Among the many people nationally eyeing Colorado’s implementation of recreational marijuana is an Alaska education professor, a Portland, Or, businessman and a bevy of state lawmakers from Delaware to Hawaii who hope the time has come for a national pot movement, says the Denver Post. It seems that Colorado and Washington have made other states more comfortable with full pot legalization. Alaska is likely next up, with a number of other states apt to follow later this year.
Organizers in Anchorage announced this week they have collected 45,000 signatures from across the state — a number they think will satisfy the 30,169 valid signatures required to get on the August 2014 primary ballot there. This isn’t the first attempt at legalizing pot for Alaskans, who voted down a measure on the ballot in 2004. Oregon is trying again, too. Voters there put it on the ballot in 2012, but the measure failed. Portland medical clinic owner Paul Stanford blames the loss on the state not having the national money that flowed to Colorado and Washington last year ahead of their 2012 elections. “There is a shift in public perception,” Stanford said, noting that Oregon shares a state line with Washington. “Over half the population is within an hour’s drive of the Washington border. That changes the political dynamic.”