Advocates Turn in Signatures for Marijuana-Specific Ballot Measures in Three More States

Cannabis reform advocates in Arkansas, Nebraska, and North Dakota have turned in signatures to place citizens’-initiated measures on the 2024 ballot.

In Arkansas, representatives from the group Arkansans for Patient Access collected over 111,400 signatures from registered voters. State law requires activists to turn in 90,704 validated signatures.

The proposed measure — Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment of 2024 — amends the state’s existing medical cannabis access law, which voters approved in 2016. (Voters rejected an an adult use legalization initiative in 2022.) It expands the pool of practitioners who may recommend medical cannabis and it permits providers to recommend cannabis to any patient that they believe will benefit from it, among other modifications. Separate provisions in the amendment authorize adults to legally possess up to one ounce of cannabis if the federal government deschedules it from the Controlled Substances Act.

In Nebraska, activists submitted signatures in support of a pair of ballot measures seeking to establish medical cannabis access to eligible patients. The first measure protects patients who possess cannabis under a doctor’s supervision from criminal arrest and prosecution. The second measure establishes a commission to regulate the production and distribution of medicinal cannabis products. Advocates are posing the issue to voters as two distinct questions in order to satisfy a 2020 state Supreme Court ruling demanding the issue demanding that ballot questions must not pertain to more than one subject.

Advocates turned in over 114,000 signatures for each proposal. State law requires 87,000 valid signatures.

In North Dakota, advocates with the group New Economic Frontier turned in signatures in support of an adult-use legalization ballot measure. If certified, voters will decide whether to allow adults to possess, grow, and purchase marijuana for their own personal use. Under the plan, adults would be permitted to cultivate up to six marijuana plants per household. Retail sales of cannabis products would begin no later than October 1, 2025. (Voters rejected a similar effort in 2022.)

In June, The South Dakota Secretary of State’s Office confirmed that supporters of a proposed statewide ballot initiative legalizing the possession, use, and cultivation of marijuana turned in the requisite number of signatures to qualify it for the November ballot. The initiative will appear on the ballot as Measure 29. It will be the third time that South Dakota voters have weighed in on the issue.

Also this fall, Florida voters will decide on a constitutional amendment permitting existing medical cannabis facilities to engage in adult-use marijuana sales. Because that ballot proposal is in the form of a constitutional amendment, it requires approval from a super-majority of Florida voters (60 percent) to become law. A Fox News poll from June reported that 66 percent of Florida voters back the initiative.