IF EVEN UTAH HAS GONE SOFT ON POT, CAN THE NATION BE FAR BEHIND?.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: DRUGS

TALKING TO ROLL CALL in October, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) described Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's dismay upon hearing that Utah voters seemed ready to approve medical marijuana. "McConnell looks at me, and he goes, 'Utah?'" Gardner recalled. "Just this terrified look. And as he says that, [Republican Utah Sen.] Orrin Hatch walks up, and Mitch looks at Orrin and says, 'Orrin, is Utah really going to legalize marijuana?' And Orrin Hatch folds his hands, looks down at his feet, and says, 'First tea, then coffee, and now this.'"

Utah's medical marijuana initiative won by six points on November 6, notwithstanding vocal opposition from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Voters were even more enthusiastic in Missouri, where a measure legalizing medical use won by a margin of nearly 2-1. Counting Oklahoma, where a similar initiative passed in June by a 14-point margin, three red states approved medical marijuana in 2018, while Michigan became the first Midwestern state to legalize recreational use.

By the end of 2018, medical marijuana had been legalized in 33 states, 10 of which also now let adults use cannabis without a doctor's note. Nearly a quarter of the U.S. population lives in a jurisdiction where recreational use is legal. Yet marijuana is still prohibited in any form for any purpose under federal law, something that could change now that Democrats have a majority in the House of Representatives.

THE RESPECT STATE Marijuana Laws Act, a bill first introduced by now-former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) in 2013, would have made the federal ban inapplicable to "any person acting in compliance with State laws." The most recent version of the bill attracted 46 co-sponsors, 70 percent of whom were Democrats. It never got a hearing.

"While members of Congress in both major parties have become increasingly supportive of good marijuana legislation," Marijuana Policy Project co-founder Rob Kampia wrote on his blog the day after the elections, "approximately 90% of Democrats--and only 25% of Republicans-support such legislation generally." When it comes to marijuana reform, Kampia said, "the Democratic takeover of the U.S. House was the most important outcome" of the 2018 elections.

Assuming that the new House leadership lets something like Rohrabacher's bill advance, a coalition of reform-friendly Democrats and federalism-friendly Republicans should be able to pass it. While that prospect may seem more remote in the...