| Hey readers, This has been a truly wild week! While everyone was (understandably) mostly focused on who would win the presidency, Americans also voted on some notable ballot initiatives. Ballot initiatives ask voters to enact or reject laws themselves by asking how they feel about specific issues. The way some states run ballot initiatives is confusing; nevertheless, this is direct democracy in action. These initiatives tend to get neglected in the frenzy of election coverage, but they're important, so I want to take a moment to highlight some of the wins worth celebrating. Here's a snapshot (not an exhaustive list) of four issues that voters really showed up to fight for in multiple states across the country. 1) Drug policy reform Voters are very sick of America's war on drugs, and they showed it. They legalized marijuana for recreational purposes in New Jersey, Arizona, Montana, and South Dakota. They legalized medical marijuana in Mississippi and South Dakota. They decriminalized psychedelic plants in Washington, DC. They legalized psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) for therapeutic purposes in Oregon. In a first for any US state in the modern era, Oregon also decriminalized all drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Note that decriminalizing a drug doesn't make it legal to sell that drug; instead, it typically means that someone will get a fine, rather than criminal penalties like prison time, for possessing or using the drug. I'm excited about this reversal of the war on drugs because I think it'll reduce a lot of people's suffering. For one thing, the drug war has disproportionately harmed communities of color, with Black people much likelier to be arrested for possession than white people. Plus, research keeps showing that psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and MDMA (a.k.a. ecstasy) have therapeutic potential for people suffering from depression, PTSD, and other mental health issues. Just this week a new study out of Johns Hopkins showed that two doses of psilocybin, given with psychotherapy, relieved symptoms of major depression for at least a month. 2) Climate change One of the main reasons I've been biting my nails over this election is that I'm extremely worried about climate change, which the US can greatly help to reverse — or accelerate. So I was glad to see that Nevada voters approved a constitutional amendment that requires the state to get at least 50 percent of its electricity from clean sources by 2030. That's a big win. And over in Ohio, Columbus did them one better, voting to be powered by 100 percent renewable energy by 2023! Meanwhile, in Louisiana, voters weighed in on Amendment 5. Had it passed, it would have extended huge tax breaks for the oil and petrochemical industries. Thanks to grassroots organizing, voters put the kibosh on this. For more good news on the climate front, check out this Twitter thread by political scientist Leah Stokes. 3) Minimum wage Florida voted for Donald Trump. It also voted for an increase to the minimum wage — a position supported by Joe Biden but not Trump. As my colleague Emily Stewart wrote, this is probably an issue that Democrats should have highlighted more, because it appeals to a whole bunch of people. "Across the board, it is not necessarily a left or right issue. Voters across the aisle actually know that it is impossible in Florida and around the country [to] actually survive on $8.56 and what the current minimum wage is," Allynn Umel, national organizing director of the Fight for $15, said on a call with reporters Wednesday.
Like Floridians, voters in Portland, Maine, also passed a $15 minimum wage. Their ballot initiative additionally requires businesses to pay time and a half during a declared emergency such as the coronavirus pandemic. Assuming Portland's emergency declaration remains in effect, residents will have the highest minimum wage in the US next month: $18 an hour. 4) Data privacy Speaking of Portland, Maine: Residents there overwhelmingly voted through a first-of-its-kind ballot measure to strengthen their city-wide ban on facial recognition surveillance. They added a bunch of enforcement provisions, including a private right of action, which means that residents can sue city officials who violate the ban. Portland is among more than half a dozen cities that have moved to ban the AI technology, which disproportionately harms people of color, women, and LGBTQ people. Meanwhile, three other initiatives that passed — Proposition 2 in Michigan, Question 1 in Massachusetts, and Proposition 24 in California — aim to protect citizens' electronic data. The last one is actually somewhat questionable, but regardless, these results show that voters from coast to coast are interested in stepping up for measures they think will safeguard data privacy. —Sigal Samuel (@SigalSamuel) | 
No comments:
Post a Comment