Colorado has voted for assisted suicide, while three other US states have voted to legalise recreational marijuana.

Colorado has voted to legalise assisted suicide, while four other US states have voted to legalise the recreational use of marijuana.

Ballots on these issues were held simultaneously with Tuesday’s presidential election vote. The results have provided significant momentum to assisted-dying and drug-legalisation campaigns in the US.

Approximately 66% of Coloradans voted in favour of the State’s assisted dying proposition, which will allow terminally ill patients with less than six months to live to received medical aid in dying.

The controversial proposition had been heavily criticised for its lack of safeguards — a doctor need not be present, for example, when patients prepare and self-administer barbiturates. Pro-euthanasia advocates have, nevertheless, lauded the decision for providing patients with “options when facing pain and suffering at the end of their lives”.  

California, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada all voted to legalise recreational use of marijuana, joining Washington, Alaska and Oregon, who have already liberalised the law. Furthermore, North Dakota, Montana, Arkansas and Florida all approved medical marijuana.

The vote in California has opened up the largest commercial marijuana market in the US to date. The market for recreational and medicinal marijuana could reach as much as US$22 billion by 2020, up from $7 billion this year.

Opponents of liberalized marijuana laws argued that the new laws carry major public safety risks and would make pot more accessible to youngsters; supporters claim that more sophisticated regulatory mechanisms exist to keep cannabis away from minors and cartel exploitation.

Marijuana and assisted dying winners in US election
Xavier Symons
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Xavier Symons

Xavier Symons is a bioethicist and scholar in residence at the Kennedy Institute for Ethics at Georgetown University.

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