This has been an unforgettably difficult year for many Americans. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has cost lives, jobs, and completely upended our normal societal habits. But amid this chaos is the reality that, in just 51 days, Americans across the country will head to their local voting booth or mail in their ballots to decide who'll lead this country for the next four years.

Keep in mind that it's not just the presidency or the make-up of Congress that'll be decided on November 3, 2020. Residents in six states will be heading to the polls to decide if marijuana will be legalized from an adult-use or medical standpoint.

Regardless of the economic and health crises this year, the marijuana industry continues to be one of the quickest growing industries in United States.

Only a couple months remain until voters in numerous states will see medical and recreational cannabis legalization measures on their ballots. South Dakota will actually have a medical and a recreational legalization measure on its ballot.

Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota have ballot initiatives that could legalize marijuana for adults 21 and older. Mississippi, Nebraska, and South Dakota have ballot initiatives that could establish medical marijuana programs.

These 6 states will be voting on cannabis legalization in November 2020:

Two separate cannabis initiatives have qualified for the general election ballot in Montana, making it the sixth state in the nation that will be voting on a legalization measure in November. On Thursday, the office of Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton revealed that supporters for Initiative 190 and Constitutional Initiative 118 had collected enough signatures to qualify both measures for the ballot.

Despite it being a crazy year, Americans can't lose sight of the fact that Election Day is a little over three months away. At stake are 435 seats in the House of Representatives, roughly a third of all seats in the Senate, and, of course, the Oval Office.

But it's an equally important election at the state level. No matter what happens federally, it's unlikely that marijuana's scheduling will be changed anytime soon. This means state-level cannabis legalizations will continue to play a major role in growing the U.S. pot industry.

Marijuana legalization is heating up again as the US elections get closer. The COVID-19 pandemic paused legalization campaign efforts in some states. However, many states have resumed their signature-gathering efforts amid easing lockdowns. Montana resumed its signature-gathering efforts in mid-May and followed all of the necessary measures amid the lockdown. Let’s take a look at the state’s efforts and where it stands.

A group of Montana cannabis activists said on Friday that it had collected enough signatures for two proposed ballot measures that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana in the state to qualify for the November election. The group, New Approach Montana, submitted petitions for the two initiative proposals to government officials, who will begin the verification process.

Medical marijuana patients in

Montana will become the first state to establish a checkoff program for hemp. The establishment of a hemp checkoff was completely producer-driven and aims to use 1 percent of commodity revenue to help Montana hemp production remain “cutting edge.”

“Just like any crop, hemp takes investment; particularly in research, but also in marketing and education,” said Ben Thomas, director of the Montana Department of Agriculture.

Thomas explained it was quite the process to get this checkoff program off the ground. The initial push required a petition from Montana growers that had to be submitted to the Montana Department of Agriculture. The petitions were received over a year ago and thus started the program development.

The city with the most dispensaries based on its population figure is Missoula, Montana.

When most Americans pass by a store selling liquor, beer, or wine, they barely think twice about it. That’s because its existence isn’t novel; we all know plenty of folks who drink and buy alcohol. Outside of a few select cities, seeing a marijuana dispensary on a street corner still causes heads to turn.

A group in Montana took the first step this week toward getting a pair of initiatives aimed at legalizing marijuana on the state’s ballot in November.

New Approach Montana submitted two separate proposals to Montana’s secretary of state on Monday after spending the past year gathering input from voters throughout the state.