North Dakota Marijuana Legalization Statutory Initiative (2022)

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North Dakota Marijuana Legalization Statutory Initiative
Flag of North Dakota.png
Election date
November 8, 2022
Topic
Marijuana
Status
Not on the ballot
Type
State statute		Origin
Citizens

The North Dakota Marijuana Legalization Statutory Initiative was not on the ballot in North Dakota as an initiated state statute on the 2022 primary ballot.

The campaign had until December 16, 2020, to collect 26,904 valid signatures to qualify the initiative for the 2022 ballot.[1]

This measure would have legalized marijuana in North Dakota. Under the measure, home cultivation would have been prohibited and possession would have been limited to two ounces. Marijuana sales would have been taxed at a rate of 10%.[2][3]

A separate constitutional measure was also filed targeting the 2022 ballot, which was designed to legalize marijuana use for residents 21 years of age and older and allow a person to possess, grow, process, or transport up to 12 cannabis plants for personal use. That measure can be found here.

Text of measure

Ballot title

The petition title for this initiative would have been as follows:[3]

“ This initiated measure would create and amend sections of the North Dakota

Century Code by removing hashish, marijuana, and tetrahydrocannabinols from the list of schedule I controlled substances; removing certain criminal violations for the possession of marijuana by individuals over the age of 21; allowing individuals over the age of 21 to use, possess, and transport up to two ounces of prepared marijuana; and creating a marijuana control commission charged with licensing and regulating marijuana businesses. The measure would impose an excise tax of ten percent on all retail marijuana and marijuana products sold, which would be deposited in a marijuana regulation fund to be used for the operations of the commission, with excess money going to six different state funds. The measure also would allow municipalities to regulate the location and operation of retail marijuana establishments, and would allow a court to seal the criminal records of a person convicted of a misdemeanor marijuana offense if that person is not charged with a subsequent offense for one year[4]

”

Full text

The full text of the measure is available here.

Sponsors

  • The initiative was sponsored by David Owen of LegalizeND, sponsor of Measure 3 of 2018, which was defeated by a vote of 59% to 41%. Speaking about the differences between Measure 3 from 2018 and the current initiative, Owen said, "One of the largest complaints from last time was the mantra of ‘poorly written.' They targeted the lack of legal experience from our team and they targeted a lack of ‘qualified lawyers’ to be drafting language that would go into the state’s statutory law. If it’s a concern over home grow, well it’s simple, we don’t have that anymore. If it’s a concern of people having too much, we have a reasonable possession limit now—in their eyes, I still think possession limits are fundamentally arbitrary, but they wanted a possession limit so we have that now. If people go, ‘well what about the quality of the language?’ I can point to how it’s literally written by Legislative Council, so either every attorney who works for the state of North Dakota is incompetent or this is well written."[2]

Background

Measure 3, 2018

See also: North Dakota Measure 3, Marijuana Legalization and Automatic Expungement Initiative (2018)

David Owen's Measure 3 of 2018 would have done the following:

  • legalized the recreational use of marijuana in the state of North Dakota for people 21 years of age or older;
  • created penalties for the possession or distribution to or by any individuals under 21 years of age;
  • created an automatic expungement process for individuals with convictions for a controlled substance that has been legalized; and
  • eliminated the state of North Dakota's immunity from damages resulting from expungement lawsuits.

Recreational marijuana in the United States

See also: History of marijuana ballot measures and laws

As of November 2020, 16 states and the District of Columbia had legalized marijuana for recreational purposes; nine through statewide citizen initiatives, and two through bills approved by state legislatures and signed by governors. Colorado and Washington both opted to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012. In a subsequent Colorado measure, voters enacted a statewide marijuana taxation system. The three ballot measures that passed in 2014 were Oregon's Measure 91, Alaska's Measure 2, and the District of Columbia's Initiative 71. Voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada approved recreational marijuana legalization ballot measures in November 2016. The Vermont State Legislature approved a bill in mid-January 2018 to allow recreational marijuana, and Gov. Phil Scott (R) signed it into law on January 22, 2018. Gov. Scott vetoed a previous bill to legalize marijuana in May 2017. On June 25, 2019, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law legalizing the use and possession of recreational marijuana. Initiatives legalizing recreational marijuana were on the ballot in November 2018 in Michigan and North Dakota. The Michigan initiative was approved, and the North Dakota initiative was defeated. Arizona, Montana, and South Dakota approved legalization through initiatives in 2020. New Jersey approved legalization through a legislatively referred constitutional amendment in 2020.[5][6]

The map below details the status of recreational marijuana legalization in the states as of November 2020. States shaded in green had legalized recreational marijuana usage (the shades of green indicate the years in which ballot measures were adopted; light green indicates measures approved in 2012, medium green indicates measures approved in 2014, medium-dark green indicates measures approved in 2016, and dark green indicates measures approved in 2018 and 2020). The states shaded in dark gray had defeated ballot measures that proposed to legalize recreational marijuana. States in blue had recreational marijuana approved by the state legislature and signed by the governor. The remaining states (those shaded in light gray) had not legalized recreational marijuana.

Recreational marijuana legalization measures, 2012-2020

The following table provides information on the political context of the states that had voted on legalization measures as of 2022.

Click "Show" to expand the table.


Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in North Dakota

The state process

In North Dakota, the number of signatures required to qualify an initiated state statute for the ballot is equal to 2 percent of the population of the state. North Dakota is unique in using the population to determine signature requirements for initiatives and referendums. Petitioners may circulate a petition for one year following the secretary of state's initial approval. The signatures must be submitted at least 120 days prior to the election.

The requirements to get an initiated state statute certified for the November 2022 ballot:

  • Signatures: 15,582
  • Deadline: Each initiative has its own signature deadline of one year after it was approved for circulation. The final deadline to submit signatures regardless of a petition's approval date was July 11, 2022.

Once the signatures have been gathered, the secretary of state verifies them using a random sample method. Since North Dakota does not have a voter registration system, the secretary of state may use "questionnaires, postcards, telephone calls, personal interviews, or other accepted information-gathering techniques" to verify the selected signatures.

Details about this initiative

  • The initiative was sponsored by David Owen of LegalizeND, which sponsored Measure 3 of 2018, which was defeated by a vote of 59% to 41%.[2]
  • Due to Coronavirus preventing in-person signature gathering, on April 3, 2020, LegalizeND said, "If something major doesn't change, we will not be able to make the 2020 ballot. ... If Coronavirus continues through May, we will continue collecting signatures, but this will end up placing us on the July 2022 primary ballot."[7]
  • To qualify for the November 2020 ballot, signatures for this initiative were due by July 6, 2020, to qualify for the November 2020 ballot. Sponsors did not submit signatures on this deadline, citing signature gathering setbacks due to the coronavirus pandemic.[1]
  • The campaign had until December 16, 2020, to collect 26,904 valid signatures to qualify the initiative for the 2022 ballot. Sponsors did not submit enough valid signatures by the deadline.[1]

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bismarck Tribune, "Some North Dakota ballot measure groups readjust to 2022," accessed July 6, 2020
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Marijuana Moment, "North Dakota Activists Submit Measure To Legalize Marijuana In 2020," accessed December 11, 2019
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 North Dakota Secretary of State, "Legalization of Marijuana Statutory Initiated Petition," accessed December 17, 2019
  4. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  5. ↑ The Hill, "Vermont governor vetoes marijuana legalization," May 24, 2017
  6. ↑ Associated Press, "Illinois becomes 11th state to allow recreational marijuana," June 25, 2019
  7. ↑ Marijuana Moment, "North Dakota Activists Say Marijuana Legalization Initiative Unlikely In 2020 Due To Coronavirus," accessed April 6, 2020
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