Nov 8, 2012

A state ballot measure legalizing marijuana for recreational use passed Nov. 6 in both Colorado and Washington state, in what might be the biggest statement of the 2012 Election aside from President Obama’s re-election and same-sex marriage.

In Colorado, the new amendment would allow adults 21 and older to legally purchase one ounce of marijuana as soon as the end of the month, while in Washington voters approved the selling and taxing of small amounts of marijuana-related products to adults beginning Dec. 6. A similar initiative was rejected in Oregon.

Despite opposing the measure himself, Colorado’s governor John Hickenlooper released a statement Tuesday night saying that “This will be a complicated process, but we intend to follow through. That said, federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug so don’t break out the Cheetos or gold fish too quickly.” In a KUOW radio interview Nov. 7, Washington governor Chris Gregoire also expressed concern about federal reactions saying that “The jury is out on what happens. Meanwhile, my job as governor is to do what the people of the state of Washington have said they want done.”

The approved measures mark a historical point on the weed wars timeline and comes as a victory for marijuana advocates, regardless of the uphill battle both states will face with the federal government.

“Legalization initiatives in the more distant past had failed by large margins,” writes the Initiative & Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California in its Election 2012 report. “Legalization advocates hope that the experience of Colorado and Washington will demonstrate that decriminalization will not give rise to greater crime and addiction, and encourage other states to follow suit. The wild card in all of this is the position that will be taken by federal authorities because federal law prohibits possession of marijuana.”

States legalizing medical marijuana also increased this year. With new initiatives approved in 2012 (Massachusetts passing Question 3 on Nov. 6 which will take effect 2013), 18 states have now legalized the drug for medical use since California voters first approved Proposition 215 in 1996.

This isn’t the first time cannabis has burned up the news wires in 2012. Here’s a look back at pot in pictures from this year’s smoking headlines.

: November 8, 2012: Votes making Colorado and Washington the first U.S. states to legalize marijuana for recreational use could be short-lived victories for pot backers because the federal government will fight them, two former U.S. drug control officials said. In this May 25, 2012 file photo, cards supporting Amendment 64 are seen in campaign offices in Denver, Colorado. (Rick Wilking/Files/Reuters)

: November 8, 2012: U.S. Marines of Police Advisory Team Now Zad, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines Regimenta stand guard next to a guard post overlooking a flower and a marijuana garden at a police sub-station at Now Zad district in Helmand province, southwestern Afghanistan. (Erik De Castro/Reuters)

: November 7, 2012: The Obama administration is likely to take aim at measures approved by voters in Washington state and Colorado this week that allow recreational use of marijuana, in a showdown that could play out in a federal court challenge or street-level raids on pot stores, former U.S. officials said. In this April 20, 2012 file photo, a man exhales after smoking marijuana in a pipe at a pro-marijuana rally at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. (Rick Wilking/Files/Reuters)

: November 6, 2012: Colorado voters passed a ballot measure making their state the first to legalize possession and sales of marijuana for recreational use, putting the state at odds with federal law. In this January 27, 2012 file photo, medical marijuana is shown in a jar at The Joint Cooperative in Seattle, Washington. (Cliff DesPeaux/Files/Reuters)

: November 6, 2012: Packages containing marijuana with stickers of a cartoon illustration of Mexico’s patron saint Our Lady the Virgin of Guadalupe are seen during a presentation to the media in Tijuana. Mexico’s army put on display more than seven tonnes of marijuana, confiscated after following a tip-off, and 1500 grams of heroin that were found in the shoe soles of two passengers at the airport, according to local media. (Jorge Duenes/Reuters)

: November 1, 2012: Marijuana packages and other drugs are piled up before being incinerated at the 7th Military Zone on the outskirts of Monterrey. More than a ton of narcotics, including marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines and psychotropic pills were incinerated as part of the Nuevo Leon-Tamaulipas anti-drug operation, according to local media. (Daniel Beceriil/Reuters)

: November 1, 2012: Soldiers stand at attention as a pile of marijuana and other drugs is being incinerated at the 7th Military Zone on the outskirts of Monterrey. (Daniel Beceriil/Reuters)

: November 1, 2012: People sit inside a coffee shop in the center of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Coffee shops in the Dutch captial will remain open to tourists after its mayor, Eberhard van der Laan, decided that tourists will not be banned from the 220 coffee shops in Amsterdam where marijuana and hashish are openly sold and consumed. The decision came after the new government of the Netherlands stated that it would be up to local authorities to decide whether or not to impose a ban on cannabis. (Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

: November 1, 2012: Cannabis joints are being rolled, costing 10 Euros per gram, in a coffee shop in the center of Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

: November 1, 2012: Two grams of Silver Haze cannabis, costing 10 Euros per gram, lays on menu in a coffee shop in the center of Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

: October 18, 2012: A Japanese teenager waits in a holding cell before his trial at a court in Denpasar. An Indonesian court on October 18 sentenced a Japanese teenager to six months in jail after he was caught with a small amount of marijuana on the resort island of Bali. (Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP/Getty Images)

: October 17, 2012: A high school student and local officials throw bundles of marijuana into a fire at the police headquarters in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Police destroyed about 5.1 tons of marijuana after they were seized in raids during recent months in several Aceh areas, a police officer said on Wednesday. (Junaidi Hanafiah/Reuters)

: October 17, 2012: A police official sets fire to a package containing marijuana as hundreds of bundles of the drug go up in flames in Banda Aceh. (Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP/Getty Images)

: October 16, 2012: Fish and Game wardens search for illegal marijuana farms in the Sierra Foothills. From golden Sierra foothills to forested coastal mountains, an explosion of pseudo-legal medical marijuana farms has dramatically changed the state’s landscape over the past two years. (Lezlie Sterling/Sacramento Bee/MCT)

: October 16, 2012: Fish and Game wardens search for illegal marijuana farms in the Sierra Foothills. (Lezlie Sterling/Sacramento Bee/MCT)

: October 6, 2012: A woman smokes marijuana in a banana during the first world bicycle ride against drug trafficking and in favour of the legalization of self-cultivation of marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes in Medellin, Antioquia department, Colombia. (Raul Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images)

: October 6, 2012: A man smokes marijuana during the first world bicycle ride against drug trafficking and in favour of the legalization of self-cultivation of marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes in Medellin, Antioquia department, Colombia. (Raul Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images)

: October 6, 2012: A man smokes marijuana as he rides his bike during the first world bicycle ride against drug trafficking and in favour of the legalization of self-cultivation of marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes in Medellin, Antioquia department, Colombia. (Raul Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images)

: September 27, 2012: A Mexican soldier patrols the border area between the states of Jalisco and Nayarit in search of illegal fields of marijuana in Magdalena, Jalisco State, Mexico. (Hector Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images)

: September 27, 2012: A Mexican soldier finds a marijuana plantation amid a field of blue agave – the plant used for the production of tequila – in a field at El Llano, Hostotipaquillo, Jalisco State, Mexico. (Hector Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images)

: September 27, 2012: Mexican soldiers burn marijuana plants found amid a field of blue agave – the plant used for the production of tequila – in El Llano, Hostotipaquillo, Jalisco State, Mexico. Members of the Mexican military conducted an operation in the area where so far they have destroyed 40 hectares of marijuana plantations and burned more than 50 tons of plants. (Hector Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images)

: September 27, 2012: Mexican soldiers burn marijuana plants found amid a field of blue agave – the plant used for the production of tequila – in El Llano, Hostotipaquillo, Jalisco State, Mexico. (Hector Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images)

: September 26, 2012: Northwest Botanical Analysis in Seattle, Washington, is one of a handful of labs specializing in testing medical marijuana, providing quality control for an unregulated industry. (Steve Ringman/Seattle Times/MCT)

: September 26, 2012: A lab technician at Northwest Botanical Analysis in Seattle, Washington, uses a magnifier to measure methanol, which is used to test marijuana. (Steve Ringman/Seattle Times/MCT)

: September 25, 2012: Jim Johnston uses medical mariuana to treat pain but is against a proposed Washington state law allowing adults to possess up to one ounce of marijuana. Johnston says some provisions of the law would not be benificial and while a new law is needed, the proposed one is not it. (Dean J. Koepfler/Tacoma News Tribune/MCT)

: August 29, 2012: A marijuana plant is seen as officers of Baja California’s State Preventive Police (PEP) search for more plants near Hongo in the municipality of Tecate in Baja California, in this file photo. Residents in three U.S. states voted on Tuesday to decide on proposals to legalize marijuana for recreational use in a move that could spur a showdown with the federal government. (Jorge Duenes/Files/Reuters)

: August 14, 2012: Shown is a $10.00 packages of ‘Scooby Snax,’ which is reputed to be synthetic marijuana, which was just purchased at a BP gas station on Reisterstown Road just south of Belvedere Ave.. Despite a federal ban on synthetic drugs signed into law last month, Baltimore stores continue to sell synthetic marijuana and bath salts. (Gene Sweeney Jr./Baltimore Sun)

: July 30, 2012: Ricky tends to his indoor marijuana growing operation in an apartment in Southern California. Ricky formerly owned a medical marijuana dispensary but was forced back to the black market after a federal crackdown resulted in the closure of his business. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

: July 27, 2012: A bud of Maui Afghooey medical marijuana is displayed at the PureLife Alternative Wellness Center in this file photo in Los Angeles, California. Voters in three states — Colorado, Oregon and Washington — will be asked if recreational use of marijuana should be decriminalized. Three other states — Arkansas, Montana and Massachusetts — will vote on allowing its use for medicinal purposes. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)

: July 20, 2012: Jason David administers oral drops of a medical marijuana tincture that he says has greatly helped control the symptoms of his son Jayden’s severe epilepsy in Modesto, California. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

: June 17, 2012: Rialto police technician Noretta Barker carries a marijuana plant out of the house of Rodney King, who was found dead Sunday in Rialto, California. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

: May 24, 2012: A police officer and a dog stand guard near packages of marijuana seized in Cali, Columbia. Narcotics police seized eight tons of marijuana at checkpoints on roads in Valle del Cauca, authorities said. (Jaime Saldarriaga/Reuters)

: May 15, 2012: The early morning mist settles over the hills of Garberville, California, where many marijuana growers have been raising their annual crops for years. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

: May 15, 2012: Smoke billows around the head of longtime marijuana grower Anna who tokes on a joint while planting this year’s first garden of marijuana on a small terraced slope near her home in northern Mendocino, California. The medical pot boom is upending the old order of the Emerald Triangle on many fronts and has made it harder for growers like Anna and her husband Andrew, to make a profit. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

: May 10, 2012: Manoj Unni, 30, of 9318 Cross Timbers Court, was charged with possession of marijuana, possession with intent to distribute, possession of equipment to produce marijuana and drug manufacturing. The HCPD vice and narcotics division executed a search and seizure warrant at Unni’s residence yesterday. They located a substantial marijuana grow operation in the basement, including sophisticated growing equipment. Detectives found 341 plants yielding at full maturity approximately 170 pounds, worth $510,000. (Howard County Police)

: May 8, 2012: Tom Evans, a small time grower in northern Mendocino, California, is framed by some of his marijuana plants that rest in pots in the backyard of his small rented home. ‘It used to be a contest to see who could drive the oldest pick-up truck,’ Evans said. ‘There’s just been this huge influx of folks who have money on their mind, instead of love of the land.’ (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

: April 18, 2012: Plymouth Voyager minivan that was seized on the banks of the Rio Grande near McAllen, Texas with the help of a Predator B drone. In total, 1,140 pounds of marijuana valued at $900,000 was seized in the raid. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

: April 2, 2012: The current varieties of marijuana available for sale are seen written on a chalkboard at a medical marijuana center in Denver. With Colorado voters set in November to decide whether to defy the federal government and legalize marijuana for recreational use under state law, the enforcement division could play a key role in bringing a black market pot trade out of the shadows. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)

: April 2, 2012: Several varieties of marijuana buds are displayed for sale at a medical marijuana center in Denver in this file photo. Colorado voters passed a ballot measure on November 6, 2012 making their state the first to legalize possession and sales of marijuana for recreational use, putting the state at odds with federal law. (Rick Wilking/Files/Reuters)

: March 22, 2012: Children playing with toy guns walk past a vigil for Ramarley Graham in the Bronx borough New York City. Graham, 18, was shot in the chest by police officers in his grandmother’s bathroom after the officers entered the house without a warrent. Graham, was unarmed; he was attempting to flush a bag of marijuana down the toilet. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

: March 21, 2012: Master grower Wally trims a marijuana plant at a medical marijuana dispensary in Long Beach. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

: February 20, 2012: A Hindu ascetic, or Sadhu, smokes marijuana on a chillum outside the Bhavnath temple during the Mahashivratri festival in Junagadh district, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, India. Hindus across the country celebrate Mahashivratri, better known as the Lord Shiva’s wedding anniversary. (Amit Dave/Reuters)

Additional reporting by Stokely Baksh.

Marijuana 2012: Puffing, prescribing and prosecuting pot in print

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