Missouri Prepares to Light Up

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Voter

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican and scion to the most pious political family in the history of the state, yesterday announced that voters in the "show me" state would have the opportunity to vote on a ballot initiative in this November's general election that would amend the state's constitution to legalize marijuana for recreational use.  

As reported in this space two days ago, there are currently nineteen states where the sales, possession, and use of marijuana for recreational purposes are legal to some degree or another, and some states where citizens are even allowed to grow their own.  I neglected to mention in that piece that there are also thirty-seven states where the prescribed use of marijuana for medical treatment is also legal - and Missouri is one of those states.

Ashcroft, who was probably uncomfortable even having to say the word "marijuana," stated that 171,592 valid signatures of registered voters were necessary to get the measure on the ballot, and in May backers of the measure had turned in 385,000 signatures.

(Hey Jay Bob, why don't to you round that number up to 385,001 - because nobody asked me to sign,  and I certainly support it!)

Two other states, Maryland and South Dakota, will also be voting on measures to legalize marijuana in November.  Maryland voters will have the opportunity to amend their state's constitution to make the recreational use of pot legal, and voters in South Dakota will vote on enacting a law that will also make possession and use legal.  South Dakota voters have passed their law once already, but Republican Governor Kristi Noem went to court to challenge the constitutionality of citizen-passed initiative on  technicalities and the state's Supreme Court ruled for the state and against the people.  Now those technical difficulties have undoubtedly been addressed and resolved.

According to the internet news site, Ballotpedia, the Missouri amendment would legalize recreational marijuana for adults over the age of twenty-one.  It would also:

" . . . allow the personal cultivation of marijuana with prescribed limits and regulations and would impose a six-percent tax on the retail price of marijuana.  It would also allow people with a record of certain marijuana-related non-violent offenses to petition for release from incarceration or parole and probation and to have their records expunged.  It would also establish a lottery selection process to award licenses and certificates for cultivation and sale and distribute licenses within each congressional district."

Supporters of the ballot initiative to amend the Missouri state constitution to legalize recreational marijuana include the ACLU of Missouri, the NAACP of St. Louis, NORML of Kansas City, and Pa Rock of West Plains.

The times they are a-changin' - and it's about damned time!