Wyoming Activists File Initiative to Legalize Medical Cannabis, Aim for 2016 Ballot

Wyoming Activists File Initiative to Legalize Medical Cannabis, Aim for 2016 Ballot

The Wyoming chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has filed an initiative to legalize medical cannabis with the Secretary of State.

Once advocates receive approval from the state, they’ll be given the go-ahead to begin collecting signatures for the initiative. If they collect 25,673 signatures from registered Wyoming voters by February 8th, 2016, the initiative will be placed on that year’s general election ballot in November.

“This is a big step for us,” said Chris Christian, Wyoming NORML’s executive director. According to Christian, the initiative would make it so that “certified doctors will be able to prescribe marijuana to a patient who has a condition that can be helped through the use of cannabis”.

“We wanted to make the language as simple as possible”, she says.

Under the proposed law, the Wyoming Department of Revenue Liquor Division would regulate the medical cannabis industry – including dispensaries – “in a manner similar to the state’s regulation of alcohol”, with rules and regulations required to be established within two years of the initiative’s passage.

Christian says that the group originally planned to have the initiative legalize both medical and recreational cannabis, but switched to focusing on medical legalization for 2016, and recreational legalization for 2018.

According to a poll released in December by the University of Wyoming, 72% of those in Wyoming support legalizing medical cannabis.

– TheJointBlog