Activists read the midterms as a mandate for epic reforms in 2016

mid record-low voter turnout and disgust, Google searches for the word “marijuana” jumped 300 percent from November 3 through 6 this year, as folks tuned out beltway politics to focus on something truly historic. On November 4, legalization measures in Alaska, Oregon and Washington D.C. outperformed every poll leading up to the election and passed by 52 percent in Alaska, 55.9 percent in Oregon, and a whopping 68 percent in the District.

Cannabis law reformers are reading this year’s midterms as a mandate from voters to end prohibition in California, Arizona, Nevada, Maine, Massachusetts and more in 2016. Cannabis’ success proved all the more definitive amid the older, whiter voter turnout typical of midterms, which gave Republicans control of the U.S. Senate and the House. Medical cannabis carried 57 percent of the vote in highly conservative Florida, and only lost because 60 percent of the vote was needed to pass.

 Alaska and Oregon’s new rules on possession take effect in February and July, and licensed cannabis stores for adults 21 and over should be open by mid-to-late 2016. Congressional Republicans can override District legalization, but ranking party members said they have better things to do, the Washington Post reported. It’s not a Republican vs. Democrat issue anymore, said Taylor West, Deputy Director of the National Cannabis Industry Association. A 51 percent majority of Americans support ending cannabis prohibition, Gallup finds. Key champions for regulating cannabis remain on both sides of the aisle.

In 2015, the NCIA expects more lawmakers will be open to normalizing cannabis banking and taxation, West said. “The biggest hurdle hasn’t been marijuana, per se; it’s been lack of action on anything.” No one expects the feds to just end the war, which resulted in 638,000 cannabis arrests last year. The federal government will follow the states, “similar to what happened at the end of alcohol prohibition,” said Chris Lindsey, Legislative Analyst for Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).

At the state level, MPP gears up for initiatives in three western and two east coast battlegrounds. The Golden State’s effort will dwarf all the others, and faces the biggest hurdle—California’s 38 million-person population. MPP is part of a loose coalition including the Drug Policy Alliance, California NORML, the Prop 19 coalition—now called Reform CA, and many others. MPP filed with the Secretary of State in October to raise funds, and Reform CA director Dale Jones said success could cost $10 million in staff and advertising. A few billionaires and an army of tiny donors fund MPP, Lindsey said. Reform CA will also place donation boxes at dispensaries across the state, Jones said.

California reformers are buoyed by the passage of Prop 47—the Reduced Penalties for Some Crimes Initiative. Led by two lawmen from San Diego and San Francisco, Prop 47 turned felony possession of hash—and other similar substances—into a misdemeanor, and was opposed by the same group of cops, prosecutors and jail guards that sunk legalization in 2010.

Conservative, midterm voters rejected cops’ fear tactics, and Prop 47 passed with a massive 59 percent. Nevada has a much smaller population and will be an easier lift in 2016. In November, the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Nevada turned in more than 140,000 signatures to qualify a measure for 2016 ballot. Fifty-four percent of Nevadans would end prohibition if the tax revenue went to schools, recent polls report.

MPP and locals will also lobby sympathetic legislatures in states like Hawaii, Vermont, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Bills there are gaining more sponsors each year, and 59 percent of New Hampshire voters support legalization.

Medical cannabis also has more momentum than ever. Florida’s activists may have lost the race, but they went home with the majority. “It was an expected heartbreak,” Jones said. “But with that vote, the electorate gave very clear directions to lawmakers that, ‘you’d better do something different.’”

Illinois implements its MMJ program in 2015 and states with failing programs like New York and New Jersey will face more pressure than ever. Conservative southern and mid-western states will also enact more CBD-only legislation. Overall, West said reformers are sailing into 2015 and ’16 with historic tail winds.

“If people think it’s important for marijuana prohibition to end and want it to happen, they can’t think it’s going to happen by itself,” stated Ethan Nadelmann, Director of Drug Policy Alliance on CNN. “There needs to continue to be responsible advocacy.”