So more marijuana means less violence AND fewer overdoses:

http://pandawhale.com/post/49897/medical-cannabis-laws-and-opioid-analgesic-overdose-mortality

And yet, medical marijuana is still illegal in more than half of the United States.

We gotta keep building the case that marijuana is good for America.

A majority of Americans now believe that marijuana should be legalized:

A broad new survey shows that a majority of American adults continue to support marijuana legalization in the United States, and that support appears to be growing.

The survey, released last week from online polling data company CivicScience, asked more than 450,000 U.S. adults over the last two years this question: "Would you support or oppose a law in your state that would legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana like alcohol?"

Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they support marijuana legalization -- with 39 percent saying they "strongly support" and 19 percent saying they "somewhat support" reformed marijuana laws in their states. Thirty-five percent oppose legalization of marijuana -- with 29 percent "strongly" opposing and 6 percent "somewhat" opposing laws that would regulate marijuana like alcohol. Seven percent of respondents had no opinion on the issue.

CivicScience then broke out the data from just the last three months of responses -- from May to August -- and saw an increase in support and decrease in opposition to the regulation of marijuana like alcohol. Of those who responded most recently, 61 percent said they strongly or somewhat support marijuana legalization, while only 30 percent were opposed.

...

This isn't the first recent poll to show a majority of Americans supporting marijuana legalization. In April, a survey from Pew found that 54 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana use, and about three-quarters of Americans told Pew that if marijuana use isn't legalized, those found in possession of small amounts of the substance should not go to jail. Just last year, Gallup found for the first time that a clear majority of Americans -- 58 percent -- say marijuana should be legalized.

To date, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical purposes and two states -- Colorado and Washington -- have legalized marijuana for adult, recreational use. Voters in three states and our nation's capital will also decide on new marijuana laws in November. Oregon and Alaska voters will decide on the legalization of recreational marijuana, while voters in Florida will decide on a medical marijuana ballot measure. D.C. voters will decide on a measure that would legalize the adult possession of small amounts of marijuana as well as limited home cultivation; however, the sale of marijuana would still be prohibited under the measure.

what do you think about my 2020 prediction for legalization across the country?

could i still win this wager??  :)

Logic says yes but politics say no.

The key challenge is that law enforcement will resist because they get lots of money to police it. 

We see how far voters rights go with the reversal of the popular vote in DC late last year which would have legalized the recreational use of the drug. One problem is the special interests written into the policy that favors the people with enough power to write their names and companies into the law giving them the leverage to be the only legal sellers/distributers/growers in that state. bad legislation like that has failed to pass and that is good work done by the voters.

Sure seems like the people need to overcome the suppression of their popular votes.