PHOENIX – Arizonans should be able to smoke, eat or drink marijuana legally early this coming month when the election results are certified.

But it'll be another month before they actually can get it legally from a state-licensed outlet.

Proposition 207 ran strong all evening on Tuesday, maintaining a steady level of support at about 60 percent of ballots counted. There are no real indications that later-counted votes will be able to disturb that margin.

Proponents, financed by existing medical marijuana dispensaries, far outspent foes, listing nearly $5 million in expenditures as of two weeks before the election. By contrast, opponents had spent just $531,000 by that point.

The initiative is designed to be the next step in the 2010 law allowing Arizonans with certain medical conditions to obtain up to 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana every two weeks from state-licensed dispensaries.

Effective no later than Dec. 2 – when the vote tally is formally announced – all adults will be able to have up to an ounce of the drug without facing criminal charges. They also will be able to grow up to six plants on their own.

But it won't be until at least January that the state Department of Health Services adopts the rules about who can sell marijuana for recreational use.

One thing is clear: The measure gives the first shot at retail licenses to those with the dispensaries, which is why they put so much cash into the campaign.

Other provisions range from a new 16% tax on recreational marijuana that proponents say could raise $300 million a year to a process for wiping out criminal records of those who were previously convicted of what would no longer be a crime.

Foes focused on what they said are shortcomings in the measure, including the lack of a standard of what constitutes driving while impaired by marijuana and questions about whether forms of edible candies would be attractive to children.

Arizona is joining 10 other states and the District of Columbia that permit adults to use the drug without a medical need, including California, Nevada and Colorado. Several other states have decriminalized possession of the drug but its use is not fully legal.

Aside from the rules for new retail outlets, the health department also has to adopt rules for testing marijuana for both quality as well as adulteration.

The approval is a setback for the Center for Arizona Policy, the socially conservative organization which provided the largest share of funds.

It also is a defeat for Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk who has actively argued about the dangers to public safety of recreational use of marijuana.