum Falters, Activists Look Elsewhere | Opinion

The defeat of three ballot measures to legalize recreational marijuana in this year's midterm elections demonstrates that many Americans have deep reservations about the legalization and commercialization of marijuana. Count President Joe Biden and soon-to-be majority leader Kevin McCarthy as two such citizens.

Most notably, South Dakotans voted against the legalization of recreational marijuana use in 2022––after voting for it in 2020. Many counties that previously favored it flipped to oppose it. For instance, Pennington County, the state's second largest county, flipped from 58.5 percent yes in 2020 to 50.1 percent no in 2022. Bob Burns, a professor at South Dakota State University, explained to ABC that "Since medical [marijuana] has been put in place we have a certain segment that is reconsidering their stance on recreational."

After rejecting legalization in 2018, North Dakotans again rebuffed the misguided campaign to legalize marijuana in 2022. The group advocating for legalization, New Approach North Dakota, was bankrolled almost entirely by out-of-state interest groups, such as the New Approach PAC, and the in-state medical marijuana industry.

With assistance from Governor Asa Hutchinson—former director of the Drug Enforcement Administration—and former vice president Mike Pence, Arkansans defeated legalization and quelled hopes that marijuana would make inroads in the South.

These outcomes should come as no surprise. In the decade since Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana in 2012, additional data and research have revealed the harms and unintended consequences of legalization, including higher rates of use, impaired driving, and use among pregnant women. Furthermore, it's not a coincidence that these defeats occurred in politically conservative states, where Republicans are less supportive of legalization. Gallup recently found that 64 percent of Republicans think the effects of marijuana on society are negative.

The defeat of these initiatives––which should be understood as a win for public health––reveals a new political reality. John Hudak of the Brookings Institution anticipates that legalization "is going to slow as you begin to run into more socially conservative states," adding that "there aren't as many blue states left to legalize." Matthew Schweich, deputy director of the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project, conceded that 2022 was "probably the worst election cycle for cannabis reform since the first ones passed in 2012."

As grassroots support for the legalization of marijuana dwindled, Schweich, who also served as the campaign manager for the legalization group in South Dakota, predicted that "the future of cannabis reform ballot initiatives is going to be 100 percent industry-funded." As our organization, Smart Approaches for Marijuana, has been warning for years, this was the inevitable endpoint of the marijuana legalization movement. It has always been about corporate profits, not public health or social equity.

Even so, recognizing that untapped profits and markets remain, the marijuana industry will continue to push for legalization. Pennsylvania and Minnesota, where Democrats gained control of state legislative houses, will likely find themselves at the forefront of fights over legalization in 2023 and 2024. Additionally, Oklahomans will be voting on a recreational marijuana ballot measure in March 2023. And there will surely be more ballot measure campaigns in 2024.

But for legalization advocates, marijuana is almost becoming passé. It's time for a new high.

As the momentum behind the legalization of marijuana fades, many activists are now shifting their sights toward the legalization of psychedelics.

This cycle, Colorado narrowly passed Proposition 122, a ballot measure that legalized the use of psychedelics. This comes two years after Oregon legalized psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and decriminalized all other drugs, including fentanyl and meth.

New Approach had to spend more than $4 million to push through the psychedelics ballot measure in Colorado. New Approach is the same group that funded the marijuana legalization campaign in North Dakota and others across the nation. Gloating over the win in Colorado, the executive director of New Approach said, "I think that we are at the beginning of a very hopeful period of expanding options for dealing with mental health," despite the American Psychiatric Association withholding its endorsement of psychedelics as a mental health treatment.

As the industry-backed effort to legalize marijuana finds itself in unwelcome territory, supporters of the drug legalization movement are going back to where it all began.

Ten years after Colorado became the first state to legalize marijuana, it legalized psychedelics. And it only took six years for Oregon to go from legalizing marijuana to legalizing psilocybin and passing a sloppy decriminalization measure that promised treatment but has delivered virtually none.

Because the industry can circumvent federal drug laws and the FDA approval process, voters will soon observe lavish positive campaigns around the legalization of drugs, including cocaine and heroin.

Don't say we didn't warn you.

Dr. Kevin Sabet is a former senior drug policy advisor to the Obama administration and currently serves as president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana. His latest book, Smokescreen: What the Marijuana Industry Doesn't Want You to Know, was published on April 20 by Simon & Schuster and is available everywhere books are sold.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.