How To Run A Successful Legalization Campaign

 Talk about perfect timing!  Kenneth Leon and Ronald Weitzer’s article, Legalizing Recreational Marijuana:  Comparing Ballot Outcomes in Four States, is available through the Social Science Research Network.

 Here’s the abstract: 

 Medical marijuana is now available in 23 states, and its growing acceptance has paved the way for the legalization of recreational marijuana. This article examines four recent campaigns to legalize recreational marijuana – two failures and two successes. Using data from newspaper sources, interviews with key players, and other sources, we examine the factors that influence whether a ballot initiative succeeds or fails. We identify similarities and differences between the four measures, the social forces shaping the debate, their claims and counterclaims, and a set of factors that appear to increase the odds that a recreational marijuana ballot measure will be successful.

The factors are based on the successful Colorado and Washington campaigns and the unsuccessful Oregon and California campaigns. I don’t want to ruin the suspense created in the abstract by telling you the complete set of factors, but here’s one-“age distribution of voters.”