Most Western States Now Have Medical Marijuana Laws November 10, 2004
News Summary
Following this month's election, nearly 75 percent of Western states have medical-marijuana laws, with Montana the most recent state to be added, the Associated Press reported Nov. 5.Activists and political scientists say it's easier to get medical-marijuana initiatives approved in Western states because they generally are in the forefront of social trends. Furthermore, people who live in the West tend to frown on dictating to others what they can and can't do.
"Westerners have a stronger belief in kind of individualism in the old-fashioned frontier sense," said Sven Steinmo, a University of Colorado political scientist and board member for the Center of the American West.
It's also easier to get medical-marijuana initiatives on the ballot in Western states; 11 of the 24 states that allow issues to be placed on the ballot by petition, thus bypassing the legislature, are in the West.
"Our politics in the West are much less constrained and it gives opportunities for initiatives like the death-with-dignity issue in Oregon or medicinal marijuana. You name it," said David Olson, a political scientist at the University of Washington.
This November, residents in Montana approved a medical-marijuana initiative, making it the 11th state in the country and the ninth Western state to permit marijuana use for medical purposes. In comparison, only two of the 37 states in other regions of the country have adopted such laws. They are Maine and Vermont.
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