Proponents of an initiative to legalize medicinal cannabis in Utah have gathered an estimated 160,000 signatures from registered voters \u2014 more than the 113,000 necessary to qualify for the ballot in November. Last week, the Lieutenant Governor\u2019s Office announced that 117,000 of the signatures had been validated.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Utah Medical Cannabis Act<\/a>\u00a0would allow qualified patients to obtain either herbaceous cannabis or cannabis-infused products from state-licensed dispensaries. But getting it passed isn\u2019t going to be easy.<\/p>\n As the Good4Utah news site reports<\/a>, the\u00a0Utah Medical Association<\/a>\u00a0is accusing organizers of misleading voters. It is calling on residents who were \u201cunknowingly fooled\u201d into signing the petition to contact their county clerks and the Lt. Governor, and demand their names be removed.<\/p>\n \u201cThis initiative is not about medicine,\u201d UMA said in a statement quoted by<\/a> the Salt Lake Tribune. \u201cSupporters have used images and stories of suffering patients to disguise their true aim of opening another market for their products and paving the way for recreational use of cannabis in Utah.\u201d<\/p>\n The statement also thanked Utah\u2019s Republican governor, Gary Herbert, for his vocal stance against the measure. UMA said it \u201cunequivocally states its opposition to the current initiative and applauds Gov. Herbert for speaking out in opposition as well, fulfilling his role in protecting public health and safety.\u201d<\/p>\n The response was swift and unequivocal from supporters of the initiative. The personal-freedom advocates at the\u00a0Libertas Institute<\/a>\u00a0charged that\u00a0the UMA doesn\u2019t speak for all Utah doctors on the matter. \u201cMany physicians have confirmed their interest in allowing their suffering patients to access medical cannabis,\u201d the group said. \u201cScience isn\u2019t settled by a vote \u2014 whether the Legislature or the UMA board.\u201d<\/p>\n Getting the Mormon establishment in Utah on board with the initiative could make the decisive difference, and advocates have met with representatives of the\u00a0Church of Latter-Day Saints<\/a>\u00a0to discuss the matter. Nathan Frodsham of Together for Responsible Use and Cannabis Education (TRUCE<\/a>) confirmed to Salt Lake City\u2019s\u00a0FOX 13<\/a>\u00a0on April 2 that he first met with LDS Church officials last year as a medical marijuana measure was being debated in the state legislature. He said that dialogue with church officials on the question is ongoing.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Utah Patients Coalition<\/a>, the umbrella group running the ballot initiative, also confirmed that it has met with church officials, but declined to comment further on the talks, FOX 13 said.<\/p>\n The effort was dealt a blow on the public relations front, at least, when a\u00a0man and woman working for a private company to collect signatures both for the Medical Cannabis Act and another ballot initiatives were charged with forging names on the documents. An election clerk in Weber County uncovered the apparent forgeries when comparing signatures on the petitions to the voter roll. As the\u00a0Salt Lake Tribune\u00a0reported on March 1<\/a>, the pair worked for the firm\u00a0Gather<\/a>\u00a0to collect signatures for the Medical Cannabis Act and the\u00a0Count My Vote<\/a>\u00a0initiative (which would instate direct primary elections in Utah). They admitted they\u2019d forged the names, according to court documents.<\/p>\n But only 472 forged signatures were found. So, the Medical Cannabis Act is still in the clear for the ballot. And, as\u00a0NORML notes<\/a>, proponents of the measure still have two more weeks to collect additional signatures.\u00a0The Gather affair is primarily a blow in terms of propaganda.<\/p>\n So, it will be a hard fight. But if the Medical Cannabis Act can prevail even in conservative Utah, that will be a very salubrious sign for the growing elbow room for cannabis on the national stage.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> do you think advocates can legalize medical cannabis in Utah?<\/p>\n The post Utah Medical Marijuana Initiative Faces Uphill Fight<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Proponents of an initiative to legalize medicinal cannabis in Utah have gathered an estimated 160,000 signatures from registered voters \u2014 more than the 113,000 necessary to qualify for the ballot in November. Last week, the Lieutenant Governor\u2019s Office announced that 117,000 of the signatures had been validated. The\u00a0Utah Medical CannabisContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,65,139,81,424,1133],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25098"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25099,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25098\/revisions\/25099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Utah Medical Marijuana Initiative Faces Uphill Fight<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"