Pot Legalization Qualifies for WA Ballot

It's certified by the state elections division: Washington State voters will decide this fall whether they will approve Initiative 502 to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana.

"A signature-check by the State Elections Division, using a random sample, determined that sponsors had nearly 278,000 valid signatures," writes Secretary of State's office spokesman David Ammons, "well in excess of the 241,153 required."

This is going to be a huge national issue. The NYT has a new profile of a similar measure likely headed to voters in Colorado. With at least two states going to the polls, this will be national lightning rod—possibly more than California's Prop 19 was in 2010—that attracts presidential-race debate and national news cycles, to say nothing of the saturation it will have with local mainstream media.