Ballot Initiatives

The Smart and Safe Florida cannabis advocacy group has hired a signature gathering firm for more than $1 million in its effort to put a cannabis legalization constitutional amendment on the state’s 2024 election ballots.

A Missouri Democratic representative formed a coalition this week opposing the state’s cannabis legalization ballot measure over its lack of social equity measures, its proposed fines for smoking cannabis in public, and issues with its automatic expungement provisions.

The campaigns to legalize medical cannabis in Nebraska weren’t able to collect enough signatures to qualify for November election ballots, but state Sen. Jen Day (D) said she would introduce legalization legislation in the next session.

Oklahoma’s adult-use cannabis legalization question may be blocked from November ballots due to a delay in signature counting by a new vendor contracted by the state.

As part of an ongoing legal battle after Arkansas’ Board of Election Commissioners blocked a popular cannabis legalization initiative from November ballots, the state Supreme Court will conditionally allow the adult-use question to move forward.

Missouri’s cannabis legalization initiative has been cleared for November ballots.

Advocates in Florida launched a new campaign this week to legalize adult-use cannabis in the Sunshine State. The effort is backed by Trulieve, the state’s largest medical cannabis company.

Arkansas’ election officials rejected the state’s cannabis legalization initiative ballot name and title, effectively blocking it from November ballots; advocates behind the proposal are planning to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.

Arkansas’ secretary of state said activists with Responsible Growth Arkansas have gathered sufficient signatures to put a cannabis legalization initiative on the upcoming November ballot.

Voters in Killeen, Texas will decide this November whether to decriminalize cannabis possession within city limits.

Voters in Denton, Texas will consider a ballot initiative during the midterm elections that, if passed, would decriminalize low-level cannabis possession by blocking local police from enforcing misdemeanor cannabis crimes.

A bid to put a cannabis legalization question on the midterm ballots in Missouri this year may be in jeopardy after early tabulations suggested the petition may fall short of signature requirements.

Cannabis advocates with New Approach North Dakota have submitted more than 25,000 signatures calling for an adult-use legalization ballot initiative this November.

Cannabis advocacy group Responsible Growth Arkansas has submitted twice the number of signatures needed to place adult-use cannabis legalization on November’s ballots.

Nebraska medical cannabis advocates have turned in two petitions exceeding the 87,000-signature threshold for putting medical cannabis reforms on the ballot.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana filed a lawsuit against the state’s ballot initiative process which requires signatures from 5% of registered voters in 38 counties, a rule that gives disproportionate power to rural voters.

Two Arkansas advocacy groups are looking to put adult-use cannabis legalization questions on voter ballots this November.

Cannabis advocacy group Legal Missouri collected and submitted twice the number of signatures needed to add an adult-use legalization question to ballots this November.

Cannabis advocacy group South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws has submitted signatures to add a cannabis legalization question to voter ballots for the second time in the state.

The advocacy group Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol is suing GOP leadership in Ohio over attempts to delay the state’s adult-use cannabis legalization vote until 2023.

South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws launched a signature-gathering campaign to place another cannabis legalization constitutional amendment before voters later this year.

Italy’s Constitutional Court threw out a voter initiative to allow home cannabis cultivation and ease penalties for other cannabis-related offenses.

Three campaigns to put a cannabis legalization question on Florida ballots have failed, meaning the state’s last path forward on the issue this year is its politically polarized Legislature.

Following advocates’ successful push for the state’s initiated statute process, Ohio lawmakers now have four months to consider a cannabis legalization bill or the campaign could push the issue to a vote on state ballots.