Organizers of a proposed ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana in North Dakota have submitted petitions. Sponsoring committee chairman Steve Bakken says supporters submitted more than 22,000 signatures Monday. It needs 15,582 valid signatures to make the November ballot. Secretary of State Michael Howe's office has until Aug.
Steve Bakken, left, and Casey Neumann, of the New Economic Frontier ballot initiative group, carry boxes containing petitions to the Secretary of State’s Office on Monday, July 8, 2024, at the state Capitol in Bismarck, N.D. Organizers of a ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana in North Dakota submitted petition signatures on Monday, likely setting up another statewide vote on the issue that voters and state lawmakers have previously defeated.
Bakken, a Burleigh County commissioner and former Bismarck mayor, said the measure is an effort to preclude any one from out of state that might be potentially unmanageable. “A lot of what we don’t want to see is what’s going on in some of the other states, and we think that this is a measure that fits the conservative nature of North Dakota,” Bakken told reporters in an office where Howe’s staff unboxed petitions. Also, law enforcement resources should focus more on opioids and fentanyl, not minor marijuana offenses, he said.would legalize recreational marijuana for people 21 and older to use at their homes and, if permitted, on others’ private property.
Marijuana use by people under 21 is a low-level misdemeanor in North Dakota. Recreational use by anyone older is not a crime — but possessing it is, with penalties varying from an infraction to misdemeanors depending on the amount of marijuana. Delivery of any amount of marijuana is a felony, which can be elevated depending on certain factors, such as if the offense was within 300 feet of a school.
Last year, 4,451 people statewide were charged with use or possession of marijuana, according to North Dakota Courts data requested by The Associated Press.
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