Which will be the first 5 states to legalize marijuana?

[greenforest32]

My prediction: California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and #5 is a toss up between Nevada and Massachusetts.

Which five do you think will be first?

[Zarn]

I don't know much about the popularity of the issue... but what about Montana? Are they strict or lax, when it comes to drugs?

NY could be up there, too. NJ?

[Sbane]

Definitely not NJ and probably not NY. MA is unlikely as well. The entire east is backwards on this issue really. MT, sure, but it is likely to be legalized first in Washington, then California and Oregon. Then Nevada and Colorado after that. Colorado, Montana, and then perhaps Wyoming. Though by the time you get to these last three states, NY, MA and VT might be ready to do it too. Overall I still think it will take a while longer, unlike Gay Marriage, which is coming very soon.

[Kevin]

Is Alaska a possibility? As it's a pretty libertarian place overall.

[Lief 🗽]

Republican-dominated states like Montana and Wyoming are not legalizing any drugs any time soon.

[Sbane]

Republican-dominated states like Montana and Wyoming are not legalizing any drugs any time soon.

Maybe not the legislature but what about the people? Did you know there's an AD (or was) that voted about 2-1 Republican against Brown and Boxer but only rejected legalization of Marijuana by about 5 points? Less than the state as a whole.

I doubt any legislature in any state, regardless of party, is going to be legalizing Marijuana.

[This user has not been convicted of 34 felonies]

California, Oregon, Alaska, Washington and Massachusetts.

[Napoleon]

This is easy.

CA WA OR CO NV, I'm thinking that is the order.

[© tweed]

might take a while to get to 5.  we will most likely get a serious attempt quite soon (within a few election cycles) but I'd expect a federal invasion and crackdown in response.  drug control is a fundamental part of the social order, not just domestically but globally, it's an easy issue to distort and scarecrow, so don't expect the law & order machine to roll over just because some CO proposition gets 56% on election day.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Oddly enough Nevada used to have some of the most draconian marijuana laws in the country until it was decriminalized relatively recently (I think around 2003 or so.), I believe it was the last state where possession of any amount was a felony.

[Napoleon]

Republican-dominated states like Montana and Wyoming are not legalizing any drugs any time soon.

Maybe not the legislature but what about the people? Did you know there's an AD (or was) that voted about 2-1 Republican against Brown and Boxer but only rejected legalization of Marijuana by about 5 points? Less than the state as a whole.

I doubt any legislature in any state, regardless of party, is going to be legalizing Marijuana.

Huntington Beach? Or where was it?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Was it in Dana Rohrabacher's district? He's one of my favorite House Republicans simply because his stance on this issue gives him some redeeming value, while most House Republicans have none whatsoever.

[Sbane]

Republican-dominated states like Montana and Wyoming are not legalizing any drugs any time soon.

Maybe not the legislature but what about the people? Did you know there's an AD (or was) that voted about 2-1 Republican against Brown and Boxer but only rejected legalization of Marijuana by about 5 points? Less than the state as a whole.

I doubt any legislature in any state, regardless of party, is going to be legalizing Marijuana.

Huntington Beach? Or where was it?

South OC and extreme northern SD County. Right by the ocean unsurprisingly.

Parts of Rohrabachers district voted similarly but the more inland areas and the Vietnamese areas didn't.

[bgwah]

Washington will probably vote on it next year. Polls show it competitive, and the state Democratic Party has endorsed an initiative to legalize it. Hopefully we'll be first!

[King]

California or Washington will be first.  Colorado is just waiting for someone to go first and will follow shortly behind.  Oregon and Alaska next.  It's going to be an all west coast movement for awhile.

The first east coast state will be Vermont before Massachusetts.  I think we will see legalization in every Western state except maybe Utah and Arizona before we see a Southern state even consider it.  The state that considers it will probably be North Carolina.

[Napoleon]

Was it in Dana Rohrabacher's district? He's one of my favorite House Republicans simply because his stance on this issue gives him some redeeming value, while most House Republicans have none whatsoever.

Yeah really it takes guts to stand up for marijuana legalization in either party but especially The Party.

[Username MechaRFK]

Republican-dominated states like Montana and Wyoming are not legalizing any drugs any time soon.

Just because they are Republican doesn't mean that the states will not legalize safe drugs such as marijuana anytime soon. In 20 years or so, I can see both states legalize the bong.

[The Mikado]

2-5 are going to be heavily influenced by who 1 is and how their legalization experiment goes, so too hard to say.

[cavalcade]

VT is really the only Eastern state in the mix.  NH will do it before MA, and probably won't get there until well after the West Coast.

CA, WA, OR, CO, and VT.  Can't really speak to the order however.

[Jacobtm]

Could it be legalized by a court, ie declare laws restricting its sale unconstitutional?

[Bacon King]

In addition to the states already mentioned, what about Hawaii? I don't know their drug laws but I can't imagine that they're too strict.

Could it be legalized by a court, ie declare laws restricting its sale unconstitutional?

On what constitutional grounds?

[Jacobtm]

Could it be legalized by a court, ie declare laws restricting its sale unconstitutional?

On what constitutional grounds?

''Alcohol prohibition required amending the Constitution, because this was not a power granted to the federal government. Hager asserts if this is true, then marijuana prohibition should likewise require a Constitutional amendment.''

''In her dissent in Gonzales v. Raich, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor argued that drug prohibition is an improper usurpation of the power to regulate interstate commerce, and the power to prohibit should be reserved by the states. In the same case, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a stronger dissent expressing a similar idea. Chief Justice William Rehnquist joined O'Connor's dissent.''

''It has been suggested that anti-drug laws do not achieve enough reasonable benefit to State interests to justify arbitrarily restricting basic individual liberties that are supposed to be guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. One proponent of this notion is attorney Warren Redlich.''

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_the_War_on_Drugs