Marijuana legislation to move forward in Congress, while 3 of 4 states pass initiatives

This was the first election in our lifetimes where the federal results were more important than the state results, from the perspective of marijuana policy nationally.

The Democratic takeover of the U.S. House was the most important outcome, because the House speaker, committee chairs, and subcommittee chairs will all be Democrats for the first time since 2010, with a majority of Democrats populating literally all House committees and subcommittees.

While members of Congress in both major parties have become increasingly supportive of good marijuana legislation, approximately 90% of Democrats — and only 25% of Republicans — support such legislation generally.

My organization’s super PAC — the first marijuana super PAC in the nation — succeeded with the most important House race in the country. Congressman Pete Sessions (R-Dallas), the sphincter who has constipated all marijuana bills and amendments in the House in recent years, was defeated by Colin Allred (D), who supports ending marijuana prohibition.

But for our purposes, it didn’t matter whether Allred was good or bad. Rather, we needed Pete Sessions (no relation to Attorney General Jeff Sessions) to lose his chairmanship of the House Rules Committee. Thankfully, he’ll no longer even have a vote in the House!

As for statewide ballot initiatives, I was four-for-four with my predictions. (I’ve incorrectly predicted only two statewide marijuana initiatives since 2006.)

Most importantly, Michigan voters legalized marijuana for adult use, becoming the ninth state to do so. (Vermont’s law, which continues to prohibit marijuana sales to adults, doesn’t qualify as legalization.) But Michigan represents more than just another legalization box to check:

•  Michigan joins Colorado in having one of the two best legalization laws in the U.S. (For full disclosure, I coauthored both laws, so I’m perhaps biased.) In Michigan, marijuana sales will be taxed at 10% (plus 6% for all products) at the retail level, with no excise tax whatsoever at the wholesale level; this combined 16% tax is considered quite low. And the new law also permits “micro-businesses,” where wholesale cultivation and retail sales can both occur at the same location, similar to brew pubs.

•  The 57% majority vote for the Michigan initiative ties the 2016 California vote for first place among all statewide legalization votes ever. But unlike California, this Michigan victory occurred in a midterm election, which means it didn’t benefit from the youth (pro-marijuana) surge that presidential elections generate.

•  Michigan is the 10th most-populous state in the nation. And as the second-most populous of the nine legalization states, Michigan will soon have the second-largest market for marijuana sales.

• Illinois and Ohio — the sixth and seventh most-populous states — will now need to legalize marijuana, as both lie just across Michigan’s border. And J.B. Pritzker (D), who is vocally supportive of legalization, was just elected governor of Illinois; this is important, because Illinois doesn’t have a ballot-initiative process. As for Ohio, we’ll legalize marijuana via a ballot initiative there in Nov. 2020.

• Michigan voters just elected Gretchen Whitmer (D) as governor, defeating Bill Schuette (R) and four other candidates. Not only is Whitmer pro-legalization, but Schuette literally led the opposing campaign of the medical-marijuana initiative that Michigan voters passed in 2008.

As expected, North Dakota voters soundly defeated their legalization initiative. If there’s a lesson to be learned, the next legalization initiative in that state should be tightly drafted with a coalition of allies, and the initiative should be placed on a presidential-election ballot (probably in Nov. 2024).

As for medical marijuana, Utah voters passed a rock solid medical-marijuana initiative in what is literally the most conservative state in the country. The Utah legislature and governor will now implement the initiative in ways that will curtail but not gut it.

In Missouri, voters passed one of the three — yes, three — medical marijuana initiatives appearing on that ballot. And because the one that passed is a constitutional amendment, the Missouri legislature cannot disrupt the new law.

Almost everywhere you look, the news is good. The only bits of bad news weren’t even unexpected: Republicans will continue to control the U.S. Senate, and Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) and Gary Johnson (L-New Mexico) both lost their Senate races, unfortunately.

I’ll write a separate opinion piece that dissects the new composition of the relevant congressional committees that will take shape in January.