This is the Cater Daily podcast for Thursday, November 7th, 2024.

I'm Caleb Brown.

On state ballots across the country were proposals to legalize cannabis and psychedelics,

change labor laws, and change the process of voting itself.

Cato's Walter Olson runs through some of the outcomes.

Walter, where would you like to start in rounding up our state-level policy choices that voters made in the election of 2024?

Well, it's somewhat traditional to begin a libertarian ballot measure wound up on drugs.

Oh, I mean, I'm on the topic of drugs.

An important distinction to make at the upfront.

We are not on drugs except possibly caffeine.

Yeah.

And voters were not terribly friendly.

Now, in Florida, which is the big state, to consider legalizing recreational marijuana use, it actually did pass. The current vote is 56 to 44, but it needed 60%, I think. And so it's not going to become law. And in other states, both North Dakota and South Dakota turned it down. The win was for medical marijuana in Nebraska. And as far as I can

see in a list, that was the only win. There were psychedelics on the ballot in Massachusetts, and they lost 43 to 57

at latest count. So to some extent, this is a matter of more conservative states, like the

Dakota's not simply being in the same place as the more middle-of-the-road states, But it also, I think, may signify that there was

more opposition from NEM politicians. I certainly saw more opposition in the conservative press,

for example, than would have been the case a few years ago. You know, it's hard to read too much

into initiatives where there may not be a well-organized campaign. There may not be

any campaign at all, in some cases, for these ballot initiatives. But is there any other

substantial takeaway that we can put confidence in related to cannabis on the ballot?

Not that I know of. And as you say, it is very much open to quirks of particular states and to the

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