This November the voters of Washington state will likely have a chance to vote to legalize marijuana in the state. The marijuana legalization initiative, I-502, has been certified by the Secretary of State’s office. It was determined that New Approach Washington, the campaign behind the initiative, had turned in enough valid signatures for the initiative to advance. From the Washington Secretary of State twitter account:

I-502 is an initiative to the legislature. This means now that the initiative has been certified it will go to the state legislature. The legislature can do one of three things with the initiative.

  • It can pass the initiative and it would directly become law.
  • It can approve an alternative. In that case both the original initiative and the legislature’s alternative would appear on the general election ballot.
  • It could do nothing and as a result the initiative would go on the general election ballot for voters to decide.

In this case the third option seems to be the most probable outcome. Most likely the legislature won’t pass the measure or create an alternative and as a result the initiative will be on the general election ballot.

Marijuana legalization should be on the ballot in Washington State this November.