Legal marijuana, psychedelic drugs, gambling unpopular with voters • Biblical Recorder

BOSTON (BP) — All state ballot initiatives to legalize illicit drug use in the U.S. failed Nov. 5, and most gambling measures were also unpopular.

But Nebraska approved the use of medical marijuana, and Missouri — the only state with a ballot initiative to legalize and regulate sports betting — approved that measure.

In New York, a broad Equal Rights Amendment promoted by Planned Parenthood and others as a protection for abortion, was approved by more than three-fifths of voters.

New York’s Proposal 1 enshrined in the state constitution an amended Equal Rights Amendment providing that people cannot be denied rights based on their “ethnicity, national origin, age, and disability” or “sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.” The measure passed with 61.5% of the vote, approved by 4.3 million voters. Only 38% of voters, or 2,686,909, opposed the measure.

Aside from several abortion initiatives, voters weighed in on a variety of ballot measures pertinent to topics Southern Baptists have addressed in resolutions and statements of belief, including biblical marriage, slavery and euthanasia. Other pertinent initiatives addressed gender-based pronouns and the use of public funding for private schools, which could include religious institutions.

Hannah Daniel, director of policy of the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), said the election results show Americans “continue to be divided on important moral and cultural issues such as biblical marriage, marijuana and gambling.”

But she exhorted morality amid the division.

“While we are encouraged that many states rejected harmful ballot initiatives on these topics,” Daniel told Baptist Press, “we must strengthen our efforts in our homes, churches and nation to form the hearts and minds of Americans.”

Massachusetts weighed heaviest against a ballot item to legalize illicit drug use in defeating Question 4, an initiative that would have allowed adults at least 21 years old to “to grow, possess, and use certain natural psychedelic substances” that are found in mushrooms (psilocybin and psilocyn) and three substances found in plants (dimethyltryptamine, mescaline and ibogaine).

Voters rejected the measure 56.98% (1,836,899 votes) to 43. 02% (1,386,697), with 95% of the vote tabulated, the Associated Press reported.

Both of the Dakotas rejected recreational and personal use of marijuana, with North Dakota rejecting its legalization 52.55% (190,189 votes) to 47.45% (171,747 votes); and South Dakota rejecting a similar measure by an even wider margin, 56.13% (220,823 votes) to 43.87% (172,564), according to AP.

In Florida, a state that requires a supermajority of 60% for its ballot measure, the move to legalize recreational marijuana failed with 55.88% of voters in favor (5,934,139) and 44.12% opposed (4,685,443), falling short of the 60% requirement.

Nebraska’s approval of medical marijuana garnered 70.74% of the vote (614,236), with only 29.26% opposed, or 254,079 voters, with 99% of the vote counted, the AP said.

The Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act allows certain patients at least 18 years old to possess up to five ounces of marijuana for medical use, with a recommendation from a healthcare provider, and those under 18 to use medical marijuana with parental consent.

Concurrently, Nebraska established a regulatory commission for the new law.

In Oregon, where recreational marijuana is already legal, voters approved a new regulation for cannabis businesses, requiring them to submit to the state Liquor and Cannabis Commission a signed labor peace agreement between the business and a labor organization with its licensure or renewal application. That measure passed 55.23% (881,286 voters), to 44.77% (714,350).

Gambling related initiatives

Missouri voters narrowly approved Amendment 2 by a margin of fewer than 5,000 votes, with 95% of the vote reported, establishing and regulating sports wagering with 50.07% of the vote (1,468,306), compared to 49.93% (1,463,940) who opposed the measure.

But a move to expand gambling boat licenses in the state failed. Amendment 5, to allow the Missouri Gaming Commission to issue one additional gambling boat license to operate on the portion of the Osage River from the Missouri River to the Bagnell Dam, failed by a vote of 1,510,697 (52.40%) to 1,372,413 (47.60).

Similarly in Arkansas, voters repealed the authorization for a casino license in Pope County and will begin requiring voter approval for any new casino licenses. With 71% of the vote in, the measure passed by 55.78% (631,417), with 44.22% opposed (500,464).

Biblical marriage-related initiatives

Colorado, Hawaii and California amended their state constitutions to allow same-sex marriage in line with national law.

Colorado’s Amendment J, approved by 63.78% to 36.22%, removes a statement from the constitution that declared only a union between “one man and one woman” could be recognized as a marriage in the state.

Similarly, Hawaii removed a provision from its constitution that gave the state legislature the right to “reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples.” The measure was approved by 56.22% of voters, with 43.78% opposed.

California established the right to marry by passing Proposition 3, concurrently repealing Proposition 8, a 2008 measure that had defined marriage in the state constitution as a union between a man and a woman.

California’s Proposition 3 passed with 61.15% of the vote, with 38.85% opposed.

In other ballot measures:

• West Virginia’s Amendment 1, approved by 50.44% of voters (336,039) outlaws “the practice of medically assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing of a person.” The measure narrowly passed, with 49.56% opposed, or 330,236 voters.
• Kentuckians rejected the use of public funding for private education, which could have included religious schools, defeating the measure with 64.76% of the vote (1,298,333), with 35.24% in favor (706,591), the AP reported, based on 97% of the vote.
• In Nevada, voters removed language from the Nevada Constitution that allows the use of slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishments. The measure passed with 60.15% of the vote, or 718,676 in favor, with 39.85% opposed, 476,226.
• And in South Dakota, voters refused to change male pronouns in the state constitution to gender-neutral terms or titles, rejecting the change by a vote of 233,272 or 58.2% of the vote, to 167,783 votes, or 41.8%. The measure was termed Constitutional Amendment E.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)