Pot On The Ballot In 2016

Pot’s on the ballot across the country next month. Five states may vote full legalization. Four more consider medical marijuana. We’ll look at what it means if more of the country goes the Colorado Way.

Big decisions next month in many states on the future of marijuana use and the law. Nine states have ballot initiatives that would relax laws against pot. Four would support medical marijuana. Five – in California, Nevada, Arizona, Massachusetts and Maine – would straight-up legalize it for recreational use. Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska — D.C., too — are already there. But this is a big wave of state-level votes. This hour On Point, pot, the ballot box, and the arguments being made right now. — Tom Ashbrook

Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post reporter covering politics, drug policy and data. (@_cingraham)

Alicia Wallace, reporter at the Cannabist, a product of the Denver Post covering marijuana business and policy. (@aliciawallace)

Kevin Sabet, co-founder of "Smart Approaches to Marijuana," an anti-pot legalization group. (@KevinSabet)

Mason Tvert, director of communications at the Marijuana Policy Project. Co-directed the 2012 ballot imitative in Colorado legalizing recreational marijuana. Co-author of "Marijuana is Safer." (@MasonTvert)

Washington Post: Marijuana legalization is leading in every state where it’s on the ballot this November — "Marijuana advocates are heading into the final weeks of the 2016 campaign with the wind at their backs as the latest polling shows legalization measures currently favored by voters in all five states where they're on the ballot."

The Cannabist: U.S. drug czar: The feds have dragged their feet on pot research -- "'I do think it’s a somewhat fair criticism that the government hasn’t fully supported research to really investigate what’s the potential therapeutic value,' Botticelli says. 'And I think the administration, the (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) and others have done a number of things to continue to promote good scientific research and diminish some of the barriers that we’ve heard from the research community.'"

WBUR: Election Ballot Debate Series: Should Mass. Legalize Recreational Marijuana? — "According to the ballot language: 'A yes vote would allow persons 21 and older to possess, use, and transfer marijuana and products containing marijuana concentrate (including edible products) and to cultivate marijuana, all in limited amounts, and would provide for the regulation and taxation of commercial sale of marijuana and marijuana products.' Conversely: 'A no vote would make no change in current laws relative to marijuana.'"