Why have some US states legalised recreational use of marijuana whereas other states are still lagging behind? This paper explores the determinants of the legalisation of recreational marijuana in the USA. We test three hypotheses usually advanced by the literature to explain patterns of cannabis legalization: 1) state budget 2) repression 3) felony laws. Using a panel data model with state specific trends, we find that state deficit is consistently associated with a higher probability of legalisation. The percentage of people arrested for drug crimes and marijuana consumption correlates with a lower probability of legalising recreational marijuana. Finally, re-enfranchisement laws are associated with an increase in the likelihood of cannabis legalisation except in places with a high percentage of black people. Our results are broadly supported by a survival analysis and the use of a fine grained measure of marijuana laws. We provide a number of theoretical explanations for our findings.