When Keith Stroup joined the movement to legalize marijuana in the early 1970s, just 12 percent of the American public supported legalization.

Today, polls show that a majority of Americans support legalization, and in the past four years four states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational pot.

“We’ve made an incredible leap in support, but it has been slow and gradual,” said Stroup, who founded the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, one of the country’s leading pro-legalization groups. “Now I think we’re beginning to accelerate.”

As Election Day draws near, the plethora of marijuana-related initiatives on state ballots across the country highlight the gains made by NORML and other legalization groups in recent decades.

Story highlights

• Defense Secretary Ash Carter announces plan to keep the military "relevant"
• The military will look its rules on pot, physical fitness, tattoos and single parents

The military may not weed out recruits who used marijuana.

Speaking at City College in New York on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced a wide-ranging review of recruiting standards and practices to ensure they are not "unnecessarily restrictive."

As football season heats up, Wana Brands has announced the addition of its new Game Day Gummies Flavor Pack. The limited edition Flavor Pack provides Denver football fans the freedom to choose their edible experience while rooting for their hometown team.

The Game Day Gummies are available in a delicious combo Flavor Pack of Orange and Blueberry, a tribute to the colors of the Mile-High City. Made from an original recipe, handcrafted and infused with tincture in the cooking process, Game Day Gummies are an extension of Wana Brands Sour Gummies, a consistent Colorado favorite. The 100mg hybrid Game Day Gummies are now available in Colorado adult-use dispensaries, The limited edition Flavor Packs are available for purchase throughout the entire football season.

What could be Britain’s highest growth industry of the next decade? There is no shortage of plausible candidates. Driver-less cars could turn into a vast new industry for the first country to get its roads and legal system ready for them. 

Robotics has the potential to be far bigger than computing, given the range of tasks that machines driven by artificial intelligence could perform. Biotechnology has been around for a couple of decades, without quite living up to its hype, but no country has a stronger tradition in medical technology than the UK, and could yet make some stunning breakthroughs.

Cannabis traditionally has been produced on a small scale to evade the law for decades. As a result, many people have connections to someone who has dabbled in cultivation. With the legal market, however, consumers now can purchase an array of products without considering cultivation, much like grocery store produce. Grocery stores are supplied by farms that take care of the cultivation for us and grow a product at a reasonable price. This is, for the most part, also true for cannabis, but let’s take a look at the numbers and see how the finances compare between growing your own supply and buying it from a medical dispensary or an adult use retail store.

"Marijuana is safer than than alcohol or tobacco."

I came across that claim again last week while scrolling through Twitter. This time, the tweet was from Dr. Peter Grinspoon, who practices primary care at Mass General.

Grinspoon supports ballot Question 4 in Massachusetts, which would make marijuana legal for recreational use. He has a lot of personal experience with drugs; he's in recovery from an addiction to Vicodin and a few other opioid painkillers. But when asked about his tweet, Grinspoon talks about his patients. He says as many as half of his patients use marijuana, many to relieve pain or in other ways Grinspoon says are a health benefit.

With Arizona voters deciding on whether to legalize recreational marijuana this election, 12 News turned to Colorado as an example of what passing Proposition 205 could mean for the state.

Colorado and Washington were the first states to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012. And Colorado was the first state to begin selling to the public – commercial sales started on January 2014.

In Colorado, and under Arizona’s proposed law, adults 21 years and older can purchase, possess and grow small quantities of marijuana.

Colorado’s Pot Czar Andrew Freedman says it’s too soon to tell if the long-term benefits of legalized marijuana will outweigh the drawbacks. But we can share what they have learned so far.

Marijuana and the economy

Molson Coors says it is looking to Colorado for insight on the possible effects the legalization of marijuana in Canada could have on its beer sales.

Stewart Glendinning, CEO of Molson Coors International, was asked by an analyst Tuesday during the company's quarterly earnings conference call for his opinion on the potential impact the legalization of marijuana could have on Canada's beer sector.

"Cannabis is something we are thinking very carefully about, not only as a business but also as an industry," Glendinning, who was the former head of Molson Coors' operations in Canada, said in response.

"There's just a lot we don't know at the moment. ... It's steady as she goes because of the lack of clarity about the deployment of the drug itself."

With pot on the ballot in nine states, the big winner in next Tuesday's election could be America's legal cannabis industry. By 2020, legal market sales are expected to surpass $22 billion. And for states struggling with budget shortfalls, that extra revenue would be clearly welcome. 

Voters in five states — Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada — will decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana for adults. Medical marijuana is on the ballot in Arkansas, Florida, Montana, and North Dakota. 

Supporters believe the marijuana measures will pass in California and Florida, and possibly several other states, because America's attitude about pot has changed significantly in the last few years. 

Jean-Denis Fréchette foresees revenue growth over time as people move from illicit to legal market.

While Canadians are expected to spend billions on legal marijuana, governments won't see a huge boost in tax revenues right out of the gate, warns Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO).

In a report released today studying the fiscal considerations of legalizing marijuana, Jean-Denis Fréchette suggests initial revenue for governments from taxation could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, rather than billions.

But as the market matures, those revenues are likely to grow, according to the analysis. Fréchette expects production costs for the industry will decline and suggests governments could collect a portion of the cost savings.