Election Day 2024: Marijuana Developments

Election Day has come and gone in the US. While the majority of our collective country’s attention focused on the race to be the next President, there were certainly other aspects of the election to analyze. Given the focus of our blog, we’d like to highlight the various marijuana developments that occurred.

Florida

Florida placed Amendment 3 on the ballot for voters which would have legalized recreational marijuana. However, Amendment 3 did not receive the required 60% needed to pass (55.9% voted in favor of Amendment 3). Thus, recreational marijuana legalization in the Sunshine State remains elusive. Medical marijuana remains legal in the state.

North Dakota

Measure 5 would have legalized recreational use of marijuana. However, 52.54% of voters said no thanks to the initiative. Similar measures failed in prior elections in 2022 and 2018.

Nebraska

Nebraska had two separate initiatives up for voter approval.

Initiative 437—passed with 70.88% approval—adopted the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act.

Initiative 438—passed with 67.11% approval—creates the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Regulation Act, which establishes a medical cannabis commission to regulate medical marijuana. However, legal challenges have already been filed regarding the validity of signatures on the measures’ petitions.

Employers should continue to track these ongoing developments.

South Dakota

55.54% of voters in South Dakota denied recreational marijuana (yet again) by voting against Initiated Measure 29.

Massachusetts

Looking beyond marijuana, Massachusetts Question 4, the “Legalization and Regulation of Psychedelic Substances Initiative,” would have created a new Natural Psychedelic Substances Commission and Advisory Board and allowed for the possession and use of natural psychedelic substances. With a vote of 57.06%, Massachusetts voters declined to support Question 4.