Trevor Hughes

USA TODAY

American voters widely backed loosening marijuana laws across the country on Tuesday, permitting recreational use on both coasts, and dramatically expanding the number of people who can use pot as medicine or just for fun.

"This is the most important moment in the history of the marijuana legalization movement," said Tom Angell, a spokesman for the pro-legalization Marijuana Majority.

California, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada voters approved recreational legalization. Arizona voters appeared to have rejected recreational legalization.

On the medical side, Florida, Arkansas, and North Dakota all voted in favor of medical cannabis, and Montana appeared likely to also approve it.

Medical marijuana approved by Florida voters

If those results hold, 29 states will now permit cannabis use for certain medical conditions, including cancer and HIV, and eight will permit recreational use, as does the District of Columbia.

“Most voters do not think otherwise law-abiding citizens should be criminalized for using a product that is much safer than alcohol," said Rob Kampia, the executive director of the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project. "There is a general consensus that law enforcement should be fighting serious crimes rather than enforcing failed and deeply unpopular policies.”

Legalization skeptics said they were "disappointed" in the results and planned to keep pushing for restrictions aimed at keeping pot out of the hands of kids.

The strong wins across the country on Tuesday will increase pressure on Congress to reconsider how the federal government treats this Schedule 1 illegal drug, including access to banking, legal pot advocates say.

In a statement, the co-founder of the country’s largest medical marijuana dispensary, Harborside, called the California vote a much-needed reset of laws that have disproportionally hurt minorities. The California law gives people convicted of marijuana crimes a chance to get their sentences reduced, and potentially remove such convictions from their records.

“For all Californians, it’s progress toward a more tolerant, inclusive and equitable way of life; and for prisoners of cannabis in other states and all around the globe, it’s a promise that change is coming,” Harborside’s Steve DeAngelo said. “I started working for legalization in 1974. It feels like I ran a 42-year marathon and won the race.”

Legalization advocates credit Colorado and Washington, the first two states to permit recreational marijuana sales, with helping lay the groundwork for what they expected to be a series of victories across the country. Nevada and California expect to use their positions as tourism destinations to direct a flow of marijuana taxes into state coffers. California alone is expected to have a marijuana marketplace worth $7.6 billion by 2020, according to prediction by industry analysists New Frontier Data and ArcView Market Research.

Elsewhere across the country, voters also decided whether to mandate higher minimum wages and require performers in California's pornography industry to use condoms.

Ballot initiatives can give citizens the ability to bypass their elected officials and instead make their case directly to voters, or they can be placed on the ballot by lawmakers seeking to amend the state constitution. In many cases, they permit voters to directly set specific policy when lawmakers can't, or won't, act.

After election, where could it be legal to smoke pot?

Death penalty

Nebraska and Oklahoma voters endorsed death-penalty measures, while voters in California were still considering whether to ban it entirely or just reform it, via a pair of measures that both appeared headed for approval. Nebraska's vote came after lawmakers repealed the state's death penalty in 2015; Tuesday's vote restored it.

Minimum wage: 4 states decide whether to put more money in workers' pockets

Minimum wage

Colorado, Maine and Arizona voters approved minimum-wage measures, raising the wage to $12 by 2020. Washington voters approved a plan raising the wage to $13.50 over the next four years.

“Ballot initiative wins in 2016 mark a new moment in American politics where voters will no longer wait for politicians, who have failed them time and time again, to fix our broken economy,” said Jonathan Schleifer, the executive director of The Fairness Project, which backed the initiativies. “Tonight's resounding win for economic equality sends a strong message to all of Washington: If you’re not working to create a fair economy, we'll do it ourselves.”

Assisted suicide

Colorado's voters overwhelmingly endorsed a plan permitting residents to take their own lives, in consultation with two doctors. Colorado is now the sixth state with some form of assisted suicide.

Condom use

In a uniquely California move, voters considered and then rejected a proposal requiring actors wear condoms in adult films. The state's workplace safety enforcement agency, Cal-OSHA, is already charged with making sure actors wear condoms in adult films for their own protection. Los Angeles voters approved a measure requiring condom use in 2012. Proposition 60 was portrayed as a health and safety measure — albeit an unusual one —that critics said could have chased the vast adult-film industry out of state.

California voters reject condoms for porn actors

Contributing: Chris Woodyard