While debates on marijuana’s health effects should and will continue even beyond the next wave of legalizations, it’s clear that the floodgates have already been broken. More states will legalize marijuana, and some will do it relatively soon. In states around the nation, pro-pot legislators bolstered by public opinion and the examples set by Colorado and Washington are putting the once-taboo issue before their colleagues, hoping to become the first state to legalize legislatively. …

Lawmakers in Hawaii have considered a number of bills to both decriminalize and legalize marijuana this year — and killed them before allowing them to reach a full vote. Activists don’t have a citizen ballot initiative process to allow them to pursue legalization, so they’re hoping the pro-pot momentum will carry over to lawmakers in the Aloha State this year and beyond.

Hawaii has already legalized cannabis for medical use, and lawmakers recently passed legislation to improve the system. A poll taken earlier this year showed that 66 percent of Hawaiians supported legalization. …

Photo: Screen shot, April 18, 2014. (The Huffington Post)

—Chad Blair