There are already 20+ marijuana-related ballot initiatives planned for 2016

(Image credit: David McNew/Getty Images)

last updated 27 July 2015

Whatever happens with the presidential election, 2016 is shaping up to be a banner year for marijuana legalization — which, incidentally, happens to be more popular than any presidential candidate in national match-up polls.

At least 20 ballot initiative efforts in eight states are already enjoying considerable attention in their push for medical and/or recreational pot use and growing rights. California alone is home to nine proposed initiatives, which suggest reforms ranging from unlimited legal possession to permitting a 500-square-foot garden to adding an $8 per ounce tax to newly legal pot sales.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.