Group files petitions to put recreational marijuana on North Dakota’s November ballot

BISMARCK, ND. Organizers of a electoral initiative to legalize Recreational marijuana in North Dakota submitted petition signatures Monday, likely setting up another statewide vote on the issue that voters and state lawmakers have previously defeated.

O New Economic Frontier The measure group submitted more than 22,000 signatures, said sponsoring committee Chairman Steve Bakken. The initiative needs 15,582 valid signatures to make it to the Nov. 5 general election. Secretary of State Michael Howe’s office has until August 12 to review the petition signatures.

Bakken, a Burleigh County commissioner and former mayor of Bismarck, said the measure is an effort to stop anyone from out of state who might be potentially uncontrollable.

“A lot of what we don’t want to see is what’s happening in some other states, and we think this is a move that fits with the conservative nature of North Dakota,” Bakken told reporters in an office where Howe’s team petitioned without box. Additionally, law enforcement resources should focus more on opioids and fentanyl rather than minor marijuana offenses, he said.

The 20-page legal measure would legalize recreational marijuana for people 21 and older to use in their homes and, if permitted, on others’ private property. The measure also outlines numerous production and processing regulations, prohibited uses – such as in public or in vehicles – and would allow for home cultivation of plants.

The measure would establish maximum purchase and possession quantities of 1 ounce of dried leaves or flowers, 4 grams of cannabinoid concentrate, 1,500 mg of total THC in the form of cannabis product and 300 mg of edible product. It would allow cannabis solutions, capsules, transdermal patches, concentrates, topicals and edibles.

Marijuana use by anyone under 21 is a low-level misdemeanor in North Dakota. Recreational use by any older person is not a crime – but possessing it is, with penalties ranging from infractions to misdemeanors, depending on the amount of marijuana. Delivery of any amount of marijuana is a crime, which can be high depending on certain factors, such as if the crime occurred within 300 feet of a school.

Last year, 4,451 people statewide were charged with marijuana use or possession, according to North Dakota court data requested by The Associated Press.

North Dakota Voters Previously Rejected Legalization Measures in 2018 It is 2022.

In 2021, the Republican-led state House of Representatives approved accounts legalize and tax recreational marijuana, which the Republican Party majority Senate defeated. Opponents condemned what they called marijuana’s harmful physiological and social effects.

Approved voters medical marijuana use in 2016. The state program has nearly 10,000 active patient cards.

In 2019, the state’s Pardon Advisory Board approved a new process to facilitate pardons for low-level marijuana crimes. Republican Governor Doug Burgum guaranteed 100 such pardons from 2019 to 2023, according to his office.

Twenty-four states have legalized recreational marijuana for adults. Ohio did this recently, for initiative in November 2023. Measures will be on the vote in Florida It is South Dakota in November.

In May, the federal government initiated a process to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug.