Recreational marijuana legalization will be on November ballot in Missouri
Missourians can expect to see marijuana back on the ballot in November, this time as a constitutional amendment that would legalize recreational use and clear cannabis-related convictions.
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft announced Tuesday morning that petition 2022-059 received a Certificate of Sufficiency — meaning a minimum number of valid signatures were obtained from six of the eight congressional districts, putting it on the Nov. 8 ballot.
The ballot measure proposes an amendment to the Missouri Constitution that would:
Remove state prohibitions on purchasing, possessing, consuming, using, delivering, manufacturing and selling marijuana for personal use for adults over 21;
Require a registration card for personal cultivation with prescribed limits;
Allow persons with certain marijuana-related non-violent offenses to petition for release from incarceration or parole and probation and have records cleared;
Establish a lottery selection process to award licenses and certificates;
Issue equally distributed licenses to each congressional district;
Impose a 6% tax on the retail price of marijuana to benefit various programs.
Legal Missouri 2022, the campaign backing the ballot measure, says they earned more than 214,000 verified signatures across all eight congressional districts, outpacing the 184,720 minimum needed to make the ballot.
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“Our statewide coalition of activists, business owners, medical marijuana patients and criminal justice reform advocates has worked tirelessly to reach this point, and deserves all the credit," said John Payne, Legal Missouri 2022's campaign manager, in a news release.
"We look forward to engaging with voters across the state in the coming weeks and months. Missourians are more than ready to end the senseless and costly prohibition of marijuana."
The petition says $3.1 million of initial costs from state government entities are estimated with initial revenues of at least $7.9 million. Local governments are estimated to have $35,000 of annual costs with annual revenue of at least $13.8 million.
"I encourage Missourians to study and educate themselves on any ballot initiative," Ashcroft said in a news release. "Initiative 2022-059 that voters will see on the November ballot is particularly lengthy and should be given careful consideration."
The 39-page ballot measure can be read on the Missouri Secretary of State's website.
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Medical marijuana was legalized in Missouri in 2018 through the initiative petition and voter approval process. Neighboring states Arkansas and Oklahoma have also legalized marijuana medical use, and it is legal in Illinois for recreational use, as well.
Legal Missouri 2022 garnered the support of several prominent groups and advocates throughout its campaign, including the ACLU of Missouri and the Missouri chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
But it has also been criticized by some advocates in the industry, who have expressed concern with several elements of the campaign and its ballot language. Eapen Thampy, a lobbyist, said Tuesday that he believed its provisions relating to criminal expungement were "misleading" and that its licensing process was a "second-class, Jim Crow" proposal.
Thampy said he and his allies in opposition to the campaign, including the Missouri Marijuana Legalization Movement with more than 60,000 Facebook members, planned to campaign against the proposal's passage. The exact details of that opposition campaign are still murky, but are likely to include mailers and social media promotion.
"We do intend to distribute literature through various channels," Thampy said. "There will be some digital media. How much money we're able to pump into it is an open question."
He favored proposed legislation that would have legalized recreational use and removed licensing caps, but stalled out during session in Jefferson City.
Legal Missouri 2022 has pushed back on those criticisms, saying it trusts "that Missouri voters will side with the ACLU, NORML, Empower Missouri, the NAACP and others over disgraced lobbyist Eapen Thampy," in reference to his pleading guilty to a federal marijuana charge in 2020.
Ranked choice voting measure falls short
The other major initiative petition campaign, which would have drastically changed how elections operate in Missouri, did not accrue enough signatures to make the November ballot.
A question that would have allowed voters to implement ranked-choice voting failed to earn enough signatures in all eight congressional districts, Ashcroft said.
Under the proposal, spearheaded by the Better Elections campaign, voters would be allowed to rank their preferences for candidates in the general election. If a candidate earns a majority of votes as the top choice, they are elected; if not, the candidates with the fewest top-choice votes are eliminated and the other choice votes are distributed to the remaining candidates based on how they were ranked. The candidate to cross a majority would win the election.
"We are disappointed, but remain committed to our core mission: giving voters better and more choices in elections, empowering them to hold politicians accountable when they lose their way, and ensuring integrity in elections," Better Elections spokesman Scott Charton said in a statement.
"If we want leaders in elected office who put our country and state over their political party, we're going to have to change the system."
As of July, 55 jurisdictions — Maine and Alaska, as well as one county and 52 cities — employ ranked-choice voting in the U.S.
Greta Cross is the trending topics reporter for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @gretacrossphoto. Story idea? Email her at gcross@gannett.com.
Galen Bacharier covers Missouri politics & government for the News-Leader. Contact him at gbacharier@news-leader.com, (573) 219-7440 or on Twitter @galenbacharier.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri recreational marijuana legalization to be on 2022 ballot
