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 

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.

When Carey S. Clark sent out a public letter last month expressing her support for Maine’s cannabis legalization initiative, she received a lot of supportive responses. She also heard from a few critics. One nurse told her “you should be ashamed of yourself.” Others questioned her professional standing and her employment. Clark is a highly respected nurse, researcher, and associate professor of nursing at the University of Maine. She responded to her critics “with kindness,” she said, and encouraged them to further explore the issue.

It was a typical response from a medical professional with 22 years of experience, who has been working intensively around cannabis issues for the last two years.

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.

Marijuana advocates are heading into the final weeks of the 2016 campaign with the wind at their backs as the latest polling shows legalization measures currently favored by voters in all five states where they're on the ballot.

This is something of a reversal from just a month ago, when the most recent polling had shown voters wary of legalization measures in Massachusetts and Arizona. But the margins of support aren't huge in any state, meaning that the contests could still swing either way.

Campaigns to legalize recreational marijuana use in Massachusetts and Maine launched their first television ads on Monday, hoping to boost public awareness and support ahead of November votes on the issue.

The ads began just over a month before Election Day, when voters in five U.S. states will determine whether to legalize the recreational use of the drug, following the lead of Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska, as well as the District of Columbia.

The Massachusetts ads feature Tom Nolan, a former Boston Police Department officer and current professor of criminal justice at Merrimack College, advocating for legalization as a way to better regulate marijuana use.

Don't look now, but the November elections are just over five weeks away. In addition to choosing the 45th president of the United States, voters in nine states will decide the fate of marijuana, which has become a front-and-center issue this year.

The expansion of the marijuana industry is impressive in two respects. First, its growth rate is practically unmatched. According to cannabis research firm ArcView, legal marijuana sales could grow at a 30% annual clip between now and 2020, all on account of organic sales growth and legalization by more individual states.

Voters on Nov. 8 will decide ballot measures in nine states that would expand legal access to marijuana. Here's a rundown:

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RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA

In five states, the ballot measures propose to legalize recreational marijuana use for anyone 21 and over.

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