HELENA, Mont. — Recreational marijuana initiatives passed in four states this year, from liberal New Jersey to conservative Montana and South Dakota. The results prove how broadly accepted marijuana has become throughout the country and across party lines.
Fifteen states have now broadly legalized it, while 36 states allow medical marijuana.
In South Dakota and Montana — where Republicans swept to victory in the key races — recreational marijuana passed with at least 16 percentage points more support than Democrat Joe Biden received. South Dakota also approved medical “pot,” which outpolled Biden by 34 percentage points.
Voters in Mississippi overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana this month, giving the drug another foothold in the South.
“We’ve waged a war against this plant for a century, and by any reasonable metric, that war has been an abject failure,” said Matthew Schweich, deputy director of the Marijuana Policy Project, which favors legalization. “All it’s done is…