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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom