| William Breathes. |
| ISS x Lemon Skunk. |
Show-Me Cannabis plans to file paperwork this week for a ballot initiative that would ask Missouri voters to legalize the use and sale of marijuana. The filing with the Secretary of State’s Office is just the beginning of what’s expected to be a costly and arduous two-year campaign to get the issue on the November 2016 ballot.
This past February Show-Me Cannabis abandoned a similar ballot initiative scheduled for tomorrow’s mid-term elections after polling indicated that 51 percent of Missouri voters still opposed legalization compared to 45 percent in favor.
John Payne, executive director of Show-Me Cannabis, tells Daily RFT that his group now believes it stands a much better chance of passing the measure in 2016, a presidential election in which younger voters tend to show up to the polls in greater numbers. In addition, Payne’s marijuana-reform organization believes that within two years the majority of Missourians — not just younger voters — should be in favor of legalizing pot.
“Opinions on marijuana legalization have been shifting for the past twenty years and dramatically so in just the past six to seven years,” says Payne, who notes that even Missouri’s Republican-controlled General Assembly is beginning to thaw its stance on cannabis.
This year the General Assembly passed an overhaul of the criminal code that eliminates the possibility of jail time for a first-time offenders caught with under ten grams of marijuana. Another law passed this year allows for the use of cannabis oil to treat patients with severe epilepsy.
More at the Riverfront Times.