Sabet also disputes the idea that November will be a tipping point for marijuana legalization if the ballot measures in California and elsewhere prevail. “This is a very long game,” he said. “This is not going to be determined once and for all either this November or in November of 2018.” Sabet said there is already a backlash building in local communities in states that have legalized pot, spurred by rising rates of marijuana use and a spike in traffic fatalities linked to stoned drivers.

Sabet was speaking to me from an airport after leading seven rallies over two days against the California ballot measure. “California is much closer than we’re hearing about,” he argued. “It’s a coin flip in all of the states right now.” As Sabet sees it, the burden is lower for opponents of a ballot initiative like marijuana legalization to convince voters to go their way. “With ‘no,’ you just have to put a little bit of doubt in people’s minds, and they are movable,” he told me. “The more we get our message across, the more people change their minds from ‘yes’ to ‘no.’”

That’s a dynamic that worries Angell, a 15-year veteran of the legalization fight. He launched the Marijuana Majority in 2012 as a way of broadcasting the breadth of public support for the movement. The group’s website highlights not only well-known allies like Gary Johnson, the Libertarian presidential nominee, but approving quotes from a more surprising collection of notables, including televangelist Pat Robertson, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, and the conservative editorial board of the National Review. “The issue was marginalized for so long,” Angell told me.

One area where advocates and opponents of legalization agree is that economic and fiscal concerns have helped drive support for the movement in recent years. State officials struggling to plug budget gaps after the Great Recession have seen the benefit of collecting revenue from an industry that has long flourished underground. Advocates have further argued that legalization would improve safety by mandating testing of marijuana and by cutting off a source of income for drug traffickers. “We’ve already had ‘Big Marijuana’ for decades,” Angell said. “It’s called drug cartels and gangs.”

Though Marijuana Majority touts polls showing that 88 percent of voters nationwide support medical marijuana and 58 percent back full legalization, Angell is not as confident as Stroup about a broad victory in November. Support for ballot measures typically drops in the run-up to an election, he notes. And while supporters of legal pot are outspending opponents, he worries about the movement’s version of an “October surprise”—a rumored move by the casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson to pour millions into last-minute ads against ballot measures in Nevada and Florida. “I am very concerned about where we are in a number of these states right now,” Angell said. “It’s a little too close for comfort.”