BACKING IS HIGH –

Oct. 24, 2022 – Measures to legalize recreational marijuana are on the ballot in five states in next month’s election, including four red ones. If they pass, it will mean nearly half of all states will have legalized it.

Most of those states have legalized it via ballot initiative rather than through their legislators — a reflection of how touchy this issue remains for elected officials. At the same time, the response on the right to Biden’s move has been muted — even as Republicans pursue a tough-on-crime message in the 2022 elections. It mirrors same-sex marriage in that way: Conservatives perhaps recognize their side is increasingly on the losing side of an issue and decide to stop talking about it.

(Democrats have recently pushed for Congress to codify same-sex marriage, citing the Supreme Court’s overturning the right to an abortion and warning same-sex marriage could be next. While we don’t know whether Republicans will provide enough votes in the Senate, 47 House Republicans did vote for it, and the ones who oppose it have emphasized that they feel the bill is unnecessary — that the Supreme Court won’t actually overturn Obergefell — rather than that they oppose same-sex marriage.)

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