This week's election results are a discouraging sign for drug policy reformers

John Avlon : In 2020 , recreational marijuana initiatives won in Arizona , Montana , New Jersey , Mississippi , South Dakota .

Avlon says Colorado voters approved a measure that decriminalized five naturally occurring psychedelics.

He says legalization of recreational marijuana lost in Florida , North Dakota , and South Dakota , where a legal challenge had nixed the 2020 initiative.

He writes that 70 percent of Americans think marijuana should be legal, including 87 percent of Democrats .

The measure's backers "now acknowledge that the initiative's dual objectives may have added confusion among voters," Benzinga reports.

The Massachusetts campaign emphasized the psychotherapeutic potential of psychedelics.

But there is a rhetorical tension between the argument that supervised "treatment" should be available to people who "struggle with their mental health" and that adults should be free to consume psychedelics independently.