Pubdate: Mon, 22 Feb 2016
Source: Bismarck Tribune (ND)
Copyright: 2016 The Bismarck Tribune
Contact: http://www.bismarcktribune.com/forms/letters.php
Website: http://www.bismarcktribune.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/47

LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA LIKELY TO BE BALLOT ISSUE

It looks more and more likely there will be at least one ballot 
measure this fall regarding the legalizing of marijuana use in North Dakota.

There are two groups looking to have initiated measures related to 
marijuana use on the November ballot. One group is gathering 
signatures to allow medical marijuana use only and a second group 
gathering signatures wishes to allow legal use of marijuana by anyone 
over the age of 21. If signatures are gathered and it is passed by 
voters into law it also would allow adults 21 and older to grow 
marijuana and possess paraphernalia and would cap the sales tax.

As most people know, this is not unique to North Dakota as Alaska, 
Colorado, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia have all 
legalized marijuana use.

While the committee for full legalization ran into a little roadblock 
last week when their petition was submitted to the secretary of 
state's office without reflecting last year's changes to the Schedule 
1 list of cannabinoids, the committee has stated they will resubmit 
the petition with the updated law.

The Legislature has made it pretty clear how its members stand on the 
issue of legalization, having rejected a medical marijuana bill 
soundly in the 2015 legislative session and even soundly rejecting a 
resolution to just do an interim study on the topic of legalizing 
medical marijuana use.

The topic of marijuana use is one that comes with strong emotions on 
both sides of the fence.

Those on the side of changing the current law where all use is 
illegal fall into three different groups: those who want to legalize 
use; those who want to decriminalize use; and those who wish only to 
legalize use in specific medical situations.

Current declared candidates for governor recently made comments 
regarding marijuana use in North Dakota. Wayne Stenehjem stated he is 
against legalizing marijuana. Both Rick Becker and Doug Burgum have 
said they support decriminalization.

A high-level look at this topic does not suggest the people of North 
Dakota consider this a high priority topic and even the legalize 
marijuana in North Dakota Facebook community has only 678 likes. That 
said, we are not saying the public would overwhelming vote down 
either issue if offered them on the ballot. Marijuana use in North 
Dakota is still illegal and there are undoubtedly tens of thousands 
of users in the state, many of whom may be reluctant to openly 
support an illegal activity in a forum as open as Facebook.

We expect both groups will easily get the required number of 
signatures to get the petitions on the ballot this fall.

The Tribune editorial board continues to hold the opinion legalizing 
marijuana use is a bad idea and that medical use has not passed 
enough studies to be considered for legalization yet.

We do, however, note decriminalization of marijuana usage is a topic 
worthy of discussion during the 2017 legislative session.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom