Legalization initiative qualifies for Missouri vote

A proposal to legalize recreational cannabis use by adults officially qualified for the Missouri election this week, giving voters there the option to end cannabis prohibition in November.

According to the Kansas City Star, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said Tuesday his office had approved the legalization initiative’s petition for this year’s election.

In order for the initiative to qualify for the state election, petition organizers needed to get signatures from 8% of registered voters in six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts.

Ashcroft’s office “certified more than 214,000 signatures from voters in the state’s eight congressional districts — far in excess of the approximately 180,000 needed to vote,” reported the Kansas City Star.

The initiative would legalize cannabis for adults 21 and older and establish a system for a regulated marijuana market in the state.

As in other states that have legalized recreational cannabis use, Missouri’s new law would also provide a process by which individuals previously convicted of marijuana-related offenses could have their records erased.

A large majority of Missouri voters approved an initiative that legalized medicinal cannabis in 2018, and polls have shown the state is poised to take the next step and legalize recreational cannabis as well.

But for Legal Missouri 2022, the coalition behind this year’s legalization campaign, getting to this point is something of a victory. As recently as two weeks ago, the initiative seemed in danger of not qualifying for the vote.

Legal Missouri filed more than 385,000 signatures in May, but a local Missouri TV station reported late last month that the number of signatures in four of the state’s congressional districts could drop to the bare minimum.

Ashcroft urged caution at the time, saying the initiative was “not dead”.

“I can’t say without certainty if he’s going to make it or not. It is by no means certain that they will fail,” Ashcroft said at the time.

On Tuesday, Legal Missouri was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief – and focus on November.

“Our statewide coalition of activists, business owners, medical marijuana patients and criminal justice reform advocates have worked tirelessly to get to this point and deserve all credit,” Legal Missouri 2022 campaign manager John Payne said in a statement. “Our campaign volunteers collected 100,000 signatures, in addition to paid signature collection. This wave of grassroots support among Missourians who want to legalize, tax, and regulate cannabis made all the difference. We look forward to engaging with constituents across the state in the coming weeks and months. Missourians are more than ready to end the senseless and costly marijuana prohibition.”

With the fate of the initiative hanging in the balance late last month, Payne remained optimistic, saying any discrepancy with the signatures could be down to human error.

“Our close examination of the total number of voter signatures submitted by counties to the state shows that we have more than enough signatures to qualify our citizens’ initiative to vote in November’s general election — and that some counties, due to the dependency erroneously rejected thousands of valid voter signatures by temporary workers. To be clear, this is not intended to suggest or imply any wrongdoing by the counties,” he said at the time.

A survey conducted last month by SurveyUSA found that 62% of Missouri voters believe adult recreational use of cannabis should be legal.

The poll showed that large majorities of Democrats (78%) and independents (68%) support legalization, while a majority of Republicans (47%) said the same.