Your feedback ensures we stay focused on the facts that matter to you most—take our survey.
Missouri Marijuana Legalization Initiative (2018)
| Missouri Marijuana Legalization Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 6, 2018 | |
| Topic Marijuana | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin Citizens |
The Missouri Marijuana Legalization Initiative was not on the ballot in Missouri as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 6, 2018.
Charles Jones proposed two versions of the initiative.
The measure would have removed marijuana from the state's list of controlled substances, legalized marijuana for personal and medical use, allowed for the sale of marijuana, and immediately released all prisoners incarcerated for nonviolent marijuana-related crimes. The measure would have also prohibited the state from using state funds to enforce federal marijuana laws that conflict with state marijuana laws.[1]
Text of measure
Ballot title
The ballot title was as follows:[2]
| “ |
Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to:
This proposal is estimated to result in annual state savings of $11 million. Additional state operating costs resulting from this proposal are estimated at $700,000 annually. Local law enforcement costs could increase.[3] |
” |
Constitutional changes
- See also: Article IV, Missouri Constitution
The measure would have added a Section 54 to Article IV of the Missouri Constitution.[1]
Full text
The full text of the initiative is available for Petition 2017-223.
Sponsors
Total Legalization Missouri led the campaign in support of the initiative.[4]
Campaign finance
| Total campaign contributions: | |
| Support: | $4,274.61 |
| Opposition: | $0.00 |
There was one campaign committee, Total Legalization Missouri, registered in support of the ballot initiative. The committee had raised $4,275 and spent $4,059.[5]
There were no committees registered to oppose the ballot initiative.[5]
Support
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
Background
Legalization initiatives in the U.S.
California Proposition 19, which would have legalized marijuana, appeared on the ballot in 2010. It was defeated, with 53.5 percent of voters casting "no" votes.[6] U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder came out against Proposition 19, saying President Obama's (D) administration would "vigorously enforce the (Controlled Substances Act) against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law." Support for the proposition dropped following Holder's statement.[7] Mason Tvert, spokesperson for the Marijuana Policy Project, said the 2010 initiative was defeated because "it was done during a midterm election." He continued, "If it had been done in a presidential election, things might have turned out very differently. We find that the more people who vote, the more who favor ending marijuana prohibition."[8]
In 2012, legalized recreational marijuana advocates saw their first statewide victories in Colorado and Washington. Two years later, voters in Oregon, Alaska, and Washington, D.C. approved marijuana legalization, and President Obama revised his position on recreational marijuana, stating, "We've got bigger fish to fry. It would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have determined that it's legal."[9]
In 2015, voters in Ohio defeated Issue 3, which was designed to legalize the sale and use of marijuana and authorize 10 facilities with exclusive commercial rights to grow marijuana.[10]
Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada all had marijuana legalization initiatives on their 2016 general election ballots. The initiatives passed in all of the states but Arizona, where voters rejected the measure 51 to 49 percent.[11]
As of 2018, one state—Vermont—had legalized the recreational use of marijuana through the legislative process and governor's signature. On May 11, 2017, the Vermont State Legislature became the first in the nation to pass a bill to legalize marijuana.[12] However, Gov. Phil Scott (R) vetoed the legislation.[13][14] The Vermont State Legislature approved a second bill to legalize marijuana, and Gov. Scott signed the bill into law on January 22, 2018.[15]
There were 14 states, including Michigan, with the initiative process that had not featured initiatives designed to legalize the recreational use of marijuana on their ballots, as of 2018. There were a total of 16 remaining states, including Arizona and Ohio, where citizens could petition for initiatives to legalize marijuana.
The following map depicts the legal status of recreational marijuana in different states:
Developments in federal marijuana policy
- See also: Federal policy on marijuana, 2017-2018
Although the Department of Justice under Presidents Trump (R) and Obama (D) has not prosecuted most individuals and businesses following state and local marijuana laws as of January 2018, both medical and recreational marijuana are illegal under federal law. In November 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions (R)—a Trump nominee—told Congress that the policy of his office would stay fundamentally the same as that of the previous two attorneys general, Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. On January 4, 2018, however, Sessions rescinded the Cole Memo, a 2013 directive that deprioritized the enforcement of federal marijuana laws in states where marijuana had been legalized. This allows federal prosecutors to decide whether or not to enforce federal law regarding marijuana.[16][17]
Path to the ballot
Process
In Missouri, the number of signatures required to qualify an initiated state statute for the ballot is equal to 5 percent of the votes cast for governor in the previous gubernatorial election in six of the eight state congressional districts. Signatures must be filed with the secretary of state six months prior to the election.
The requirements to get an initiated state statute certified for the 2018 ballot:
- Signatures: The smallest possible requirement was 100,126 valid signatures. The actual requirement depends on the congressional districts in which signatures were collected.
- Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was May 6, 2018.
Once the signatures have been filed with the secretary of state, the secretary copies the petition sheets and transmits them to county election authorities for verification. The secretary of state may choose whether the signatures are to be verified by a 5 percent random sample or full verification. If the random sampling projects between 90 percent and 110 percent of required signatures, a full check of all signatures is required. If more than 110 percent, the initiative is certified, and, if less than 90 percent, the initiative fails.
Initiative 2018-223
Charles Jones proposed multiple versions of the initiative.[1] Total Legalization Missouri selected Petition 223 as the version to collect signatures for. The initiative was filed on April 24, 2017, and approved for signature gathering on June 1, 2018.[2] Secretary of State John Ashcroft (R) reported that the campaign had filed signatures before the deadline on May 6, 2018. On August 2, 2018, Ashcroft announced that the initiative failed to make the ballot due to an insufficent number of valid signatures.
See also
- Missouri 2018 ballot measures
- 2018 ballot measures
- Laws governing the initiative process in Missouri
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Missouri Secretary of State, "Petition 2018-223," April 24, 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Missouri Secretary of State, "2018 Initiative Petitions Approved for Circulation in Missouri," accessed January 12, 2017
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ozarks First, "Group Files to Collect Signatures for Rec. Marijuana in MO," November 21, 2016
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Missouri Ethics Commission, "Candidate or Committee Name Search," accessed August 16, 2017
- ↑ LA Weekly, "What Killed Prop. 19?" November 4, 2010
- ↑ Washington Post, "How Democrats derailed marijuana legalization in California," November 10, 2014
- ↑ Los Angeles Business Journal, "Tweaked legal pot initiative to reach 2016 ballot," September 29, 2014
- ↑ Washington Post, "Obama: I’ve got ‘bigger fish to fry’ than pot smokers," December 14, 2014
- ↑ CNN, "Ohio voters reject legal marijuana," November 4, 2015
- ↑ Time, "These States Just Legalized Marijuana," November 8, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Times, "Vermont becomes first state to pass legal marijuana bill with legislature," May 11, 2017
- ↑ Rolling Stone, "Vermont Governor Vetoes Marijuana Bill," May 24, 2017
- ↑ Burlington Free Press, "Gov. Scott on marijuana: 'I have to do what I think is right'," May 17, 2017
- ↑ Burlington Free Press, "Vermont's legal marijuana law: What you should know," January 23, 2018
- ↑ Forbes, "Sessions: Obama Marijuana Policy Remains In Effect," November 14, 2017
- ↑ The Hill, "Read: Attorney General Jeff Sessions's memo changing marijuana policy," January 4, 2018
 |
State of Missouri Jefferson City (capital) |
|---|---|
| Elections |
What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures |
| Government |
Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy |
