ELECTION 2015 - On State Ballots

"From legal pot to Airbnb limits, 2015 election offers test cases to watch" PBS NewsHour 11/3/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  On this Election Day, a handful of states voted to elect state and local leaders and decide a number of ballot measures, from the legalization of marijuana to the expansion of LGBT protections.  Judy Woodruff gets a rundown of the contests from Reid Wilson of Morning Consult.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  The presidential election may still be a year away, but a handful of states voted today to elect state and local leaders and decide on a number of important ballot measures.  Issues ranged from the legalization of marijuana to the expansion of LGBT protections.

For a look at the big races and voter initiatives around the country, we are joined by Reid Wilson of the Web site and newsletter Morning Consult.

So, welcome, Reid Wilson.

Let’s start out talking about some of these major ballot measures around the country, Ohio looking at legalizing marijuana, but in a limited way.  Tell us about that one.

REID WILSON, Morning Consult:  Ohio would become fifth state along with the District of Columbia to legalize marijuana for recreational use, but there is a little twist here.

As states create new laws about marijuana, they have to come up with new regulatory structures.  Nobody has ever regulated marijuana, because it’s always simply been illegal.  So what Ohio is thinking of doing is allowing 10 groups, 10 businesses to control production for the first four years or so.

It seems a way to sort of control what makes it to the market and to sort of demand some quality.  However, there are a lot of people who are worried that they’re essentially handing over monopoly control of a major industry — and it is a major industry — there are millions at stake here — to just a small handful of people, including some very wealthy investors.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  So, if this passed, it would set a precedent. It would be different.

REID WILSON:  Well, every state that has legalized marijuana has done so in a slightly different way.  Washington State regulates it like alcohol.  Colorado regulates it in a sort of slightly different way that allows sellers to grow their own marijuana.

Everybody is sort of trying to figure out what’s right, what is the right way to do these things.  The big question is, what is going to come on the ballot in 2016?  There are at least 17 states that are considering some kind of marijuana legislation or ballot initiatives, including 10 alone in the state of California.