{"id":34262,"date":"2019-04-03T11:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T19:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/04\/03\/idaho-prohibitionists-block-cannabis-ballot-initiative\/"},"modified":"2019-04-04T12:49:53","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T20:49:53","slug":"idaho-prohibitionists-block-cannabis-ballot-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/04\/03\/idaho-prohibitionists-block-cannabis-ballot-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"Idaho Prohibitionists Block Cannabis Ballot Initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Idaho remains the final state in the U.S. devoid of\u00a0any<\/em>\u00a0medical marijuana policy, and if conservatives in the state have their say, it\u2019ll stay that way for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

Idaho cannabis crusaders were looking to the 2020 election as an opportunity to finally open a crack in the state\u2019s prohibitionist edifice, with a ballot initiative to legalize medical marijuana and industrial hemp. But now, the state\u2019s cowboy conservatives are trying to head \u2019em off at the pass \u2014 that is, at the statehouse in Boise.<\/p>\n

Legislation just introduced by Republican State Sen. C. Scott Grow would boost the number of signatures needed to get an initiative on the ballot from 6 percent of voters in 18 of the state\u2019s 35 legislative districts, to 10 percent of voters in 32 districts. The bill narrowly passed the Idaho Senate on March 22, and now moves on the lower House of Representatives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Grow denies the move was made in response to any particular ballot effort, but the 2018 election saw approval of\u00a0Proposition 2<\/a>,\u00a0which expands Medicaid in the state. This means the current cannabis campaign could result in a second such blow to the state\u2019s conservative establishment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Clear Tyranny\u2019<\/h4>\n

The legislation would apply to all future ballot measures, even if the petition was filed before the bill was even introduced, as is the case with the medical marijuana effort. If the bill passes, it will retroactively raise the bar on signature-gatherers.<\/p>\n

Idaho Cannabis Coalition spokesman Bill Esbensen told the\u00a0Idaho Post Register<\/a>\u00a0the new law would be \u201cclear tyranny.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spokane, Washington-based weekly newspaper\u00a0Inlander<\/a>\u00a0notes how Idaho is polarizing around the cannabis question. The state is considering legislation to legalize industrial hemp now that the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill has\u00a0removed the federal stricture<\/a>\u00a0on it. The hemp bill passed the House on March 18, but the bill\u2019s sponsor, Republican state representative Caroline Nilsson Troy, said she didn\u2019t see any interest in marijuana this legislative session.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In contrast, when Idaho Moms for Marijuana kicked off 2019 with a New Year\u2019s Day rally in front of the state capitol, activist Serra Frank told Boise\u2019s\u00a0KTVB<\/a>: \u201cThe people of Idaho want it, the politicians might not, we don\u2019t care what they say. We are the people, this is our Capitol building, we are going to make this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when the initiative was filed with state authorities on March 8, Esbensen of the Idaho Cannabis Coalition expressed confidence. \u201cThis time we have some money behind us,\u201d he told the\u00a0Post Register<\/a>. \u201cPeople with voices, future stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then, Grow pulled his fast one.<\/p>\n

Regionally Out of Step<\/h4>\n

A sign of how far out of step prohibitionist Idaho is with its increasingly libertarian neighbors came in February, when a federal judge in Boise heard arguments from attorneys for a Colorado-based CBD supplier suing the state police to get back 7,000 pounds of hemp that was seized by Idaho troopers at the port of entry during an inspection.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Boise\u2019s\u00a0IdahoNews 2<\/a>\u00a0reports,\u00a0Big Sky Scientific<\/a>\u00a0is demanding that the court order the shipment released and allow it to proceed on to the company\u2019s plant in Aurora, Colo. The\u00a0Idaho State Police<\/a>\u00a0are arguing that any substance containing any amount of THC s illegal under Idaho law, even if it is less than the 0.3 percent which is the\u00a0threshold for industrial hemp<\/a>\u00a0under federal law.<\/p>\n

Spokane\u2019s\u00a0Spokesman-Review<\/a>\u00a0notes Idaho\u2019s regional isolation on the question. Nevada voted to legalize cannabis in 2016, and Utah just\u00a0approved medical marijuana<\/a>\u00a0last November. This leaves Idaho \u201cfully bordered by pot-friendlier states,\u201d with the sole exception of Wyoming. But in the Gem State, possession of more than three ounces remains a felony.<\/p>\n

It has been a long haul for the state\u2019s cannabis advocates. Medical marijuana initiatives in 2012 and 2014 failed to win enough signatures. A poorly worded 2016 initiative was\u00a0withdrawn from the ballot<\/a>\u00a0before signatures could be counted. Paulette Jordan, who would have been Idaho\u2019s first Native American and first woman governor, called for reviewing the state marijuana laws in her 2018 campaign, and even\u00a0broached full legalization<\/a>. But she lost the race to Republican Brad Little.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet Idaho activists are by no means throwing in the towel. As the\u00a0Inlander<\/a>\u00a0reports, the group\u00a0Legalize Idaho<\/a>\u00a0is to\u00a0host a meet-and-greet for cannabis advocates at 4:20 PM on April 6 at the\u00a0Idaho Pizza Company<\/a>\u00a0in Boise. The Idaho Cannabis Coalition will also be out in force to collect signatures for the ballot effort at the fourth annual\u00a0Boise Hempfest<\/a>\u00a0on April 20.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TELL US<\/strong>, where does your state stand on pro-pot initiatives?<\/p>\n

The post Idaho Prohibitionists Block Cannabis Ballot Initiative<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Idaho Prohibitionists Block Cannabis Ballot Initiative<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Idaho remains the final state in the U.S. devoid of\u00a0any\u00a0medical marijuana policy, and if conservatives in the state have their say, it\u2019ll stay that way for the foreseeable future. Idaho cannabis crusaders were looking to the 2020 election as an opportunity to finally open a crack in the state\u2019s prohibitionistContinue 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":[6726,50,2752,9599,321,9600,139,4318,81,5747],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34262"}],"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=34262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34263,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34262\/revisions\/34263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}