Voters in Missouri will decide in November whether to legalize adult recreational marijuana use, paving the way for Missouri to potentially become the 20th state to legalize and tax the drug. Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft on Tuesday said his office certified an initiative petition to place the issue on the Nov. 8 ballot. Ashcroft’s office certified more than 214,000 voter signatures across the state’s eight congressional districts — well above the required roughly 180,000 needed to make the ballot. The ballot initiative would remove from the state constitution bans on marijuana sales, consumption and manufacturing for adults over the age of 21. The question builds on a 2018 constitutional amendment that legalized the use and sale of medical marijuana.
“Our statewide coalition of activists, business owners, medical marijuana patients and criminal justice reform advocates has worked tirelessly to reach this point, and deserves all the credit,” said John Payne, campaign manager for Legal Missouri 2022, the most prominent group that pushed for the ballot question. The ballot question would also allow Missourians who were previously charged with nonviolent marijuana offenses to have their records automatically expunged. Current law requires those convicted of marijuana offenses to file a petition with the courts.
The provision would not apply to violent offenders or people whose offenses involved distribution to a minor or driving under the influence of marijuana. Payne said there are about 20,000 marijuana-related arrests each year and the vast majority are for simple possession. “Those will just go away and that will be a very, very good thing,” he said.
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