EXPLAINER: Which states put marijuana on the ballot in 2022?

FILE - An employee at the Good Leaf Dispensary measures out marijuana for a customer on the reservation Mohawks call Akwesasne, on March 14, 2022, in St. Regis, N.Y. Pot is a popular topic on ballots again this November election. Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota have measures on their ballots to amend their constitutions and legalize recreational marijuana for those 21 and older. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) FILE - An employee at the Good Leaf Dispensary measures out marijuana for a customer on the reservation Mohawks call Akwesasne, on March 14, 2022, in St. Regis, N.Y. Pot is a popular topic on ballots again this November election. Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota have measures on their ballots to amend their constitutions and legalize recreational marijuana for those 21 and older. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

By MIKE CATALINI / Associated Press October 25, 2022 3 min read

Recreational marijuana could be legal in half the country if the handful of states with cannabis measures on ballots this November pass them.

Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota have measures on their ballots this fall for voters to consider legalizing recreational marijuana. They would join 19 states and the District of Columbia with recreational cannabis.

A decade since Colorado and Washington approved recreational cannabis, prohibitions have fallen across the country: in big, populous states like California and New York and smaller rural ones like Maine and Vermont. States in the Deep South have not legalized marijuana for recreational use, for the most part, but many have enacted medical cannabis programs.

Here’s more on the states looking at legalizing recreational marijuana:

WHERE IS THE MARIJUANA MOVEMENT HEADED NEXT?