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Which States Legalized Recreational Weed?

Throughout this election cycle, there's been buzz that marijuana legalization could reach a national tipping point on Nov. 8, with states legalizing recreational weed in the 2016 election. Before Tuesday, polls were showing that many Americans support legalization. In the past few years four states (and District of Columbia) fully legalized recreational weed, and a handful more had the issue on the ballot this year.

According to Forbes, Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada voted on whether or not they should decriminalize pot in their respective states. In the past, many worried about the stoner stigma attached to the plants. Now the country is seeing potential economic benefits to setting up dispensaries and taxing the purchases. According to the same Forbes piece, Colorado's legal marijuana industry is worth over one billion dollars, with shops hitting a record high in July, selling nearly 122.7 million dollars of medical and recreational cannabis — all of which is taxable.

So which states legalized recreational weed in the 2016 election? According to Washington Post , California, Massachusetts, and Nevada voted to decriminalize recreational marijuana. Arizona stopped the legislation, with 48 percent voting in support of it. California, the sixth-largest economy in the world, voted for the law, passing it with 55 percent of votes. Maine denied it with 51 percent of votes, and Massachusetts legalized it with 53 percent. Lastly, Nevada voted to keep it criminal with 51.2 percent of votes.

As you can see, it was an extremely tight race, where each state either won or lost it by a few points. While not all the states opted to pass the weed bill, a little bit more of America will be legally able to use marijuana.

Which they might have to after this election season.