Business owners are replacing idealists in the pot-legalization movement as the nascent marijuana industry creates a broad base of new donors, many of them entrepreneurs willing to spend to change drug policy.

Unlike in the past, these supporters are not limited to a few wealthy people seeking change for personal reasons. They constitute a bigger coalition of business interests. And their support provides a significant financial advantage for pro-legalization campaigns.

“It’s mainly a social-justice movement. But undoubtedly there are business interests at work, which is new in this movement,” said Kayvan Khalatbari, a one-time pot-shop owner and now head of a Denver marijuana consulting firm.

Voters could legalize recreational marijuana in five states this November and medical marijuana in three more. This record number of state ballot measures promise to be a great boon for the cannabusiness industry. With national prohibitions against interstate cannabis commerce, as well as current federal banking and drug laws, large companies have been kept out of the industry, so the market is still primarily comprised of small businesses.

California, Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada will consider legalizing  the recreational use of cannabis while Florida, Arkansas and North Dakota will decide on marijuana for medical purposes.

What’s going on state by state?

California, Prop 64 

Phoenix-based Discount Tire Company and its billionaire owner, Bruce Halle, face a growing boycott movement after making a $1 million donation to help defeat Proposition 205, the ballot initiative to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Arizona.

No matter who wins on Election Day, cannabis will have a big day at the ballot box.

Five states — Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada — have initiatives to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use. Four states — Arkansas, Florida, Montana and North Dakota — have proposed legalizing marijuana for medical purposes. All of the recreational use initiatives are currently ahead in the polls.

A review last week by the Washington Post shows a statistically insignificant majority in favor of legalizing so-called “recreational” marijuana in the five states that will be voting on it on election day: California, Massachusetts, Nevada, Maine, Arizona. The five states were obviously specifically selected by the pot lobby as the next to join the Portlandia states of Oregon and Washington, as well as libertarian Alaska, and the new spring-break destination Colorado as the only states to completely decriminalize marijuana.

The poll by OH Predictive Insights, conducted September 28-30, shows an increase in support in the past month for Prop 205, and that the proposition still has a chance at passing. However, it also shows the measure behind 43-47, with 10 percent still undecided.

The proposition aims to grant adults 21 and older the freedom the possess, buy, and grow personal amounts of cannabis, and sets up a limited system of retail shops where people could buy cannabis products.

A deep-pocketed coalition is spending big to keep marijuana illegal in Arizona. Drug companies, the Chamber of Commerce, and the alcohol industry, have together poured millions of dollars into the campaign to defeat Proposition 205, a ballot measure that would legalize marijuana for those over 21. And  as opinion polls show a tight race, another industry entered the fray: prison food providers.

The Arizona Department of Health Services awarded preliminary licenses for 31 new medical-marijuana dispensaries last week, creating a lucrative opportunity for entrepreneurs and (soon) more shopping choices for patients.

Most of the 747 applicants lost out on their hoped-for pot of green gold — not to mention the nonrefundable $4,000 of their $5,000 application fee. But the lucky few whose applications were accepted could make a fortune in the industry.

"It's fantastic," said a woman who is part of a group that won a license. "We did an enormous amount of work to get to this point."

As many as five states could approve its recreational use this November, potentially signaling a point of no return for legalized pot.

Recreational marijuana users can now legally light up a joint in states representing about 5 percent of the U.S. population. By the time Americans wake up on November 9, that percentage could be swelling to more than one-quarter.

Voters in five states – Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada – will decide this November on ballot initiatives seeking to legalize and regulate the adult use, production, and retail sale of marijuana. Polling data shows these measures to be leading among likely voters.