Elections aside, the marijuana industry has had an incredible run over the past two decades.

Prior to the 1996 approval of a compassionate use medical cannabis law in California, marijuana was illegal in all aspects (medical and recreational), and public support for nationwide legalization stood at just 25% per Gallup. Fast-forward to today and 25 states have legalized medical cannabis, with four states, as well as Washington D.C., legalizing the purchase of recreational marijuana for adults ages 21 and up. It's worth noting that the two most recent states to legalize medical marijuana -- Pennsylvania and Ohio -- did so entirely through the legislative process. Furthermore, public support for nationwide legalization tied an all-time high in Gallup's 2015 poll at 58%.

U.S. News Updates

Arkansas

People in nine states, including California, Florida and Massachusetts, will vote Nov. 8 on ballot proposals permitting recreational or medical use of marijuana. These initiatives could give a big push to legalization, prompting the next president and Congress to overhaul the country’s failed drug laws.

This is a big moment for what was a fringe movement a few years ago. A Gallup poll released on Wednesday showed 60 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana, up from 31 percent in 2000 and 12 percent in 1969.

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 

At least one medical marijuana proposal will make it onto ballots in Arkansas this November, after the state's Supreme Court sided Thursday with supporters of a pro-cannabis constitutional amendment.

The measure, which would permit patients with certain diagnosed conditions to buy marijuana from designated dispensaries, has faced opposition from groups such as the state Chamber of Commerce and the Arkansas Farm Bureau, as well as Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R). Opponents had asked the court to block officials from counting any votes on the marijuana proposal.

U.S. News Updates

Alaska

Alaska’s first commercial cannabis harvests are underway. The first official legal crop comes from Greatland Ganja, a small cultivator on the Kenai Peninsula. Greatland has harvested about 75 pounds of cannabis so far, of an expected total of about 100 pounds consisting of 10 different strains. Unfortunately, however, the first harvest may not have anywhere to go. Distribution and sales are stalled until state-licensed testing laboratories are up and running. At the moment two labs are nearing completion in Anchorage: CannTest hopes to open by mid-October and AK Green Labs aims to be online by early November.

Arkansas

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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The Arkansas Supreme Court has rejected one of two efforts to block a medical marijuana proposal from the November ballot.

Justices on Thursday denied a challenge from a group opposed to the proposed initiated act that would allow patients with certain medical conditions to buy marijuana from dispensaries. The court said Arkansans Against Legalized Marijuana had not proven the ballot measure’s language was insufficient.

Another lawsuit challenging the measure’s language and its signatures is pending before the court. Justices are also considering another lawsuit from Arkansans Against Legalized Marijuana trying to disqualify a competing medical pot proposal.

Arkansas voters narrowly rejected legalizing medical marijuana four years ago.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who is apparently still brainwashed from his days with the Drug Enforcement Administration, has been out in the public spewing hard core devotions of reefer madness in an attempt to persuade the voters to completely disregard a couple of medical marijuana initiatives when they head to the polls later this fall.

Standing alongside a panel of supposed medical professionals earlier this week at the State Capitol, Governor Hutchinson told reporters that he was not in favor of the medical marijuana ballot measures that are set to go before the voting public in November because neither one of them comes with the same federal safeguards that leads to effective medicine.