After five states — Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota — passed ballot measures for marijuana use last week, the drug will soon be legal in some form for 70% of the U.S. population. A third of the country won’t even need a medical excuse. But that’s not the surprise.

What’s more notable is that unlike in the past, all of this happened without much of a public uproar. To be fair, there have been bigger concerns on Americans’ minds these days. But this is the moment that cannabis companies and their investors have been waiting for: to be considered a legitimate industry rather than a hot voting issue. From here, the goal is to make weed every bit as normal as junk food, wine and other vices long found in stores across America.

In order for the industry to flourish it needs the federal government’s help, and the prospects of that are suddenly looking better. Two-thirds of U.S. adults are in favor of marijuana legalization — 91% if you include those who support it at a minimum for medicinal purposes, according to Pew Research Center. That’s more than the number of Americans who support abortion rights or who think human activity contributes to climate change.

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The partisan gap in attitudes toward pot is also shrinking, with more than half of Republicans saying it should be legalized. In the reliably red state of Mississippi, Initiative 65 — the less-restrictive of two medical marijuana proposals that were on its ballot — was criticized by Governor Tate Reeves as too “liberal” for “non-stoners.”

And still it passed by 74%. As Joe Biden takes office in January and the makeup of Congress continues to reflect a divided nation, marijuana may end up being the one issue almost everyone can agree on.

The increasing support for pot in red states bodes well for a Senate vote on the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act, which would allow financial institutions to legally do business with marijuana companies. It would be one of the most constructive developments for the industry short of legalizing weed at the federal level.

Cannabis companies have reason to be hopeful that a new administration will also usher in other changes such as reclassifying or excluding marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act. De-scheduling the drug would leave states to decide how to handle pot, which may be more palatable to conservatives than attempting to change federal laws, Isaac Boltansky and Merrill Ross, analysts for Compass Point Research & Trading LLC, wrote in an Oct. 26 report. Marijuana is currently considered a Schedule 1 drug, right alongside heroin, in a category reserved for narcotics with the highest potential for abuse and dependence and with no accepted medical use. Examples of Schedule 2 substances are cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine and oxycodone — some of them at the root of America’s opioid addiction crisis. For cannabis proponents, that just doesn’t add up.

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