California voters will decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana after Secretary of State Alex Padilla said Tuesday that initiative proponents turned in more than enough signatures to place the question on the November ballot. Sales of both recreational pot and medical marijuana initially would be subject to a 15 percent excise tax. Colorado and Washington became the first states to allow recreational sales in 2012, followed two years later by Alaska and Oregon. It has drawn support from the California NAACP, the California Medical Association and the California Democratic Party. California voters rejected pot legalization by 7 percentage points in 2010, two years before western states began liberalizing their approach to pot.

Source: ABC News June 29, 2016 01:04 UTC