With five states voting to legalize marijuana, we could see recreational marijuana become available to about a quarter of the nation by the end of this year. Right now in the United States about 17 million people have access to recreational marijuana. That number could double from California voters passing their recreational marijuana initiative alone.

These are the next five states to vote on cannabis legalization on the ballot:

Arizona

Arizona’s Proposition 205 initiative is sponsored by the Arizona Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol. If passed, the initiative would grant persons over the age of 21 the right to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and grow up to six plants within enclosed, locked spaces in their homes.

The initiative would create the Department of Marijuana License and Control. The Department would limit the number of marijuana retail shops to a tenth of the number of liquor store licenses, which was less than 180.

Proposition 205 would impose a 15% excise tax on retail sales, with 80% of revenue going towards schools. The other 20% would go to substance abuse education to help prevent or remedy any of the negative side effects that may arise from marijuana legalization.

Arizona has a medical cannabis program with 90,000 patients but recent polls showed the state was not in favor of legalization.

California

California’s Proposition 64 will be on the ballot. The initiative is called The Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA). It is sponsored by Yes on 64 and would permit anyone over 21 to possess up an ounce of marijuana and grow up to six plants much like the Arizona measure. Gifting of up to a quarter-ounce of marijuana will be allowed if the proposition passes.

The initiative would make California the first state to have “cannabis cafes” that allow on-site marijuana consumption, similar to the ones in Amsterdam. Marijuana commerce would be regulated by a new Bureau of Marijuana Control, which could replace the current Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation.

The measure would impose a 15% retail sales tax and a $9.25 per ounce cultivation tax paid for by wholesalers. It’s worth noting the initiative provides no employment protections for consumers of marijuana.

Recent polls illustrate that 60% of Californians support the legalization of marijuana.

Maine

The Marijuana Legalization Act or Question 1, sponsored by the Maine Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, will be on the November ballot. The initiative would allow people 21 and over to posses up to two and a half ounces of marijuana or six plants.

The Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry would regulate marijuana commerce, taxing retail marijuana at 10%.

The measure would also for “cannabis cafes” to be run similarly to bars, because you will need to be 21 to enter and guests will not be allowed to leave with their unfinished marijuana.

So far, campaign supporters have raised more funds than opponents of the initiative. Recent polling showed 55% of Maine is in favor of legalization.

Massachusetts

The Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act or Question 4, is a measure sponsored by the Massachusetts Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.

The Act would permit people 21 and over to possess up to an ounce of marijuana in public and up to 10 ounces at home. Residents of Massachusetts would be able to grow up to six plants. Legal marijuana commerce would be regulated by a Cannabis Control Commission. “Cannabis cafes” for indoor cannabis smoking would be permitted.

The measure would impose an additional 3.75% to the states 6.25% sales tax, for a total tax rate of 10% . Localities can ban legal marijuana commerce or add local taxes. Pot smoking employees will not be protected under the new law.

The most recent polling in MA had 41% of residents in favor of legalization and 50% against it.

Nevada

The Initiative to Regulate and Tax Marijuana or Question 2 is sponsored by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Nevada. The measure would allow people 21 and over to possess up to one ounce of marijuana. Residents who live more than 25 miles from a retail marijuana store will be able to grow six plants.

If the measure passes, the state’s Department of Taxation will create and oversee a system of licensed marijuana commerce. The initiative would impose a 15% tax on wholesale marijuana sales, retail sales will have the regular state sales tax.

A two week old poll has the Nevada Measure winning 50% to 41%.

The majority of states with legalization measures on their ballot seem to be in favor of legalization. The poll numbers don’t guarantee that three of the five states will go legal.The ballot takes place on November 9th.

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What’s at stake

The expansion of the cannabis industry was started 20 years ago when California approved a compassionate use law for medical marijuana. Today, half of all U.S. states have approved a medical marijuana law. The two most recent approvals came from Pennsylvania and Ohio, which used the legislative process to pass medical cannabis laws.

Additionally, four states legalized the recreational use of cannabis – Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska, along with Washington, D.C. Recreational approvals and the expansion of medical cannabis have generated tax revenue and licensee fees that are boosting state education budgets and allowing certain patients to new paths of treatment.

The real buzz among marijuana supporters is what might happen in November. President Obama has suggested that the best way to get the attention of Congress is to legalize marijuana in as many states as possible at the state level. If a majority of states approve marijuana measures and public opinion continues to rise in favor of cannabis, Congress may have no choice but to consider decriminalization – or to legalize it.

Naturally, success for the movement is no guarantee. Florida failed to pass a medical marijuana amendment in 2014, and Prop 19 in California failed to legalize recreational marijuana in 2010. It’s worth noting that support for marijuana has grown substantially since both of these elections, but that still doesn’t guarantee success this November.

These eights states are set to vote on marijuana

Here are the eight states poised to vote on a marijuana initiative or amendment in November.

1. Nevada

Nevada was the only state was a lock to be voting on recreational marijuana in 2016, since it was added to the ballot last November. As home to “Sin City” and an existing infrastructure of medical marijuana dispensaries, Nevada appears to become a recreational-legal state. If the measure is approved, an excise tax of 15% would be applied at the wholesale level, with the consumer also paying existing sales tax at the retail level.

2. Florida

Despite a narrow defeat in 2014, Florida picked itself up and is once again looking to legalize medical marijuana in November. Florida’s constitution is set up in such a way that traditional majority vote doesn’t equate to passage. The state’s constitution requires an amendment, which needs 60% “Yes” votes to pass. The nation’s younger generation appears overwhelmingly in favor of legalizing medical marijuana, but seniors tend to have a more negative view on cannabis.

A Quinnipiac University poll conducted in May found that 80% of Florida voters favor the legalization of medical marijuana, while 16% said they would vote no on the measure. This year could be the year when Florida finally gets a medical marijuana measure passed.

3. Maine

A little more than two months ago, Maine revealed that it would have a recreational marijuana initiative on the November ballot. The proposal includes a 10% excise tax and like most other recreation-legal states, it would limit the number of licenses it issues.

A May poll of just over 600 Maine residents from the Marijuana Policy Project showed that 55% supported the recreational legalization of marijuana, compared to 41% who were said to be leaning against legalization. Obviously polls have some margin for error, but things are looking promising for cannabis supporters in Maine.

4. California

It’s been over two months when rumors about California’s ballot became to spread, but little more then a week ago the state made it perfectly clear that a recreational marijuana vote had won a place on the state’s November ballot. If the measure is approved, customers would be subject to 15% retail sales tax. Growers within the state would also pay additional taxes.

Per Dale Gieringer of the California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), legalization in marijuana could result in more than $1 billion in annual tax revenue and at least a $100 million reduction in law enforcement costs.

A poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California earlier this year showed 60% in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana, compared to just 37% who opposed the idea. This was up from the 54% in favor as of June 2015 and down from the 44% who opposed its legalization.

Massachusetts

Enough signatures were gathered to put a recreational marijuana initiative on the November ballot for Massachusetts. Five weeks ago, however, Massachusetts was still somewhat on the fence. n approval would mean consumers paying the state a 6.25% tax, plus and excise tax of 3.75%. Individual cities and towns could imposes taxes totaling up to 2%, meaning a top-tier marijuana tax of about 12%.

Unlike Maine or California, where polled residents appear to be in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana, the issue could come down to the wire in Massachusetts. A Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll conducted in the first week of May found that 43% of polled residents would vote yes to legalize, while another 46% would vote no. Some 11% were undecided.

6. Arizona

Residents of Arizona will also be voting on recreational marijuana in November. If it’s approved, a 15% tax on retail sales would be passed on to the consumer, with a decent chunk of tax revenue raised going to support Arizona’s K-12 public schools and a full-day kindergarten program. However, supporters are facing an uphill battle. A poll released in April from Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy showed that only 43% supported a legal recreational marijuana measure compared to the 49% who opposed it.

7. Missouri

Interestingly enough, in April a bill aimed at legalizing medical marijuana in Missouri was voted down by the state’s House of Representatives. Killing the bill on the legislative front meant that ay change of passage would be up to the voters. With enough signatures collected, Missourians will now have that chance.

Like Arizona, the battle for legalization could be tough. Show-Me Cannabis suspended legalization efforts in Missouri in 2015 after polls showed that registered voters were against the full legalization of marijuana to the tune 51% to 45% in 2015. However, with just a medical marijuana proposal on the table, the outcome could be different.

8.Arkansas

Residents in Arkansas will be voting on whether or not to legalize medical marijuana, too. Having easily surpassed the 84,859 signatures needed to get the measure on the ballot, the next step for in-state supporters is to push the measure in a region that’s generally been hostile to legalizing marijuana. The potential good news is a Talk Business & Politics/ Hendrix College survey, which recently showed that a majority of Arkansas polled (58%) favored the legalization of medical marijuana compared to those who opposed it (34%).

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Edible marijuana products is a broad category that could include items like cookies, candy and chocolate. It would also be permitted under the ballot nearly certain to go before voters in November. As die legalization debate heats up, the smoke-free forms of the drug are quickly emerging as a central focus of discussion.

Edibles caught the attention of the state Supreme Judicial Court, which this past week pointedly ordered revisions to a summary designed to explain the question to voters. The justices said it was misleading not to specify that legal marijuana could include food products.

A group of state senators who earlier this year visited Colorado – the first state to legalize recreational marijuana – said edibles now comprise roughly half the retail market there and pose among the greatest public health concerns for regulators.

“Many of these products can be mistaken for other products already on the shelves, as the differences in taste, color and smell may be close to undetectable,” the senators wrote in a report. “Edibles such as cookies and candy can be particularly appealing to children.”

Colorado recently banned pot-infused gummy bear and products that resemble animals and fruits. The state is also considering new limits on the potency of marijuana products, which could make other edibles illegal.

Critics say marijuana-infused food often contains levels of THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana, several times more potent than the smokable forms of the drug and pose unique risks of over-consumption. The edibles are often produced by extracting marijuana concentrate from the plant and adding it to food or beverages. Many users report edibles produce a less immediate, though eventually more intense and longer-lasting high.

According to the organization backing the Massachusetts ballot question, lessons learned from states like Colorado warrant a careful approach toward smoke-free marijuana products. A 15-member regulatory board would be created to oversee all aspects of the proposed law.

“What’s important for Massachusetts voters to know is that the cannabis control commission has full authority over what can be sold and what cannot,” said Jim Borghesani, spokesman for the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol. “It won’t be the retails who determine what’s sold, what type of products, what shape, what size, what look.”

Opponents of legalization contend the proposed law specifically allows marijuana edibles to be sold and would tie the hands of regulators.

“If they wanted to put in some protections they could have done it in the ballot question but did not,” said Corey Welford, spokesman for the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts. “It’s sort of like, ‘pass it, and then we’ll figure out how to protect consumers’.”

If approved, the ballot initiative would allows people 21 and older to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana for recreational purposes and grow up to six pot plants at a time in their homes. It would impose a 3.75% tax on retail sales.

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Dunlap said his office will now move forward with a review of the signatures on the petitions, to verify that they were made by registered Maine voters. Under Maine ;aw, 62, 123 voter signatures are needed to qualify for the ballot.

Concerns were raised by Dunlap in a March 2 determination about variations in the signatures of the notaries who validated the signed petitions in the referendum campaign.

However, Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy ruled on April 8 that Dunlap erred when he made that decision. Murphy’s ruling puts the burden back on Dunlap’s office to verify individual voter signatures against voting records.

“We will, as expeditiously as possible, conduct this inquiry with the goal of issuing a new determination that will endure all scrutiny; if sufficient signatures are validated, there should be no reason at that juncture for the people to be uneasy about the legitimacy of these petitions,” Dunlap said in a statement. “As I stated when our decision was released on March 2, it is not our goal to invalidate the signatures of registered Maine voters.“Our goal is that our review of valid signatures expresses manifestly the expectations of the Constitution that only Maine voters circulate instruments of petition, that only Maine voters affix their signatures to those instruments, and that the oath taken by each circulator is properly administered by those empowered to ascribe oaths. We only validate or invalidate signatures based on those core elements.”

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol filed the court appeal of Dunlap’s determination that 26,779 of the signatures collected were invalid because of concerns about the signatures of the notary. Dunlap said that left the campaign with only 51,543 valid signatures. The campaign had turned in 99,229 signatures on Feb. 1.

The appeal focused largely on the determination that about 17,000 of the 26,779 signatures were invalid for the sole reason that the signatures of notary Stavros Mendros varied and didn’t match what is on file with the secretary of state.

The legalization bill would allow adults to possess up to 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana and ti cultivate a limited number of plants. Retail stores and social clubs would be allowed with municipal approval. Adults would be prohibited from using marijuana in public, with violations punishable by a $100 fine. The bill also would place a sales tax of 10 percent on retail marijuana and marijuana products.

If Maine were to legalize recreational marijuana, it would join Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C., in allowing adults to buy and possess the drug. All have passed laws legalizing recreational marijuana despite that marijuana is still illegal on the federal level.

Legalization proposals are expected to be considered this year in Nevada, California, Arizona, Michigan, Massachusetts and Vermont.

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Responding to a 2015 letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and seven other Democratic senators urging the federal government to facilitate research into the medical benefits of cannabis, it doesn’t indicate whether it will reclassify the drug as less dangerous.

The U.S. has five categories, or schedules, classifying illegal drugs or chemicals that can be used to make them. Schedule I is reserved for drugs the DEA considers to have the highest potential for abuse and no “current accepted medical use.” Cannabis has been classified as Schedule I for decades, along with heroin and LSD. Rescheduling marijuana wouldn’t make it legal, but it may ease restrictions on research and reduce penalties for marijuana offenses.

“DEA understands the widespread interest in the prompt resolution to these petitions and hopes to release its determination in the first half of 2016,” the DEA said in the 25 page letter.

The letter, signed by Acting DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg, explains in great detail the cannabis supply available at the University of Mississippi, the federal government’s only sanctioned marijuana garden.

The Food and Drug Administration has completed a review of the medical evidence surrounding the safety and effectiveness of marijuana and has forwarded its rescheduling recommendation to the DEA, according to the letter. The document didn’t reveal what the FDA recommended.

If demand for research into marijuana’s medical potential were to increase beyond the University of Mississippi’s supply, the DEA said it may consider registering additional growers.

This isn’t the first time the DEA has been asked to reconsider marijuana’s classification. In 2001 and 2006, DEA considered petitions, but decided to keep marijuana a Schedule I substance.

The DEA response is signed by Rosenberg, Sylvia Burwell, secretary of HHS, and Michael Botticelli, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In addition to Warren, the letter was sent to Democratic Sens. Jeffrey Merkley (Ore.), Ron Wyden (Ore.), Barbara Mikulski (Md.), Edward Markey (Mass.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Cory Booker (N.J.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.).

Those senators, with the exception of Warren, are co-sponsors of a sweeping bill introduces in 2015 designed to drastically reduce the federal government’s ability to crack down on state-legal medical marijuana programs while also encouraging more research into the substance.

Tom Angell, founder of Marijuana Majority, a marijuana reform group, said there was “absolutely no reason marijuana should remain in Schedule I.”

“Almost half the states in the country have medical cannabis laws and major groups like the American Nurses Association and the American College of Physicians are on board,” Angell said in a statement. He said the Obama administration should use its authority to make the change “before this president leaves office.”

Click here to read the letter from the DEA.

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Johnson has seen the ravages of drug abuse firsthand as reflected in a National Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research Poll. Whether it’s alcohol or illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine, a majority of Americans say it is a problems and that more needs to be done to address it.

Johnson. 56, of Lynn, Massachusetts, said she doesn’t believe any drug should be legalized – including legal marijuana – and believes more needs o be done to crack down on dealers. She goes to Narcotics Anonymous meetings every Thursday and sees too many of her companions there relapsing and dying from drug use. Still, she considers treatment the best option for users rather than prosecution.

“To lock someone up for using, it’s not going to solve anything. “To lock someone up for using, it’s not going to solve anything. They’re going to rebel,” Johnson, a poll respondent, told the AP in a follow-up interview. “For dealers, in my eyes, they should be locked up.”

The poll found that most Americans (62%) said that at least one type of substance use was a serous problem in their communities. They included alcohol, marijuana, heroin, cocaine, meth and prescription pills. Some 43 percent said that have a relative or close friend with substance abuse issues. 70% of Americans believe not enough is being done to find better addiction treatment or to make treatment programs more accessible in their communities.

Like Johnson, most prioritized punishment for drug dealers instead of cracking down on users.

It is usually a long road for those trying to get clean. You could go from couch to couch because of not paying rent. There are even those who became estranged from family members.

Johnson spent six months in treatment as part of Project COPE, which is an outpatient substance abuse treatment program. She’s now on disability and hopes to complete her education. Lynn, a city of 90,000 north of Boston, has experiences one of the state’s highest rates of death from heroin.

This story captures much of what the AP-NORC survey described: A feeling that drugs are a pervasive problem, with many seeing friends or relatives ravaged by drugs and believing that treatment options need to be improved for addicts while punishment needs to be fierce for dealers.

While 61% of those said they support legalizing marijuana, most said they want it limited to medical treatment or want to impose restrictions on amounts that can be purchased.

Retired criminal defense lawyer, Warren Lawler Chansky believes that as long as alcohol is legal, so should marijuana for recreational and medicinal uses.

“In all these years of practicing, I’ve been awful crimes, tragedies. But very few associated with marijuana,” said Chansky, 57, of Port St. Lucie, Florida.

He does not personally smoke but he had a family member who used marijuana to keep up her appetite while she was battling cancer. “She would have died had she not been able to eat”, Chansky said.

The AP-NORC Poll of 1,042 adults was conducted Feb. 11-14 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3-9 percentage points.

Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods, and later interviewed online or by phone.

Key finding in the AP-NORC Poll

Marijuana

61% of Americans say marijuana should be legalized. Among that group, 43%say legalization should come only with restrictions on the amount of pot that can be purchased, and 24% say it should require a doctor’s prescription. the other 33% don’t believe there should be any restrictions.

Legalizing other drugs

Americans overwhelmingly oppose legalizing other drugs such as cocaine or heroin, with just 7% favoring legalization.

Is it a big problem?

About a third of Americans consider heroin use, alcohol, prescription painkillers and other drugs such as cocaine and meth to be very or extremely serious problems in their communities. Only about a quarter believe marijuana use is a very or extremely serious problem.

What poses the most risk?

About 52% believe that prescription pain relievers and heroin are about equally risky to use.

What roles do doctors and dentists play?

Most Americans believe doctors’ and dentists’ prescribing practice play some role – whether big or small – in contributing to a dependence on prescription pain relievers and drug overdoses.

Narcan

Narcan, or Naloxone, can prevent people from dying if they are overdosing on a prescription painkiller or heroin. Some states have made the drug available to adults without a prescription, while other states restrict its sale because they believe it will encourage the use of illegak drugs.

57%, more than half of those surveyed, believe access to the drug should only be allowed with a prescription.

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Supporters of a voter initiative for marijuana legalization in the state of Maine, failed to collect enough valid signatures to qualify for the state ballot.

Petition gatherers for the initiative delivered 51,543 valid signatures – about 9,500 below the threshold, according to the Maine Secretary of State office on Wednesday. However, he office found 47,686 invalid signatures.

Wednesday was the deadline for the Secretary of State office to validate the signatures. After a casino proposal was denied, and a school funding measure was approved, the failure of the marijuana initiative was the biggest surprise of the day. On February 1, the marijuana campaign had delivered more than 99,000 signatures.

Manager of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, David Boyer, said documents provided by the Secretary of State’s office indicate that more than 17,000 signatures from a single notary were invalidated because the notary’s signature did match the signatures on file.

“We will look at all the options to challenge this,” he said. “We don’t want 17,000 people to be disenfranchised because of a handwriting technicality.”

Rep. Diane Russel, D-Portland,a supporter, said the group will appeal because people deserve a chance to vote on the issue.

She said, “This is about voting rights at its fundamental core, not legalization.”

The campaign now has 10 days to appeal.

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At this moment it looks as though Mainers will be voting on legalization in November. The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol turned in more than 103,000 raw signatures for its petition drive. It only need 61,000 valid voter signatures in order to qualify for the November ballot but it’s nearly double.

As a general rule of thumb, initiative and referendum experts counsel petitioners to expect a certain percentage of raw signatures to be deemed invalid , but that figure is usually put around 25% to 30%. In order for this petition to fill, more than 40% of the votes would have to be found invalid. It might not be impossible, but it’s very unlikely that almost half of those votes could be invalid.

According to a poll last spring managed by Critical Insights, a Portland marketing firm, a staggering 65% of Mainers support legalizing the weed, with 79% saying it should be sold in licensed establishments.

The initiative would allow people of 21 or over possess up to 2.5 ounces of pot and grow a limited number of plants in their homes. It would also set up the framework for a tightly regulated system of licensed marijuana retail stores, cultivation facilities, product-manufacturing facilities, and testing facilities. It will also create rules governing the cultivation, testing, transportation, and sale of marijuana. The initiative would enact a 10% tax on marijuana sales.

“This initiative will replace the underground marijuana market with a tightly controlled system of legitimate, taxpaying businesses that create good jobs for Maine residents,” Boyer said. “It will also make Maine safer by allowing enforcement officials to spend more time addressing serious crimes instead of enforcing failed marijuana prohibition laws.”

State Rep. Diane Russel (D-Portland), a long-time legalization supporter, said at a Monday press conference that Maine is ready to take marijuana “out of the shadows and out of the black market.” She scolded the legislature for refusing to act on legalization, but claimed the state’s medical marijuana program pointed in the right direction. “It tells people we were right all long,” she said. “Maine people really do want a rational policy around drug use. Maine has proven we can regulate marijuana responsibly.”

The push for legalization in Maine got of to a bumpy start, with two initiative campaigns that were competing against each other, but the activists were able to overcome acrimony and merge the two campaigns, leading to the unified effort that appears to walk the state down the path to legalization.

So far, only four states; Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington – all in the west, have legalized it. Washington, DC, legalized possession and cultivation, but not sales and distribution. If the initiative makes the ballot and passes, Maine will become the first state east of the Mississippi to legalize it.

However, Vermont is moving toward legalization through the legislative process. That bill has won a first committee vote, but its prospects for passage this year are uncertain. Massachusetts could well end up voting for legalization this year as well. Whether is is Maine, Vermont or Massachusetts,a combination of the above, New England is becoming a real hotbed for reefer reform this year.

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As a first, the Society of Human Resource Management asked 623 HR managers in states where marijuana is legal about their drug policies.

Unsurprisingly, getting high while on the job is largely frowned upon, SHRM found, regardless of legality. It turns out that a large number of workplaces also won’t hire employees who smoke on their own time.

Marijuana is legal for recreational use in the nation’s capital and four states, including Colorado. In almost 20 others, it’s allowed for medicinal purposes.

More than 50% of the HR managers surveyed said they have policies, or plan to implement them, restricting the employment of marijuana users.About 38% said they will flat-out reject users even if they claim it is for medical reasons. 6% said their policy will exclude only those who partake for fun.

“There is what I consider to be a significant number of employers that are saying they wouldn’t hire an employee that uses marijuana,” said Evren Esen, SHRM’s director of survey programs.

Companies can maintain stricter policies in states where pot is legal because federal law, which governs most workplace rules, still considers marijuana to be a controlled substance.

Over the summer, the Colorado Supreme Court said it was legal to fire an employee for legally smoking medical marijuana while not at work.

That said, what HR managers say and do don’t always back each other up. Fewer employers are drug testing now than 5 years ago, according to the SHRM numbers. A 2011 survey of 632 HR professionals found that 55% were testing all potential employees.

A little less than half of those surveyed in the new study said their organization does pre-employment drug testing for all candidates, which just about matches testing practices nationwide.

Mountain States Employers Council, based in Denver, reported that only one in five companies in Colorado planned to make drug-testing more stringent after marijuana passed last year.

The survey found that employers are most likely to test current employees if there’s an accident or a reason to think they’re coming to work high.

Lara J. Makinen, an HR coordinator at the Denver-based Atkins, a design and engineering consulting firm, said “Some companies have stated more clearly that they reserve the right to test, letting employees know that it’s not OK to come to work under the influence.”

In states where pot has been legalized for recreational use, 39% of those surveyed have policies that single out marijuana use.

Employers might also make more drastic changes if pot use starts interfering with work life.

So far, apart from one local news story, there haven’t been reports of hordes coming to work stoned. That jibes with SHRM’s findings. Only 21 percent of employers reported more than three incidents of employees violating policy regarding marijuana use over the last year.

“It doesn’t appear to be a really major problem,” Esen said. “It doesn’t seem like employees are going out there and rampantly using marijuana in greater numbers than before.”

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The initiative gained the support of Democratic Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom and the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform. Antonia Gonzales, who is the coalition board member and president of the Latino Voter League, said the coalition withdrew its rival initiative after Parker’s measure was modified to protect children, workers and small businesses.

The move ends weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations aimed at closing the gaps between the initiatives, amid concerns that neither would succeed if both of them wound up for the ballot for 2016.

Marijuana use is illegal under federal law in the United States but 23 states allow pot to be used for medical purposes. Colorado, Washington and Oregon have recently approved recreations use and Alaska is set to follow them next year.

Voters is Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada and Arizona could face ballot initiatives next year for marijuana legalization.

In California, the amendments filed this week to Parker’s proposal would allow local governments a greater say in where marijuana can be sold, toughen protections for children, including a ban on marketing to minors and explicit warning labels on marijuana products, and require safety standards and enforcement of labor laws for people who live in the industry.

Proponents say that the measure would tax marijuana sales and cultivation, raising hundreds of millions of dollars for the state.

According thing the research group IBIS World, California has the largest market place for medical marijuana sales in the United States. The company says it is expected that recreational and medical marijuana sales will bring in $3.6 billion nationwide in 2015, growing to $13.4 billion over the next five years.

Public opinion is shifting in favor of marijuana legalization, after an initiative failed in California in 2010.

Parker’s measure would legalize recreational marijuana use for adults over 21 and set up a framework for regulating and taxing sales.

Campaign finance records do not show any contributions on Wednesday but Parker’s deep pockets suggest that his initiative will be well-funded.

In 2010 supporters invested $3.5 million in Proposition 19, outspending opponents nearly 8-1. But the measure failed amid concerns that it did not protect children or guard against driving under the influence.

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