Mike McGinn, the Mayor of Seattle, Washington, used his city address yesterday to repeat his call for the legalization of marijuana in his state, setting a model for other public figures to follow. McGinn’s very public call for marijuana legalization is especially important now, because this November the voters of Washington state will get to decide on I-502. If approved, this ballot initiative would legalize, tax and regulate marijuana in Washington for adults over the age of 21.

Amazing what a difference a month makes. Andrew Sullivan, at long last, pulled his head out of the sand and did the absolute bare minimum of research about Obama’s marijuana policy before writing about it. Just last month Sullivan praised Obama for somehow helping to advance the cause of marijuana legalization despite the fact that Obama has waged a very aggressive multi-agency war on marijuana. To quote Sullivan, “Under Obama, support for marriage equality and marijuana legalization has crested to record levels.”

The City of Detroit plans to continue its effort to keep a local marijuana decriminalization initiative off the city ballot despite recently losing the case in the Michigan Court of Appeals. The city plans to appeal the ruling to the State Supreme Court.

The residents of Detroit may get to vote this summer on a city ballot initiative that would remove all city-based criminal penalties for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana for people over 21. Voters had been denied the chance to vote on this in 2010, but last Friday in a 2-1 decision the Michigan Court of Appeals concluded the city acted inappropriately in keeping the measure off the ballot.

This proposed insurance rule on birth control so strongly bothered Mitt Romney that he declared, “this is a violation of conscience. We must have a President who is willing to protect America’s first right, our right to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.” By that absolute logic, he should also oppose rules against religious uses of marijuana, which is common, but that’s not his or the GOP’s position.

Gallup has published its 2012 list of the top ten states with the most liberals in the country. To a strong degree this same list can be used as a stand in for the list of states most likely to support marijuana legalization. And success will likely come in those states that allow voter initiatives on the ballot.

As a country we are quickly approaching a critical cultural and political tipping point on this issue.

So far every attempt by Obama to directly reach out to young voters through some form of online question and answer system has resulted in young adults overwhelming voting to confront the President with questions about our government’s marijuana policies. It happened with his transitional website Change.gov, his first Youtube townhall and with the White House’s new “we the people” petition site. Now it’s happened again.

This November the voters of Washington state will likely have a chance to vote to legalize marijuana in the state. The marijuana legalization initiative, I-502, has been certified by the Secretary of State’s office. It was determined that New Approach Washington, the campaign behind the initiative, had turned in enough valid signatures for the initiative to advance.

Andrew Sullivan is still trying to defend his absurd claim that Obama somehow deserves credit for growing support for marijuana legalization. In fact, though, while the decades long trend towards greater support for marijuana legalization hasn’t stopped since Obama took office, it has continued despite the Obama Administration’s overt opposition.