The Golden State is quite likely to legalize marijuana on election day. What then?

Twenty years ago, California led the way on weed, becoming the first state in the nation to approve medical marijuana. Now, while it’s already lost the chance to be the first to legalize recreational use, the Golden State is poised to push legal pot past the tipping point this November.

Although voters in Colorado and Washington first broke through the grass ceiling in 2012, with Alaska, Oregon and Washington DC following suit in 2014, if Californians vote to legalize, they will more than triple the size of the country’s legal marijuana market in one fell swoop.

It’s not a done deal until election day, of course, but the prospects are very good. The Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) legalization initiative is officially on the ballot as Proposition 64, it has cash in the bank for the campaign (more than $8 million collected so far), it has broad political support, including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and at least four California U.S. representatives, and it has popular support, with the latest poll showing a healthy 60 percent of likely voters favor freeing the weed.

It’s also that the surfer’s paradise is riding a weed wave of its own creation. Thanks in large part to the “normalization” of the pot business that emerged out of California’s wild and woolly medical marijuana scene, the national mood on pot has shifted in recent years. Because of California, people could actually see marijuana come out of the shadows, with pot shops (dispensaries) selling it openly to anyone with an easily obtained doctor’s recommendation and growers turning parts of the state in pot cultivation hotbeds. And the sky didn’t fall.

At the same time, the shift in public opinion has been dramatic. According to annual Gallup polls, only a quarter of Americans supported marijuana legalization when California voted for medical marijuana in 1996, with that number gradually, but steadily, increasing to 44 percent in 2009, before spiking upward ever since then to sit at 58 percent now.

California isn’t the only state riding the wave this year; legalization will also be on the ballot in Maine and Nevada and almost certainly in Arizona and Massachusetts. But California is by far the biggest, and it will help the state regain its reputation as cutting edge on social trends, while also sending a strong signal to the rest of the country, including the federal government in Washington.

But what kind of signal will it send? What will legalization look like in the Golden State? To begin, let’s look at what Prop 64 does:

• Legalizes the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana and the cultivation of up to six plants (per household) by adults 21 and over.

• Reduces most criminal penalties for remaining marijuana offenses, such as possession or cultivation over legal limits or unlicensed distribution, from felonies to misdemeanors.

• Regulates the commercial cultivation, processing, distribution, and sale of marijuana through a state-regulated licensing system.

• Bars commercial “mega-grows” (more than ½ acre indoors or 1 acre outdoors) until at least 2023, but makes provisions for licensed “microbusinesses” (grows smaller than 10,000 square feet).

• Allows for the licensing of on-site consumption premises, or “cannabis cafes.”

• Allows cities and counties to regulate or even prohibit commercial marijuana activities, but not prohibit personal possession and cultivation.

• Taxes marijuana at 15 percent at the retail level, with an additional $9.25 per ounce cultivation tax imposed at the wholesale level.

In other words, pot is largely legalized and a taxed and regulated market is established.

Some changes would occur right away, advocates said.