Wyoming\u2019s attorney general on Monday issued ballot summaries for proposed initiatives to legalize medical marijuana and decriminalize cannabis possession. Activists are now officially set for signature collection to qualify.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, advocates turned in the requisite 100 initial sponsorship signatures for each measure<\/a> to the secretary of state. That office then verified them, and the initiatives were submitted to the attorney general for summary language and petition packets.<\/p>\n Now the campaign, which is being backed by the national Libertarian Party and Wyoming NORML, will turn its attention to gathering 41,776 valid signatures from registered voters per measure to qualify for the ballot. To make the November 2022 ballot, they must turn in enough signatures by February of next year. Otherwise, they will have until January 2023 to qualify for a subsequent election.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the summary language<\/a> that the attorney general\u2019s office approved, according to Wyoming NORML:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Wyoming Patient Cannabis Act of 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cShall a law be enacted authorizing the Wyoming Liquor Division to regulate the cultivation, sale, and use of medical marijuana for medical treatment?\u201d<\/p>\n Wyoming Cannabis Amendments<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cShall a law be enacted to reduce criminal penalties for the cultivation, possession, use, and transfer of marijuana?\u201d<\/p>\n Wyoming NORML Executive Director Bennett Sondeno told Marijuana Moment that the group is \u201cexcited to be working with our friends in the state and activists from across the country to bring these questions before Wyoming voters in 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe will have signing events around the state as soon as the secretary of state hands us the petitions,\u201d he said, adding that those petitions are expected to be in hand by early September.<\/p>\n This ballot effort launched after state lawmakers advanced\u2014but failed to pass\u2014a bill to legalize marijuana this session.<\/p>\n For the medical proposal, patients would be able to purchase and possess up to four ounces of flower and 20 grams of \u201cmedical marijuana-derived products\u201d in a 30-day period.<\/p>\n People with any of more than a dozen qualifying conditions\u2014including cancer, glaucoma, HIV, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson\u2019s disease and dementia\u2014would also be able to cultivate up to eight mature plants for personal use.<\/p>\n The Department of Revenue\u2019s Liquor Division would be responsible for licensing marijuana businesses. The division would be required to promulgate rules by July 1, 2023.<\/p>\n The division \u201cshall regulate the acquisition, growth, cultivation, extraction, production, processing, manufacturing, testing, distribution, retail sales, licensing, transportation and taxation of medical marijuana and medical marijuana-derived products and the operation of medical marijuana establishments in a manor that will not prove excessively burdensome for Patients to access medical marijuana or medical marijuana-derived products nor burdensome for licensed healthcare providers to certify their Patients,\u201d the text of the measure states.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, activists\u2019 separate decriminalization measure would impose small fines on people possessing up to four ounces of marijuana, without the threat of jail time. A first and second offense would be considered a misdemeanor punishable by a $50 fine, while a third and any subsequent offense would penalized by a $75 fine. Cultivating marijuana would be punishable by a maximum $200 fine.<\/p>\n People caught in possession of marijuana in excess of the four ounce limit would face a maximum $500 fine. Those who are found to be under the influence of cannabis could be fined $50.<\/p>\n A bill to legalize and regulate cannabis for adult use in Wyoming\u00a0advanced out of a House committee<\/a>\u00a0in March, but it did not move further in the legislature by the end of the session.<\/p>\n A\u00a0poll released in December found<\/a>\u00a0that 54 percent of state residents support allowing \u201cadults in Wyoming to legally possess marijuana for personal use.\u201d Presumably, that would mean that the more moderate proposals stand to pass if they\u2019re certified for the ballot.<\/p>\n Wyoming\u2019s neighbors Montana and South Dakota were among several states that\u00a0approved marijuana legalization ballot measures<\/a>\u00a0in November.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Wyoming legalization legislation, which was backed by the Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee, would have allowed adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to three ounces of marijuana and cultivate up to 12 mature plants for personal use.<\/p>\n The measure was also cosponsored by the House speaker and other top GOP lawmakers.<\/p>\n Looking ahead to 2022, Wyoming isn\u2019t the only state where voters could soon see cannabis reform on the ballot. Activists in roughly a dozen states are moving to\u00a0put cannabis legalization proposals directly before voters<\/a>\u00a0in 2022.<\/p>\n Advocates in Oklahoma are\u00a0preparing two complementary ballot initiatives<\/a>, one that would legalize adult-use cannabis and another that would make changes to the state\u2019s massive medical marijuana system.<\/p>\n Idaho officials have recently\u00a0cleared activists to begin collecting signatures<\/a>\u00a0for a revised initiative to legalize possession of marijuana that they hope to place before voters on the 2022 ballot. Advocates in the state are also working to qualify a\u00a0separate measure to legalize medical cannabis<\/a>\u00a0for ballot access.<\/p>\n In South Dakota, activists recently filed four separate cannabis ballot measures<\/a>\u00a0for 2022.<\/p>\n North Dakota activists are formulating\u00a0plans for a marijuana legalization measure<\/a>\u00a0after lawmakers failed to enact the reform this session.<\/p>\n A group of Missouri marijuana activists recently filed several separate initiatives to\u00a0put marijuana reform on the state\u2019s 2022 ballot<\/a>, a move that comes as other advocacy groups are preparing additional efforts to collect signatures for cannabis ballot petitions of their own. Meanwhile, still other activists are focusing on getting the legislature to pass a resolution to place the question of legalization before voters next year.<\/p>\n Arkansas activists are currently\u00a0collecting signatures for a marijuana legalization measure<\/a>\u00a0they want to put before voters next November.<\/p>\n In Maryland, the House speaker has pledged to pass legislation to\u00a0place a marijuana legalization referendum<\/a>\u00a0on the 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n Ohio activists awaiting official clearance to\u00a0collect signatures for a statewide ballot measure<\/a>\u00a0that would effectively force the legislature to consider cannabis reform. Meanwhile, other groups also recently\u00a0qualified several measure to decriminalize cannabis<\/a>\u00a0to appear on local 2021 ballots.<\/p>\n Nebraska marijuana activists are\u00a0gearing up for a \u201cmass scale\u201d campaign<\/a>\u00a0to put medical cannabis legalization on the state\u2019s 2022 ballot after the legislature\u00a0failed to pass a bill to enact the reform<\/a> this session. And since the state Supreme Court\u00a0invalidated a measure that qualified for the 2020 ballot<\/a>\u00a0based on a statutory challenge, voters can\u00a0expect to see two complementary initiatives<\/a>\u00a0that are currently being vetted by lawyers to ensure that opponents can\u2019t leverage the legal system to block the policy change again.<\/p>\n A newly established Texas progressive group unveiled a campaign recently to\u00a0put an initiative to decriminalize marijuana possession<\/a>\u00a0and ban no-knock warrants on this November\u2019s ballot in Austin.<\/p>\n Advocates are also working to put marijuana initiatives on\u00a0local ballots in South Carolina and West Virginia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Florida Supreme Court has\u00a0blocked two cannabis legalization initiatives<\/a>\u00a0for which activists had already collected thousands of signatures.<\/p>\n SCOTUS Justice\u2019s Marijuana Comments Should Help Federal Prisoner Win Freedom, Attorney Says<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Wyoming Attorney General Issues Ballot Summaries For Marijuana Initiatives<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Wyoming\u2019s attorney general on Monday issued ballot summaries for proposed initiatives to legalize medical marijuana and decriminalize cannabis possession. Activists are now officially set for signature collection to qualify. Earlier this month, advocates turned in the requisite 100 initial sponsorship signatures for each measure to the secretary of state. ThatContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49492"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49493,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49492\/revisions\/49493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Wyoming Attorney General Issues Ballot Summaries For Marijuana Initiatives<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"