Wyoming activists are kicking it into high gear to collect signatures for 2022 ballot initiatives to legalize medical marijuana and decriminalize cannabis possession, with the campaign announcing a series of events this weekend to shore up support.<\/p>\n
Weeks after the state attorney general issued ballot summaries for the measures<\/a>, the secretary of state\u2019s office formally provided petition sheets on Tuesday. Now, advocates will be holding signature gathering events in seven cities across the state on Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n\n The campaign, which is being backed by the national Libertarian Party and Wyoming NORML,\u00a0turned in the requisite 100 initial sponsorship signatures for each measure<\/a> to the secretary of state last month before being formally cleared by the attorney general\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the list of signature gathering events the marijuana activists are hosting this weekend:<\/strong><\/p>\n Activists must collect 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\u00a0language<\/a> that voters will consider, 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 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 Nebraska marijuana activists announced on Wednesday that they have turned in a pair of\u00a0complementary initiatives to legalize medical cannabis<\/a>\u00a0that they hope to place on the state\u2019s 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n Ohio activists recently cleared a final hurdle to begin collecting signatures for a\u00a02022 ballot initiative to legalize marijuana<\/a>\u00a0in the state.<\/p>\n Missouri voters may see a\u00a0multiple marijuana initiatives on the state\u2019s ballot next year<\/a>, with a new group filing an adult-use legalization proposal late last month that could compete with\u00a0separate reform measures that are already in the works<\/a>.<\/p>\n Arkansas advocates are collecting signatures to\u00a0place adult-use marijuana legalization on the ballot<\/a>.<\/p>\n Activists in Idaho are working to advance separate measures to legalize possession of recreational marijuana and to create a system of legal medical cannabis sales. State officials 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. Meanwhile, a separate\u00a0campaign to legalize medical cannabis in the state<\/a>\u00a0is also underway, with advocates actively collecting signatures to qualify that measure for next year\u2019s ballot.<\/p>\n Maryland\u2019s House speaker has pledged that lawmakers will pass legislation to\u00a0put the question of marijuana legalization before voters<\/a> as a referendum on the 2022 ballot. She\u2019s formed a cannabis working group to assess the best way to structure the reform, and members held their first meeting on Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n After a House-passed bill to\u00a0legalize marijuana in North Dakota was\u00a0rejected by the Senate in March<\/a>, some senators hatched a plan to\u00a0advance the issue by referring it to voters on the 2022 ballot<\/a>. While their resolution advanced through a key committee, the full Senate blocked it. However, activists with the group\u00a0North Dakota Cannabis Caucus are collecting signatures<\/a>\u00a0to qualify a constitutional amendment to legalize cannabis for the 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n Oklahoma advocates\u00a0are pushing two separate initiatives<\/a>\u00a0to legalize marijuana for adult use and overhaul the state\u2019s existing medical cannabis program.<\/p>\n South Dakota activists recently\u00a0filed four separate legalization measures<\/a>\u00a0with the state Legislative Research Council\u2014the first step toward putting the issue before voters next year if the state Supreme Court upholds a lower court ruling that overturned the\u00a0legal cannabis measure that voters approved<\/a>\u00a0last November.<\/p>\n Wyoming\u2019s attorney general recently issued ballot summaries for proposed initiatives to\u00a0legalize medical marijuana and decriminalize cannabis possession<\/a>, freeing up activists to collect signatures to qualify for the 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n Maryland Lawmakers Take First Step Toward Putting Marijuana Legalization On 2022 Ballot<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Wyoming Activists Jumpstart Signature Gathering For 2022 Marijuana Ballot Initiatives<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Wyoming activists are kicking it into high gear to collect signatures for 2022 ballot initiatives to legalize medical marijuana and decriminalize cannabis possession, with the campaign announcing a series of events this weekend to shore up support. Weeks after the state attorney general issued ballot summaries for the measures, theContinue 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\/49869"}],"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=49869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49870,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49869\/revisions\/49870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Wyoming Activists Jumpstart Signature Gathering For 2022 Marijuana Ballot Initiatives<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"