Wyoming AG Approves Cannabis-Related Ballot Initiative Language

Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill (R) has approved the language of two longshot cannabis ballot initiatives—one to legalize medical cannabis and another related to decriminalizing the plant.

Full story after the jump.

Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill (R) has approved the language of two cannabis-related ballot initiatives, the Associated Press (AP) reports. Brought forward by the Wyoming chapter of NORML, one proposal asks if medical cannabis should be legal in Wyoming and a second question relates to decriminalizing cannabis in the rural state. NORML says they will begin collecting voter signatures on or around September 1.

“We’ll be hitting events, going door to door. We intend to get it all wrapped up by February.” — Bennett Sondeno, Wyoming NORML’s Executive Director, via the AP

Facing an uphill battle in one of the only states with no cannabis reform laws of any kind, activists must gather 15% of signatures from the number of voters recorded in the last general election in at least 16 of the state’s 23 counties. These signatures must be turned into the Secretary of State’s Office by February in order to place the proposal on the 2022 ballot, the report notes. Furthermore, all nine of Wyoming‘s past nine ballot initiative signature-gathering campaigns, including a 2017 proposition to legalize medical cannabis, failed to make their way onto the ballot. The last ballot initiative to pass in Wyoming was a 1992 railroad safety measure, according to the AP.

Despite the challenges, a 2020 study by the University of Wyoming’s Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center revealed 54% of Wyomingites support broad cannabis reforms. Digging deeper into the data, researchers found that 75% of those polled supported cannabis decriminalization, and 86% favored medical cannabis.

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