Four states vote to legalize marijuana and Oregon decriminalizes hard drugs

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On election day New Jersey, Arizona, Montana, and South Dakota voted to legalize recreational marijuana. While Oregon voted to improve their state by decriminalizing hard drugs.

These four states will join the 44 states that allow medical and recreational marijuana use. This will only be for adults who are 21 years and older.

New Jersey did not decide on how many plants a resident can grow but the state sales tax of 6.625% will apply to recreational marijuana and local governments and may be able to enact an additional 2% sales tax. Further laws and regulations will be added once the state legislature and five-member Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) makes final decisions.

In Arizona, the passing of this law will also allow people to grow up to six cannabis plants. Sales of cannabis will become legal while incurring a 16 percent sales tax.

In Montana, residents will be able to grow up to four marijuana plants and four seedlings for personal use and the sales tax for marijuana will be 20 percent.

South Dakota, passed their Amendment A and Initiated Measure 26. This will permit residents to grow up to three cannabis plants if in an area that doesn’t have any licensed marijuana retailers. The marijuana sales tax will be 15 percent.

While four states went on to legalize marijuana, in a first in the nation, voters in Oregon passed a ballot that decriminalizes possession of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other hard drugs. Passing this law will now change how Oregon’s justice system treats those who are found with personal use amounts of hard drugs. Instead of going to trial and facing possible jail time, a person would have the option of paying a $100 fine or attending “addiction recovery centers” funded by millions of dollars of tax revenue from Oregon’s legalized and regulated marijuana industry.

The measure will be effective in 30 days but the punishments will not go into effect until February of 2021. The state is hoping that the initiatives will lead to significant reductions in racial and ethnic disparities in both convictions and arrests.