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The state's official initiative history lists four marijuana or cannabis measures that qualified for a statewide ballot between 1972 and 2016. Voters rejected two and approved two.
California has voted on cannabis statewide four times in roughly 50 years, according to the Secretary of State's own initiative history. Two measures passed: medical use in 1996 and adult use in 2016. Two measures named Prop 19 failed, in 1972 and 2010.
The Secretary of State's ballot measures hub is the primary record. Its initiative history shows the four qualifying measures by number, and its approval percentages file carries the vote share of every initiative that passed.
The first statewide vote came in 1972, when a measure simply called Marijuana was rejected. It took 24 years for the next one. Prop 215 in 1996, the Compassionate Use Act, let patients and caregivers grow and use marijuana for medical purposes with a doctor's recommendation. It passed with 55.58 percent.
Prop 19 returned in 2010 with a broader question, legalizing marijuana and letting the state regulate and tax it. Voters rejected it that year. The approval percentages file does not list rejected measures, so the no margin for 1972 and 2010 is not in the state's summary; the full counts live in the Statement of Vote archives for those elections.
In 2016, Prop 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, legalized possession and sale for people 21 and older and set up the state's licensing system. It passed with 57.10 percent. San Francisco's own cannabis vote history then catches up with the state's: the first binding cannabis tax measure in the city's file, Measure D in November 2018, came two years after Prop 64 and passed at 65.7 percent.
For the November 3, 2026 election, the state's qualified list holds 14 measures, Props 1 through 5 and 37 through 45, and none of their official titles concerns cannabis.