Welp, so much for that.
In a ballot initiative across the entire state of Oklahoma, voters decisively voted against recreational marijuana.
With 95% of the vote in, 61.7% voted no, and 38.3% voted yes. This is surprising for a state that has really embraced its medicinal marijuana market, with over 400 dispensaries dispersed across the state.
There could be a few reasons for the rejection. For one, elections get way less of a turnout when there aren’t any flashy candidates at the top of the ballot. This isn’t even a midterm election, and the turnout was a third of what it was during the 2020 election (500,000 votes compared to 1.5 million).
Also, Oklahoma may not be ready for a full embrace of marijuana. It’s still a very red state, and we’ve seen in polls how republicans generally favor marijuana for medicinal purposes but when it comes to sweeping legalization, many aren’t ready to make the move.
The discussion isn’t going away any time soon, so we’ll see how it fares when it gets back on the ballot, hopefully in time for the presidential election next year.
Read the original article at New York Times.
