She may have lost the presidential election to the star-of-our-current-surreality Donald J. Trump-just who to blame for that one remains to be seen, but would appear to depend on where you’re sitting- but as her storied political career comes to a close with one of the most stunning upsets in American history, it appears we can thank Hillary Clinton for legalizing marijuana.
In a twist that’s sure to make this year’s Thanksgiving table conversations even more pleasant, a share of the victory is also due to Millennials. Last week, California voters easily approved Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act. The passage was never seriously in doubt after polls revealed 60 percent support for legalization in general and the measure in particular.
Though the final result-56.2 percent for to 43.8 percent opposed, a margin of 1.2 million votes was closer than the polls predicted, California still delivered the widest margin of victory for adult-use cannabis to date. With 59 percent of Trump supporters opposing legalization, it was up to Democratic-leaning voters and the youth to make up the difference.
They did: 68 percent of Clinton supporters and 66 percent of voters aged 18 to 29 voted in favor of legalization, according to the University of Southern California/Los Angeles Times voter survey. Recall that California’s last shot at legalization came during the 2010 midterms and suffered a five-point defeat.
It certainly didn’t help that that effort, Prop. 19, had none of the financial and political support that Prop. 64 enjoyed, yet it’s also no coincidence that the legalization dominoes started falling with Washington and Colorado in 2012, with Barack Obama’s reelection on the table.
Though Hillary did pledge to reschedule cannabis to Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act should she be elected, neither she nor Trump did all that much to court the weed vote. Trump told a national police chiefs’ group that he’d leave the states alone then again, he said all kinds of things meaning, at least on marijuana, their stances were more similar than not.
Still, if Hillary voters had stayed home, California legalization would likely have lost. That would have been a major defeat for drug policy reform with worldwide reverberations, a setback even bigger – at least in proportion than Trump’s victory.
MAPH Enterprises, LLC | (305) 414-0128 | 1501 Venera Ave, Coral Gables, FL 33146 | new@marijuanastocks.com
