Maine voters approve Question 2 (61.41% Yes), becoming the first East Coast state to legalize medical marijuana

On November 2, 1999, Maine voters approved Question 2—An Act to Permit the Medical Use of Marijuana for Specific Illnesses—by a decisive margin of 61.41% Yes (256,387 votes) to 38.59% No (161,104 votes). Following California (1996) and Alaska, Oregon, and Washington (1998), Maine became the fifth state in the country—and the first state on the East Coast—to legalize medical cannabis by voter initiative.

What Maine’s 1999 vote allowed—and how voters expanded it in 2009

• Possession & home cultivation (1999): Question 2 allowed patients with a physician’s certification for conditions such as cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis to possess up to 1.25 ounces of harvested cannabis and cultivate up to 6 plants (no more than 3 mature).
• Adding dispensaries via Question 5 (2009): Because the 1999 law did not include a way for patients who could not grow their own plants to buy medicine, Maine voters returned to the polls ten years later on November 3, 2009 and passed Question 5 with 58.65% Yes, creating the Maine Medical Use of Marijuana Act and licensing nonprofit medical dispensaries and caregivers statewide.